Speaking Municipally

Mack: ETS is hot to go. This week we drive into the wonderful world of transit memes aboard route number four.
Stephanie: Plus, the push to close 76th Avenue to cars, addressing noisy vehicles, and the need to repair community league facilities.
Mack: Hi, I'm Mack.
Stephanie: I'm Stephanie.
Mack: And we're...
Both: Speaking Municipally.
Mack: Welcome back to Speaking Municipally, episode 319. It's the middle of August, which means council is back from their summer break, and so we've got some stuff to talk about that happened at committee this week, which is very exciting 'cause we haven't had one of those episodes in a little while.
Stephanie: Yeah, definitely. It was so funny. So like a few weeks ago, I was having a bit of a rough day and just like frustrated and things weren't working and, and then I thought, "Oh my god, council is coming back soon. There's probably council agendas for me to look at." So I like logged onto the website and there were so many things, r- reports for me to read and I got so excited to finally have them back, and then I was like, "I'm probably the only person on earth that feels that way." (laughs)
Mack: That's what makes you that perfect council nerd excellent co-host of this show.
Stephanie: (laughs)
Mack: So I'm glad the agendas are back for you.
Stephanie: Yes.
Mack: Uh, last week we talked about a bunch of stuff that happened in the news. Nothing yet at council, but you wanted to share a little update on that.
Stephanie: Yeah. Before we jump into things, I just wanted to say something about one of the stories that we covered last week, um, that CityNews story about, uh, how many parking spots were built for infill projects. I think that we were a little harsh on the story because the reporter did include most of the things that we criticized about the story. And as a reporter, I find it very important to represent things honestly and fairly, so I just wanted to clarify, I wanna give proper credit and recognition to the reporter, and I apologize for giving the impression that the story was one-sided or unfair. It was a fair story.
Mack: I will say for my part, I stand by my criticism of this story.
Stephanie: (laughs)
Mack: I think it was a fair story as well, but there's a really intentional choice there that I think is worth calling out, right? So I said last week that the article tended to, or seemed to foreground people who were upset about a lack of parking, or people who were concerned about a lack of parking. That's always something we hear about, especially around infill and rezoning and development permits, is like, "What about the parking?" The lead of the story is literally, quote, "Edmontonians worried about parking problems with an influx of multifamily infill homes now have some data to back up their concerns," end quote. And, and I just think it's worth pointing out that that's a choice, right? It's a choice to foreground the negative, which is people worried about parking, over the positive, which is what we were pointing out last week, which is that we have passed a policy that is actually working and having the intended effect. So, I mean, this happens all the time in news, and sometimes it's the reporter's choice, sometimes it's an editor's choice, sometimes there's other things in the mix that result in this happening, but I do think this foregrounding of the negative is one of the reasons that we see this increase in news fatigue. So I just wanted to point that out as well about the story last week.
Stephanie: Yeah. Thanks, Mack.
Mack: Okay, before we get into this week, uh, we've got an ad for you.
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Mack: All right. Well, I wanna start this week actually with some reporting from The Tyee. This was published on August 11th. Uh, Charles Renzel, uh, investigative reporter, has a big story all about police watchdogs, the relationship between city council, the Edmonton Police Commission, the Edmonton Police Service, and I just thought this was such an interesting story because it captures a lot of what I've been hearing people talk about in the last six or seven months, you know, basically since, uh, former Chief Dale McFee left the service and went on to his new provincial job. And the story kind of brings all of that together into a really cohesive narrative which I, I think is valuable. And so I keep getting people messaging me, Stephanie, saying, "It was Dale all along. It was McDougall all along." And so, you know, we talked about this on the show a little while back too. All these, you know, difficult situations, conversations between the commission and council and the police itself, it's like, what is behind that? Is it just a clash of personalities? What is it? This story seems to make pretty clear, at least in recent months, that, uh, John McDougall, who used to be, uh, police commissioner, retired, moved to Portugal, has been really actively campaigning with some personal attacks against, uh, several city councilors, including Erin Rutherford, who's featured in this, uh, story, uh, and who shared with The Tyee some of the text messages and things that she's received from, uh, from McDougall. I mean, it's no surprise, I suppose, uh, that somebody like Councilor Janz would be in the crosshairs. He's been super critical. But Karen Tang, Councilor Stevenson, Councilor Rutherford, like a bunch of folks are mentioned in this as the victims of this sort of online attacks from McDougall.
Stephanie: The things both that he's posted publicly as well as the texts that are unveiled in this story are honestly, I, I find it hard to comment on them because they're just so intense and aggressive that I just, it, it... Like, a little bit unhinged, honestly, you know. He calls Michael Janz a whack job, awful human being, Anne Stevenson a colossal nightmare, uh, suggests she is unwell, Karen Tang is rude and aggressive, and then c- in a text... Now, I think that, uh, of course, texting crosses the line too because it's...... a direct communication.
Mack: Yeah.
Stephanie: Accused Rutherford of being rude, dis- disrespectful, insensitive, angry, horrible, and just, it's a lot. I don't know. I- (laughs) It's just aggressive.
Mack: I think if you're in a, a public position as, like, a councilor, you're a public official, comes with the territory to some extent that you're going to receive some bad messages, right? But to get that from someone who's supposed to be a colleague, who's supposed to be, uh, someone you have to work with and collaborate with just feels really, really bad. And you said unhinged there. I don't think that's your word, actually.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Mack: I think that's what Councilor Tang said to The Tyee.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Mack: She said, quote, "I hope John is well. I think this feels really unhinged, and I know I'm not the only one who thinks this," end quote.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Mack: I don't know w- why they think this is okay or why, you know, um, this sort of activity or behavior can be justified in any way. So I was really glad to see the article calling it out and, and putting it into words.
Stephanie: It's a little too bad that all this is happening after he's already retiring in Portugal and can't really face any consequences for his actions other than, you know, a, a poor legacy, if anyone was gonna care about that. I don't know, it's, like, too bad that it didn't happen while he was in Edmonton.
Mack: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, the article does detail how he, you know, was reappointed by the province as a provincial appointee, how there was a bit of outrage for a few days after he announced he was moving to Portugal, but was gonna remain a commissioner, and everyone was like, "Wait a minute, how can you be a commissioner if you're not here?" It goes more into the review that was requested as a result of that and some other things, and, and there's some really good detail in there, if you wanna go check that out. The other thing that stood out to me about this story, though, is more toward the end where, I guess, several councilors that The Tyee talked to have said that the new commission chair, former city councilor Ben Henderson, has worked quickly and effectively to restore the relationship between council and the commission. And Councilor Janz is quoted in the story, you know, saying that the relationship has improved tremendously. There's more transparency you know, forthright responses to questions, etc., etc. I don't know that we've seen any of that yet as the public. You know, I don't think... Uh, like, we don't have an audit, for example. There's not a bunch of new information with a new report that council has asked for that they've provided, but it is encouraging to hear that despite, you know, what, what McDougall seems to be doing with this online attacks, that councilors do feel like there's the potential for a stronger relationship here with the commission.
Stephanie: I think Ben Henderson was a councilor when I was, like, in junior high, so-
Mack: (laughs)
Stephanie: ... I'm not 100% sure what he was like, but was he... Where did he kind of sit on the political spectrum and, and in the kind of, like, behavioral pers- uh, spectrum of being kind of more intense, or was he a little bit more laid back, Matt?
Mack: I always found Councilor Henderson to be more laid back. I mean, he could get, um, heated at times when he felt really passionate about something, but not in an unjustified way or anything like that. I think he was good at k- sort of conveying when he felt really strongly about something. But most of the time, I remember him at council being maybe actually too much of a fence-sitter. Like he was, he was very thoughtful, I think, about things, but he would kind of waffle a little bit. Eventually, he'd come to a decision, but he- I guess, maybe that's just his way of trying to keep an open mind through those conversations, right? But I always found him to be very collaborative. And, um, he, he always, you know, tried to take new information on board and, and really seemed to, to make an effort to try to understand things and ask people for input and everything like that. So it's not surprising to me to hear that he would be, you know, a collaborative, um, leader of this commission, and he's obviously had lots of experience with how council works.
Stephanie: Exactly, yeah.
Mack: And he understands the pressures that a councilor would face.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Mack: And so I'm glad to hear that he's been able to put that into, uh, into practice.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Mack: In terms of where he lands politically on the spectrum, um, I, I hate to pigeonhole people into one side or whatever, but I always felt like Councilor Henderson was more of a progressive, right? Uh, I mean, he was the instigator of what eventually became End Poverty Edmonton. He really, you know, pulled together a council committee on, on wellbeing and, and sort of tried to come at things from that point of view rather than the police is the solution to everything point of view. But I'd have to go back and look. I'm sure he voted for lots of the police funding increases too, right?
Stephanie: Yeah, and it's, and it's pretty hard to, especially in municipal politics, to divide people into, uh, right wing, left wing. Um, but yeah-
Mack: Yeah.
Stephanie: ... I think that if he leans... This council does lean a little bit more progressive, I would say, so if, if he does too, I can imagine that relationship would be- come a lot easier. Plus, yeah, he has the history of knowing what it's like to be in the other side of that discussion. And, um, if he's a little bit more laid back, open minded, I can see this being, like, a really good fit for this- especially for this particular council. We'll see if in, um, however many days now, 68 days or something-
Mack: Oh, yeah. Yeah. (laughs)
Stephanie: ... um, what the new council has to, has to- uh, thinks about him, but yeah, it seems like he is, um, potentially, you know, part of the reason for this, um, vibe shift with, (laughs) um, with council.
Mack: I always found Councilor Henderson to be kind of fun too. Like, he was willing to get out there and have some fun.
Stephanie: (laughs)
Mack: So I'm sure he would love, uh your story about Instagram fan accounts for ETS. Tell us about this.
Stephanie: I teased a very special interview I was doing last week, and I interviewed the owner of the I Love ETS Route 4 Instagram account. Um, the story came out on Thursday. And yeah, it was, uh, it was very fun. It was very dear to just hear this person's just undying enthusiasm for transit and f- uh, like, you know, for any... I always love hearing people that are passionate about anything, but just it was-... it was very s- it was very sweet. I loved it. They said, "My biggest goal is to just spread the love for it and just unleash my creativity through that love. And the second thing is maybe trying to combat the negativity, because I know that in the last couple of years, ETS has faced a lot of scrutiny and lots of bad perception about the buses and the LRT, so I wanted to help build the positive images back up." I'm just gonna pull up the Instagram (laughs) page right now, because if you haven't, first of all, like, uh, these accounts have been proliferating. There's so many.
Mack: There's copycats, right? Like, or, or-
Stephanie: There's copy- Well, there's tons.
Mack: ... in sp- inc- accounts inspired by what this person, T, whose name-
Stephanie: Yes.
Mack: ... you agreed to protect is, is doing, right?
Stephanie: Yes. Yeah, so, you know, there's, uh, w- the meme, I'm gonna do, like, a weird thing of trying to explain memes through an audio format, but, "What would you buy with $44 billion? Twitter or 55,000 New Flyer XD40 buses?" Um-
Mack: (laughs)
Stephanie: ... you know... (laughs) This one's a little risque. "Yeah, I love BDSM. Bus Driver Smiles At Me." There's a, a ranking of the, of the, of the ETS's high frequency route tier list. So essentially, this, this is just they're just trying to, um, approach transit with a more jovial lens, you know? They're just trying to... They, they love taking the bus. All of the owners of these accounts, they just love taking the bus, and it doesn't need to be this big thing. It's not their last choice. It's not like they're taking the bus because they have to. It's because they enjoy the process of taking the bus. And then, um, these accounts are coming up to, yeah, no, spread that, spread that love, spread the positive associations people have with the bus. Um, so yeah, it was just, it was just a delight. You should definitely go check out the accounts. (laughs)
Mack: Yeah, in the story, T tells you about how they ride the number 4 every day and, you know, loved seeing all the different places that it goes as a kid and everything, so I found that was really interesting. The other thought, the other piece of this that was so fascinating to me, right, is just this idea that social media and the way that these trends and memes and that kind of culture is often used for criticizing things but can also be used for building things up. And I I loved seeing how they're applying that in this case.
Stephanie: Yeah, I mean, I didn't, I was, I wish I would've, like, kinda got their take on this thought, but they're kind of like the antithesis to YEGwave. Because you look at YEGwave, and if you only looked at YEGwave, you would think that you are gonna get murdered the second you step outside your house, even before you step outside your house. But these ones are like, you know, "You will find a friend on ETS. You will have a good time. It'll be a peaceful way to transport you to your destination," which is the truth for 99% of bus rides, right-is-
Mack: Yes, yeah, absolutely.
Stephanie: ... they, they go over completely without a hitch.
Mack: This is a more genuine attempt to spread the love, I guess. I just think back to some of the campaigns that ETLs- ETS itself has run over the years you know, the Everyday Way To whatever. It's, like, kinda capturing that same idea that it is just the thing you take every day, and it works, and it gets you to where you need to go but, uh, when you get people creating their own fan accounts for it, that's just something different, right? So there's proof there's people out there who love taking the bus.
Stephanie: Yeah, yeah.
Mack: They're not a myth. (laughs)
Stephanie: (laughs) Yeah, I know. And, and I know that, like, these, these transit, uh, fan accounts aren't new. I've s- uh, back years ago, I know that in Vancouver there was, like, SeaBus memes or BC Ferry memes which I guess isn't really public transit, but there's all these, like, in other bigger cities, but it's of, of maybe, uh, time that Edmonton got on it and, uh, just started bringing the meme culture to ETS.
Mack: I love it. I love it. Well, the other thing the story talked about is a research project that kinda overlaps with this approach to celebrating the bus, so tell us about that.
Stephanie: Yeah, so I actually found out about the research project by just, like, scrolling through Instagram Stories, and this, uh, Instagram account had posted about (laughs) the research account, uh, the research project. So Oracle is a, it is, like, a research project that is run by a Vancouver-based social design agency, In With Forward, and they've been doing, um, a lot of work in Edmonton over the past few years where they're trying to find out how people feel when they're on transit. Uh, they were, they had listening projects at transit centers in 2023 where people shared anecdotes about taking transit, you know, both positive and negative, so, you know, someone, "I got on the wrong bus, and someone told me how to, where I should get off, where I should go," or, "I helped a lady find, like, you know, a corner store where she could buy something," and there's also a, you know, really terrible experiences on there. What Oracle is doing is hosting a, uh, wellbeing transit jam, a, a design jam. So this is how they describe the event. It'll start at Stadium Station, where participants will board the Magic School Bus, which is just a chartered ETS bus. Um, there's going to be a, a surprise, a different take on what the bus experience might feel like, and then a tour that ends at Parkdale Cromdale Community League will, where participants will brainstorm together. They'll explore what matters to them, what's of interest to them, and then they're going to come up with ideas that encourage transit riders to feel more comfortable engaging with one another. So, uh, one of the people I spoke to said s- you know, maybe there's games at the transit station, or there's a designated social car of the LRT where there's one LRT car that is reserved for people who want to be chatty, because not everyone is gonna want to. Uh, it totally overlaps with this, you know, treating transit as more than just the last ditch effort, like, the, the, your absolute last choice on your list of transportation options, of taking it for a reason, like, choosing transit because you like it. This event is taking place on Saturday, so the day after this comes out, so if you're listening to this late, I'm really sorry you can't, um, (laughs) won- you won't be able to go. But, uh, there's still tickets available as of Thursday at 3:00, and you have to pay a $15 deposit, but then they refund it after, and you get snacks, so...
Mack: Yeah, food.
Stephanie: Yeah. Food sounds fun.
Mack: Food's, food's the best.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Mack: Well, that sounds really interesting, and I love this idea that, you know, we're, we don't have to wait until we have more service hours and we have more frequent routes and all the things that we typically lament about taking the bus or using transit, right? Those things, we can still advocate for, we can still ask about, we can still push for, but that doesn't have to prevent us from making use of the bus right now.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Mack: Right? So, I think that's really great to see. When I was reading your story and I got to, I got to the part about the Magic School Bus and this different experience, and it talks about a bit of a carnival feel, it reminded me of how old I am, Stephanie.
Stephanie: (laughs)
Mack: I've been a transit nerd for a really long time, and back in 2011, there was this summit called Leading The Way. And it was a tr- a summit for youth to talk about transit, so nerds like me and others who are interested in transit and how we could make it better, and one of the cool things about that was we had this LRT dance party, and so they ve- had, like, a disco ball and streamers and music on the LRT, and we got to ride the LRT, and it was a totally different feel, uh, for using transit than your typical LRT ride. So, I love this kind of stuff. I'm glad to see that the next generation is also pursuing its love of transit.
Stephanie: Yeah. That's awesome. I would love to do something like that. Like, imagine dancing to, under the disco ball as the train goes over the North Saskatchewan River after, between University and Government Center. Oh (smacks lips), the vibes, so good. (laughs)
Mack: We'd have to play Chappell Roan now. I don't know.
Stephanie: Oh, yes. Oh, my gosh.
Mack: She was probably a baby at the time, but yeah.
Stephanie: Yeah, true. (laughs)
Mack: Okay, well, let's talk about another story that you wrote, except you wrote this one back in January-
Stephanie: Yes.
Mack: ... I think, and it's back (laughs) in the news again.
Stephanie: Yes.
Mack: So, we, we, we talked about this off the top, committees are back. Urban Planning Committee was back, and something came up related to 76th Avenue which you wrote about before. There was a push to try to close 76th Avenue to cars. That was, or has been, to this point, unsuccessful.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Mack: What happened at committee this week?
Stephanie: Yeah. So back in January, the final design wasn't, like, really, really complete yet, so, um, a lot of folks from the Active Transportation and River Valley groups, like Pathways People, Bike Edmonton, the different River Valley preservation groups, they felt that they had a chance to influence the design. And then, in late spring or early summer, the city prepared an environmental impact assessment report for Urban Planning Committee to approve. Now, in this report, it was kind of like, they had th- you know, design plans, and it was very clearly said, "We are not going to close it to cars. This is where the car traffic is gonna go," right? So, I thought at that point, so I'd written the story back in January about, like, they want this. Like, design isn't finalized. They wanna maybe do this. Then I see this report, and I'm like, "Oh, okay. That was a failure." Like, like, that, that idea is not gonna go through. Whatever.
Mack: And, and you're probably thinking, "Well, it's gonna get approved," 'cause I mean has, have they ever not approved an environmental impact assessment? Like...
Stephanie: Yeah. Most of the time, it's a bit of a formality, like, 'ca- the-
Mack: Yeah.
Stephanie: And I only say that because, like, the, so right now it's a culvert, which is kind of like a l- a bridge but not technically a bridge, but they're replacing the culvert with a vehicle bridge so that, as a result, part of Mill Creek will be daylighted. And I say that it's a formality because plans to do this have been happening for, I don't know, probably like 10, 15 years because that's how slow things move at the city. So, if it had gone all the way to this point and then all of a sudden the environmental impact assessment (laughs) was rejected, it would just, like it's j- it's just not something that typically happens.
Mack: Right.
Stephanie: But there was about, like, 10 to 15 people from these different groups that were speaking at committee, and I was, like, surprised that they were still fighting for it after all this time. I think that they were showing pretty good, like, political savvy because one of the things is that the city wasn't really sharing the traffic modeling numbers, so how many cars drive over 76th Ave? And if it were too close to vehicle traffic, how many would then be rerouted to 63rd and 82nd?
Mack: Right.
Stephanie: And, uh, one of the folks speaking, Nathan Binnema, pointed out that average traffic volume for 82 Ave and 63rd Ave near the ravine is about 25,000 vehicles per day, 76th Ave sees about 5,000 per day. So, if 76th House was closed, the alternates would see a maximum increase of about 10%. You know, not nothing, but not necessarily that, you know, traffic would double on those routes. And-
Mack: Nothing crazy.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Mack: Like, that's a manageable increase in traffic to both of those routes.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Mack: And as alternates, they're not that far away.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Mack: Like, it's not gonna add that much travel time.
Stephanie: Yeah, and I mean there's already... 76th Ave doesn't even go past the railroad, um, station that's, you know, runs along 104th. Like, even if you wanted to drive 76th Ave all the way across the city, you can't anyways because there's, you know. Like, you would have to go up to 82nd or 63rd-
Mack: Sure.
Stephanie: ... anyways because there's that big, the train station blocking it there. So, that was one part of it, and another thing is that, like, I was saying how EIAs are kind of a formality, but one of the things that you have to prove in an EIA is that the location of the project is necessary. Like, it has to go right here because otherwise they'd say, "Okay, well, this is our river valley. We're not just going to let you put anything anywhere. You have to prove that this location is necessary." And they were arguing that it's not, it's not necessary. And I guess just because a bridge or a culvert has always been there doesn't mean that it's necessary for a new bridge to go there. That's basically what they were saying. But again, I'm, was pretty surprised that they're still fighting for this. Eventua- eventually, though, Urban Planning Committee did approve the report unanimously. It's not looking likely that City Council will not approve the report, so it's kind of... Again, I would be very surprised if this, uh, report was not approved, but Troy said something interesting on Reddit. I know Troy is not co-hosting right now, but he did say something interesting, so I'm going to, he's going to, uh, guest co-host for a moment-
Mack: (laughs)
Stephanie: ... through my voice, and I'm paraphrasing here."I get that people would be pretty upset by closing 76 Ave, but I also think in a decade no one would be arguing it wasn't a phenomenal idea. We had the same thing in Hazeldean and Ritchie about a decade ago. During neighborhood renewal, the city wanted to close through traffic on 97th Street in order to install a linear park along the old rail trail. People said it would significantly harm traffic, and you know what they think about it a d- a decade later? That it's one of the best parts of our community and a great connection to nature. I didn't think this was going to pass or happen, but I'm sad we won't get it." And I think that I'm, like, so pessimistic that I, I was l- was like, "There's no way this is going to happen," but, uh, having that historical context was interesting.
Mack: I, I would hazard to guess that there's very few projects where there's a choice between a green space or some natural space and cars, and we choose the green space and people regret it.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Mack: Like, I don't think that happens, right?
Stephanie: True.
Mack: And, and when there's a small number of cars or smallish number of cars like this that are traveling through there and there are viable alternatives, you know, it just seems a shame that we can't have a, a different kind of discussion. The process here, right, as committee approves this, it goes to council for final approval. It's possible that councilors could choose this to discuss at council meeting, but more likely this will kind of get rubber stamped and then it moves to the next stage of the project. So, at every stage as things move forward, it seems less and less likely that the plan is going to change, right? Um...
Stephanie: Yeah. But, again, props to the active transportation and the River Valley folks for persevering. My pessimistic self did not expect you to keep-
Mack: (laughs)
Stephanie: ... to keep trying, but seriously, props.
Mack: All right. Well, before we go on to our next item we're gonna talk about, we're gonna look ahead to the future, to the election a little bit, uh, I want to share with you another clip from The Workup. So I spoke with the founder of The Workup, which is a co-working space downtown, Adam Nashman. Here it is. We're back with Adam Nashman, founder of The Workup, talking about co-working spaces, in particular co-working spaces downtown. Now, Adam, when folks think about co-working, if they've heard about it before, 'cause as you say, not everyone has heard about it, they often probably think into their head, you know, there's a desk, there's probably wifi, and there's probably some coffee. But that's not all that co-working offers. Tell us a bit more about some of the amenities and some of the interesting things that people might not realize you get with a space like The Workup.
Adam Nashman: Uh, number one, I'd say meeting room access. Most people with a team or a group of people who are looking to meet clients or, uh, within a team are always looking for, for good-sized meeting rooms. We have meeting rooms that can, uh, fit in, uh, up to 6 people, 12 people, even up to 40 people. We opened a, a brand new meeting room that can house about 40 people, so a good size for, for training, or sessions, or, uh, conferences. Uh, at any case, smaller, smaller size conferences, but, yeah, we can, we can house anyone when it comes to meeting rooms. Another popular amenity, I'd say, is the gym on the main floor. Some, some members who have, uh, specific membership have access to the gym. It's a great gym. I'd say one of the nicest gyms downtown. And lastly, the coffee shops in the area are, are great. We have a lot of great coffee shops in our building alone. We have AKO Café, which is accessible within the building. So on a, in a cold winter day, you can... You don't need to put on your jacket to go grab coffee.
Mack: Very important. Got to, got to stay fueled-
Adam Nashman: (laughs)
Mack: ... throughout the day. Now we're talking about co-working in Edmonton, so I have to ask you about parking. I imagine this is a hang-up-
Adam Nashman: Mm-hmm.
Mack: ... for some folks. What's the story?
Adam Nashman: Well, where we're situated, uh, 106 Street in Jasper, there's a ton of parking. We have a lot of opportunity for underground or above-ground or street parking, but I would say we're probably in a place where parking is, uh, is in excess. Also, the pricing in the area is, is, is lower than some of the other areas of downtown, so we're kind of in a nice spot.
Mack: And I'll just point out, very walkable from the LRT station, lots of major bus routes that go right in front, so if par-... You know, there's a bike lane right next to that, right, on 106th Street. So if driving's not your thing, there's lots of other ways to get there.
Adam Nashman: Yeah. Actually, I'd add to that, we have underground parking available to, to members, so, uh, you can store your bike underground and know it's secure, so that's another thing that people really enjoy.
Mack: All right. Well, folks who are looking for a place to work, maybe a place for their team to come together, can come and check out The Workup. Uh, where should they go to learn more, Adam?
Adam Nashman: Uh, theworkup.ca. Our website ha- has everything you need to know. And if you're needing to reach out, you can reach out to hello@theworkup.ca.
Mack: Excellent. Thanks again for coming to talk to us.
Adam Nashman: Thanks for having me.
Mack: All right, Stephanie. Uh, another story that is out this week from Taproot is the latest in our series of election-related stories, and this one is all about campaign fundraising and how it might be a little bit different for the upcoming municipal election. So, I th I think this, I think this is interesting because we sh-... We definitely heard from, um, people in our listening sessions that we held in the spring and also in lots of responses to the election question we put out, that campaign fundraising, uh, financial disclosures those, those are things that voters seem to care about.
Stephanie: Yeah. Yeah, that was definitely something we heard, so that's part of why we wrote this story. Now, I will say that this part of elections, campaign fundraising, is not something I'm very familiar with, so I do recommend that you go and read Colin's story about it, uh, because it is very good and they know what they're talking about. I'm... Again, S- Colin is speaking through me in this moment. (laughs) So, okay, Government of Alberta recently changed a bunch of the rules to do with municipal elections. They introduced parties and they changed the financing rules. The new rules in the Local Authorities Election Act by the Government of Alberta require candidates in municipal elections to report the donations they received in the first six months of 2025 by September 30th and for the entire year by March 1st, 2026, when the election will have passed. The Municipal Affairs Ministry's press secretary said this:This new preelection disclosure helps to ensure that voters have the information they need to make informed decisions on election day that are in the best interests of themselves, their families, and their communities. Yeah, so at least for the first six months, they have to report the donations that they received, so I guess, yeah, what are your thoughts on that, Mack?
Mack: Well, this is a change, right?
Stephanie: Yeah.
Mack: You didn't used to have to disclose anything before the election. I think the second part of this, where you have to disclose, you know, by March of the following year after the election, that part, I think, is the same as it was before. Like you did have to file campaign disclosures, but not until after the election took place, so requiring that at least some of that information be made available by September 30th, before the election, feels like a positive change. You know, last time in the election, there was lots of candidates who proactively decided to disclose their financials and to put them up on their website, but there was also quite a number who didn't. So, uh, this time, m- and I guess we'll see exactly how these disclosures happen and where the information is and how accessible it is, but that seems like a positive change to me.
Stephanie: Yeah. Totally. So the other change is that Albertan individuals, corporations, and employee organizations, including unions, are allowed to donate an aggregate $5,000 to their chosen council and mayor candidates. They may donate the same amount to a party in e- in Edmonton. The party then has the discretion to spend that money on any affiliated candidate's campaign, so you could spend $5,000 as a citizen on council and mayor candidates plus another $5,000 on parties. Uh, then if you own companies or run employee groups in Alberta, you could spend $5,000 more from each of them on both candidates and parties. So, this is obviously a huge advantage for municipal parties. You know, obviously the Better Edmonton Party, run by Tim Cartmel or led by Tim Cartmel, you know, he comes forwards and, and says, "We are choosing a party so that there's a unified force going to council." And then after that infill moratorium that he proposed, I was speaking with, uh, someone, one of my little birdies who I speak to about municipal affairs, so Tim Cartmel wants to put a moratorium on infill. Nicholas Rubottom, who was formerly the executive director of the Infill Development in Edmonton Association, he came out and said that he didn't fully support this, so that shows to me that-
Mack: And he's a candidate in the Better Edmonton Party, right?
Stephanie: Yes, yes. He's a candidate, um, in Jennifer Rice's ward. Now that shows to me that the ideological part of the municipal party, that's not what's at, at play here. They did not represent a unified voice on infill, which was like the very first big campaign story that they, that they had. So, this person that I was talking to said, "Well, what, uh, what else would be the point of having a municipal party? It's obviously just to get money." Now, I'm not trying to assign motivation to anyone, but it was ju- this is just, uh, something that, uh, made me think was, uh, if you're not going to have a unified vision for the city, then the logical other benefit of having a party is financial.
Mack: I think critics have been pointing this out since the very first idea was raised to have parties at the municipal level because when voting day comes, you can't vote for the party, you vote for a candidate. Unless seven of the people in that party get elected, there's no guaranteed majority, and even then, as we've seen they have different positions and there might not be a majority. There's no mechanism to enforce a party's voting along the same lines, you know after they're elected if the, if enough of them are elected, so it has always been another way to raise more money, and, and this is why I keep saying on this show, you've probably heard me say this a few times already, that parties matter for the election and probably not after that. Right? They have an impact in terms of allowing people, as we've outlined, to raise more money, which in theory could help you get elected, although not always, especially in municipal politics. We've seen lots of campaigns in the past where the person who spends the most does not win. I'm thinking of, say, Michael Oshry who famously spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and, and didn't do very well in his run for mayor, and I think only had to pay a very tiny fine, or had maybe maybe we didn't even have a fine at that time, but like it's, it's comically low.
Stephanie: It's in, it's in a Colin story. He spent almost a quarter of a million dollars and his fine was about $1,500.
Mack: Yeah. There, there you go. So I mean, there's no guarantee that just because you can raise more money and spend more money that you're gonna do well in the election. But we do know that every election, it does get a little bit more expensive to run a campaign, and uh, you know, folks who have more money can do things like send a mailer to everybody in the city. You know, maybe it's impossible to door knock every single door, but you can certainly mail something and that takes money, so you know, these kinds of things are perhaps enabled by some of these changes in the fundraising rules. All right. Well, I'm really enjoying this, uh, editorial reporting that you folks are doing, uh, in the Top Redemptive newsroom about the election. More to come on that, so thanks for, for sharing that. That kinda makes me upset this idea that parties are just about funding, but not as upset as noisy vehicles do.
Stephanie: (laughs)
Mack: I live downtown, as you know and man it gets loud on especially a Friday or Saturday night. You get all kinds of vehicles racing and revving up and, and then it feels like we talk about this every six months or something, but Councilor Janz, back in the news, trying to do something about noisy vehicles.
Stephanie: Yeah. I was having serious déjà vu when I was reading about this, and also I even wrote in the notes, I'm getting mad just typing this because I am, I live just off Whyte and I'm the same way. Like I enjoy a, I enjoy a beverage on a patio every once in a while until people with noisy cars...(sighs) I need to stop talking, because I'm literally going to get so mad. (clears throat) Okay, only the news, only the news. Um, there's a Post Media story that says, "At the end of Tuesday's Urban Planning Committee, Ward Papastew Councilor Michael Janz gave notice that he wants council to consider a motion that would allocate $50,000 to address the noisy vehicle issue in Edmonton." And, uh, this reasoning is twofold, because noisy vehicles are often those going well above the speed limit. Yeah, we've been having a lot of speed-related crashes and a lot of th- you know, this, uh, story is saying that a lot of those, people were trying to rev their engines and go really fast, and i- as a result, got into an accident and, uh, harmed or killed themselves or others. Um, yeah, I'm having déjà vu. So back in February 2023, council approved changes to the by- noise bylaw that created a new offense and penalty against these intentionally loud vehicles. I honestly, I noticed zero changes after that. What about you, Mack?
Mack: Uh, zero. It's one of those things, like, fine, we can have a rule on the books, but if you're not gonna enforce it, nothing will change.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Mack: And this one is notoriously hard to enforce because you have to be there at that right moment to catch the person who's making all this noise.
Stephanie: Yeah, and I guess if they see a cop car, they're probably not gonna start going (imitates engine revving), right?
Mack: Yeah.
Stephanie: Um, and then, yeah, so last summer, about a year and a bit later, um, Janz took to the media to say that these $1,000 tickets haven't stopped them. These fines weren't working. So now, what he wants, the $50,000 would go to the Edmonton Police Service to buy a SoundView detector. It is manufactured by England-based Intelligent Instruments, and the technology can pinpoint the amount of noise coming from a vehicle, as well as all of the identifying information. They're being used in New York, Honolulu, Sydney, and London. This would help solve this problem, because police need the information about the noisy vehicle. You can be like, "Oh, there's cars, argh," like, call the noise complaint line, "There's cars, noisy cars, cars, cars." But then, if you don't have the license plate, make, model, and color of the vehicle, it's not really gonna help much. And that's what this does. But there's a twist, because (laughs) recent rules blocking photo radar, um, by the... So the provincial government has recently blocked, like, photo radar, and along with that, any automated traffic enforcement tools. He's very careful to say it'd give out warnings instead of fines, because provincial rules prohibit using automated traffic, you know, equipment.
Mack: Including to detect noise.
Stephanie: I guess so, yeah.
Mack: I'm also having déjà vu, because we've tried this before.
Stephanie: Hmm.
Mack: In 2019 and 2020, we had a pilot where we did have some of this vehicle noise detection equipment. Uh, we had nine locations in the city where they installed these detectors. And what did the pilot find? Well, unfortunately, that the technology didn't do a great job, couldn't tell the difference between, you know, different sources of noise or identify the vehicles, as you point out, like, which are the vehicles causing the, the noise, right? And so, it wasn't very successful, and as a result, you know, it didn't, it didn't go anywhere.
Stephanie: Hmm.
Mack: Uh, it cost about $192,000 to do that pilot in 2020, and, uh, I think, if I can find correctly in the article, which we'll put in the show notes, there was one instance of enforcement being taken. So, you know, not, not a great deal. Now, this was 2020.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Mack: This is quite a while ago. I read AI stories all the time-
Stephanie: Yes.
Mack: ... about these new models that are really impressive.
Stephanie: Yes.
Mack: Like, there's this really fascinating one that Google released that can give you, you give it audio of a rainforest, and the audio AI model can detect all the different kinds of animals that it can hear and how, what age they're at, which is just aiding-
Stephanie: Whoa.
Mack: ... in, you know, biodiversity efforts and that kinda stuff. So anyway, if we can do that for a rainforest, which are really noisy places and hard to distinguish, surely the technology now can-
Stephanie: (laughs)
Mack: ... can distinguish between something noisy and one of these really noisy vehicles.
Stephanie: Yes. Yeah.
Mack: Uh, so maybe, maybe Councilor Janz is onto something. Maybe it's time to look at this again, uh, even though, you know, the last time, the pilot didn't work.
Stephanie: Yeah. Yeah, so I think the what's next of that is that he will introduce a motion, and then, uh, that would be voted on, and then I would believe it would probably go to the next budget adjustment, which will be in the fall.
Mack: Yeah, so he's given notice of motion, so this'll come back again. And we'll see if people support it. Okay, one more story we wanted to cover this week, uh, that happened at committee, and this was the first one back, Community and Public Services Committee, you, uh, wrote a story, Stephanie, about the Community League system and this r- report outlining how facilities, uh, Community League facilities, like a lot of our infrastructure, are aging and need some investment. Uh, give us the, the gist of your story, and then tell us what happened at committee this week.
Stephanie: Yeah, so this new report came out. It was one of those ones that I mentioned at the top where I got to read some juicy details about aging infrastructure, um, so the report says that comm- the Community League system needs $30 million to repair aging infrastructure at the neighborhood facilities across the city, and that it also needs, I think, $72 million in the next 4 to 10 years to basically do the facilities that will die in the next 4 to 10 years, or you know, reach the end of their life. The median community hall is nearly 50 years old, which kinda makes sense, because, you know, about 50 years ago, the city was, the population was growing and growing and growing, and all of these, um, community halls were being built, and they were all fresh and new, and now they're all kind of getting old. But something that I thought was super interesting in the report was essentially the City of Edmonton, like city administration, agreed on some repairs that were needed, but the emergency repairs, they did not agree on it, and it's, uh, I don't, no one really, I don't know, it kind of, like that detail kind of slipped out of this story, but it, uh, it came up a little bit more, I think, in the committee meeting, because some of the councilors were, uh, questioning a little bit whether these repairs were actually needed, which I thought was super interesting.
Mack: And EFCL said they haven't really been doing any prioritization of these different facilities. They said that's a big conversation that perhaps needs, needs to be had. The other thing with the... we should point out is that there was a fund for this, right?
Stephanie: Yeah.
Mack: So, there's this Community League Infrastructure Program which was created and, I mean, you might think, "Okay, we're gonna create a fund and then we're gonna find the list of facilities and then we're going to allocate a certain amount and we're gonna go and repair those." But my understanding is no, that's not what happens. Leagues have to apply to get funding from this, um, program and as EFCL's pointed out, that's a problem because people involved in the Community League change over qu- pretty frequently.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Mack: And nowadays, people who are on these boards might not even know that this program exists.
Stephanie: Yeah, and another thing is that, you know, these are volunteers that probably joined to... You know, their kid just loves the playground, so they're like, "Oh, I'm just, like, so excited to join and I wanna, like, build a new playground." Or, "I'm... Oh, like, I love the, the community garden so I'm gonna join to be a part of the community garden." And then they're like, "Oh, we n- w- well, the foundation is crumbling," or, "We need fire exit signs." And that stuff is kinda boring. Like, uh, Laura Cunningham Schleay, the executive director, she said, "These things aren't sexy."
Mack: Yeah.
Stephanie: And they're really not. They're li- they're, they're the bread and butter things that you need to keep things running, and people... That's not why people joined Community Leagues. It's... And, and these people are volunteers. They are spending their precious time and it's... And I can think of many other things I would rather do with my time than apply for a grant to install ventilation in a kitchen. (laughs) Like, that is probably one of the last things that I would want to do. So I get it. I get why people don't, aren't applying for these things, but then obviously that's... Those, those, those, these buildings need help to... It's all part of the web of, of keeping these, um, great organizations, the Community Leagues, running is these repairs, but at the same time, people don't want to do them and I get it. I get why.
Mack: It's important work, and thank you to all the volunteers out there who are putting in the effort to make that happen. Uh, committee voted on this, basically referred the report back to ad- administration and said, "Go work with the EFCL, bring back further details and prioritize, i- in particular, the life safety deficiencies in all of these buildings." That report and all that new information is expected to come back in the second quarter of 2026. So, no action for now, but I'm sure we'll be talking about this again with our new council.
Stephanie: Yeah, definitely.
Mack: All right. Well, we've got one more thing to do before we wrap up this episode, and, uh, thanks to you, Stephanie, we've got a rapid fire.
Stephanie: Mm-hmm. Edmonton mayoral candidate Andrew Knack took his campaign to the sidewalk last weekend, setting up a desk outside his office on August 10th to hear directly from voters. The effort aimed to make him directly accessible to Edmonton residents, allowing them to discuss city issues and ask questions face-to-face. He's also planned a town hall on infill on August 16th, but online. When asked about the change to a virtual meeting, he said, quote, "We've decided to move things online because the smell of rotten tomato was really hard to get out of my blue suit."
Mack: Alberta will launch an anti-speeding and dangerous driving campaign by the end of the month due to a deeply concerning surge in fatal collisions in Edmonton; 21 people have died in car crashes so far this year. The campaign comes after the province eliminated 70% of photo radar sites. Transportation Minister Devon Dresen told reporters, quote, "Speeding is a serious and preventable danger," but when asked how it could be prevented, he said, quote, "Uh, uh, uh," pretended he swallowed a bee and abruptly ended the press conference.
Stephanie: Las Vegas tourism is in a slump as Canadians, in particular, avoid the city amid an ongoing trade war with the United States. Instead, Canadians are headed to another electric strip, Whyte Avenue, the Sin City of the North if you believe the street preachers.
Mack: Close to home for you, Stephanie.
Stephanie: (laughs) Exactly. (laughs)
Mack: All right. Well, uh, there's another episode in the books. Uh, you should, if you d- don't already, check out all of the great stuff that Taproot publishes every week at taprootedmonton.ca, including The Pulse, which is our weekday newsletter. Lots of exciting stuff happening behind the scenes on election. Watch for more of that. And now that council's back, at least for a little while before we get into the real intense part of the campaign, you and I'll be here recapping all the decisions they're making.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Mack: Until next week, I'm Mack.
Stephanie: I'm Stephanie.
Mack: And we're...
Both: Speaking Municipally.