Speaking Municipally

Mack Male:
Hot, hot deals in downtown Edmonton. This week, city council approved the contentious master agreement to build a new event park at ICE District.

Stephanie Swensrude:
Plus, even though it's hot outside, we are going to talk about snow, and bike lanes. All your favorite things.

Mack:
Hi, I'm Mack.

Stephanie:
I'm Stephanie.

Mack:
And we're...

Both:
Speaking Municipally.

Mack:
Welcome back to Speaking Municipally, Episode 321. It is hot outside. It felt like we didn't have much of a summer, but all of a sudden, summer's here, and it's a bit unfortunate because I feel like last weekend was, I don't know, maybe the busiest weekend in the city. My kid- my- my kiddos did a lemonade stand for Lemonade Stand Day, which was, super successful. It was the end of Fringe, it was Pride Parade. We talked last time about Fringe. How was the rest of your Fringe experience, Stephanie?

Stephanie:
It was wonderful. Um, I ended up, on that Friday after the episode came out, I ended up going to four shows that day, including Late Night Cabaret, which kinda doesn't really count, but anyways (laughs). And I'm so sad that I didn't get to s- promote this one on the show because I ended up seeing probably my favorite show of the Fringe on Friday, which was Pepperoni and Cheese, um, and I am biased because it was written by a friend of mine but I think that I would've liked it oth- otherwise because it's- it's a story about a young man who moves to Edmonton as an international student and he kinda has to navigate the Canadian culture but also still holding onto his culture back home in Pakistan and it was so funny and really, like, just- it was just so well done and I'm so proud, and it just seemed like a very Edmonton Fringe play, you know? Like that would- that show w- is completely unique, and that's what I love about the Fringe. So, next year at the Fringe everyone will have to keep their eyes open for Ali Mohammed Khawaja. That is the playwright. He wrote Pepperoni and Cheese, very big fan of that show.

Mack:
Awesome. Well, we'll look for that. It sounds like Fringe was pretty successful, not just for you but overall. Uh, Fringe- the Fringe Festival says it broke its all-time box office record, which was set in 2019 just before the pandemic. They sold 138,500 tickets this summer, which is about $1.48 million for its 1,600 artists, which is awesome. Sounds like a big success.

Stephanie:
I- I was actually talking about this with Taproot co-founder Karen Unland today but it- 'cause she is also a big Fringer, and almost every show that I went to was like almost a full house if not a full house. So just people, you know, Fringe audiences are so generous and- and excited and- and happy, so yeah, just it's such a good- it's such a good vibe and it just makes me so happy to be a theater artist in Edmonton.

Mack:
That's awesome. Well, you did something else that weekend too, you were in the Pride Parade, right?

Stephanie:
I was. I skated with my roller derby team Eville Roller Derby. It was so fun. We were right between Dykes on Bikes and Edmonton Public (laughs) School Employees (laughs). Um, so we had a big, uh- a big, exciting entrance in front of us. I was handing out flyers to get people to join. I've never actually been to a Pride Parade as a spectator or a participant before. I've been to one before when I lived in Kamloops to do like a s- new story on it, but it was my first Pride just to like attend as a queer person. Oh my God, I was just like crying the whole time. It was lovely. I was so happy to be a part of it. The only thing that I would have changed is that I thought it was really lame how it didn't go down Jasper Ave and how it went down the, like, dusty back roads of Edmonton's downtown (laughs).

Mack:
(laughs)

Stephanie:
Seriously.

Mack:
I'm not sure I'd call those dusty back roads but it- it wasn't a premier street.

Stephanie:
(laughs).

Mack:
It wasn't like the Cariwest Parade, right?

Stephanie:
No.

Mack:
But maybe they can-

Stephanie:
Or the marathon, like, yeah.

Mack:
Maybe they can build back up to that. It was nice to have the parade- Pride Parade back finally in- in Edmonton and I wasn't paying that much attention 'cause I was still- busy with the lemonade stand, but it doesn't seem like there was any of the major controversy that surrounded it from a few years ago. It seems like it went fairly smoothly.

Stephanie:
Yeah, it- from what- from what I saw it was super smooth. We even started like fairly on time and then ended like it was very- it was a very smooth experience.

Mack:
Nice.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
All right, well we've got lots to talk about in this episode but before we do that we've got an ad to read.

Stephanie:
Indeed. This episode is brought to you by the Civida Housing Foundation which raises funds for Civida, the largest provider of community and affordable housing in Northern Alberta. The foundation invites you to the STARS Awards Gala on September 20th at the Art Gallery of Alberta. The gala celebrates the achievements of students living in Civida Housing. You'll get a chance to visit the art gallery during a cocktail reception followed by a gourmet dinner and a scholarship presentation to some extraordinary young people. Taproot is proud to be a media sponsor of this unforgettable evening full of inspiring stories. Visit cividahousingfoundation.ca/stars to get your tickets or click on the link in the show notes.

Mack:
Excellent. All right, well let's get into it. The big news of the week maybe for you if you're a regular listener, it's coming outta nowhere and that's been the theme of this thing from the beginning. Council debated, discussed, and approved the master agreement between the province, ICE District OEG and the city for this new event park. So tell us what happened this week, Stephanie.

Stephanie:
Yeah, so Postmedia, Steven Sander with Edmonton Journal posted a really good breakdown of what is actually involved in the- in the master agreement. It is essentially formalizing what happened in the MOU that we saw come out like I think six months ago, um, but this is, you know, finalizing it. A few things came out that council seemed surprised by. One of the things that came out that surprised council is that the event park will be allowed to host conferences and trade shows. That was a- a use that Anne Stevenson said she hadn't heard of and she was worried that that was gonna pull...... business away from the Expo Centre or the Convention Centre.

Mack:
Yeah, this is a problem, right, because we've gone down this road before where we had a facility and then we built another one, and now it's competitive, and what do we do? How do we keep them all busy, right?

Stephanie:
Mm-hmm.

Mack:
Um, you know, at council, or, or after our guest meeting, this meeting, Explore Edmonton CEO Tracy Bednard, who supports the agreement, said that they've received assurances from OEG that conventions and conferences are not the intended use of Fan Park, and so that maybe that competitive concern won't come to fruition, and then there was one subsequent motion from Councilor Stevenson, who you mentioned actually, to ask for a few different things, the inclusion of affordable rates for non-profits and that they could use their own food and catering, but also that conference, convention, and trade show activities be ancillary to other uses, and that carried 13 to nothing, and there's supposed to be a report coming back by memo. So m- there might be some- something in the works here to try to formalize uh, what you, what you outlined there.

Stephanie:
Mm-hmm. One thing that isn't formalized in the agreement though, which is I think arguably a lot more impactful, is that the agreement does not have any legal requirement for OEG to build housing on its site. So the big-

Mack:
Wait, wait, wait, wait. No requirement for housing? I saw the city's news release about this saying the master agreement was approved, and it says one of the things this delivers is 2,500 units of housing in the community in the Village at ICE District. Wait, that's not gonna happen?

Stephanie:
Like, and this is the news release that just came out, right after the council meeting, right?

Mack:
Yeah, that's right.

Stephanie:
And, and during the council meeting, not only did they a- admit that there's no legal requirement to build housing, the 2,500 number is like barely even being dreamt of anymore. So basically what actually happened, so the agreement does not have a legal requirement to complete a single unit of housing before OEG will get money for the event park, and Andrew Knack took issue for that, to that. He said, quote, "The whole point of this was to build housing. Now there's no legal requirement to build housing, and I cannot understand how we are okay with that." As part of the... now, this is from the Postmedia story that I mentioned. As part of the deal, infrastructure would be completed and construction could begin. OEG promises 354 units of housing by the second half of 2028, 420 more over the next five years, quote, "based on demand in the Edmonton downtown market." Which maybe I'm just really pessimistic, but if I hear based on demand, based on the market, that to me basically says that OEG can refuse to build it if they just don't want to.

Mack:
That's right. Anybody could say-

Stephanie:
Do you know what I mean?

Mack:
... there's no demand anymore.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
The market has changed. The costs have gone up. Well, it's not financially feasible. We hear this all the time-

Stephanie:
Yes.

Mack:
... about developments downtown. I'm reasonably good at math, Stephanie. 420 units over five years and 354 units by 2028, that does not add up to 2,500 either.

Stephanie:
Oh my gosh, you're right. No, yeah, see that's what I'm saying is that like this 2,500, it's, it's like ridiculous that they're trying to pretend that this event park in a year we're gonna have, um, 2,500 new units of housing just north of it. Like I'm confused because this land has been used as a gravel parking lot since the arena opened, and then last year, um, council approved extending that quote unquote temporary use until 2029. So which is it? Is it going to be a parking lot, or is it going to be starting to be converted into housing?

Mack:
Boyle Street's moving.

Stephanie:
(laughs)

Mack:
Like it seemed like we were preparing to build housing here, and it's always been part of the original vision that was put out with the arena and ICE District in- initially that there would be housing as part of this, you know, that the north part of this would have housing. And we understood when we ag- agreed to build the arena and all of that, that it was gonna be in the future.

Stephanie:
Mm-hmm.

Mack:
But we're in the future now, and we're wanting to move ahead on those things, and we do have a lot of need for housing in this city. It seems like this would be a great location and opportunity to try to do some of, or build some of that, offer some of that housing. But it gets so watered down, and it feels to me like the reason it got watered down and the reason that Councilor Knack and others were frustrated by this lack of teeth when it comes to how many housing units to build is because we felt like we had no choice. If we didn't approve this, we don't get any money from the province. We can't move this ahead. I think actually it was Councilor Knack who said, "A gun is to our head right now saying, 'No, don't dare amend this because if you amend it, we don't have enough time to fix it. It's gonna be thrown away.'" You know, he basically felt like they didn't have a choice. I understand that the deadline here from the province was September 1st and then another one September 30th, like very short amount of time to turn around an agreement like this. This is why this came up to council now at a special meeting on Monday not one of their regular cycle of meetings so that they could get this done before this deadline, and it just, you know, harkens back to the arena originally when we were talking about that project, and it felt like all the other things we wanted to build downtown were being held hostage by the arena. It's like if we don't approve the arena and the CRL to fund it, then we don't get any of the other improvements downtown. And here we are again doing the same thing with this event park at ICE District, and now we're not even trying to hide it.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
Like if you read the provincial government's news release about this, it's pretty clear that to fully meet the requirements set out by the MOU, they've improved the CRL plan and bylaw to extend this CRL for 10 years. So council earlier this summer had agreed to extend the CRL, but of course we need provincial approval to do that.In case it wasn't clear, it is now, that MOU basically said, "You got to go ahead with this, or we're not approving the CRL."

Stephanie:
Hmm.

Mack:
That's my read of this.

Stephanie:
It's frustrating 'cause it kind of seems like the province and OEG have decided this, um, months and months ago, maybe during one of the playoff games that Danielle Smith attended with Sam Raich. Um, that was a joke.

Mack:
(laughs)

Stephanie:
(laughs) But anyway, it seems like this was decided months and months ago, and council just, like really has their hands tied, and it's- it's just disappointing. And another thing that is really disappointing is that this building will not be built uh, to the city's climate resilience standards. Now, I only realized this because Principe introduced a motion to exempt the building from the climate resilience policy. This was apparently just included in the original MOU, but it wasn't included in the agreement, so they had to, like, do this subsequent motion to add it back into the agreement. The reason why it won't be a climate resilient building is because OEG said it's not financially feasible.

Mack:
(laughs) Which is just-

Stephanie:
The Oilers Entertainment Group, the Edmonton Oilers Entertainment Group, $20 for a beer, Edmonton Oilers Entertainment Group says it's not financially feasible to make... I don't know, to put solar panels on the building.

Mack:
This subsequent motion passed 11-2, right?

Stephanie:
Mm-hmm.

Mack:
I think only Councilors Janz and Joanne Wright voted against it which is interesting. You'd think more councilors would have taken issue with that.

Stephanie:
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think it was just because it sort of seemed like a done deal, because that was after the vote for the actual agreement, and at that point, the... So, the pe- uh, I don't know if we talked about this, but the four councilors that voted against the agreement-

Mack:
Yeah, yeah, it was Councilor Knack, Janz, Rutherford, and Wright who all voted against the agreement. They also voted on two borrowing bylaws to start to move this forward, and those both passed 10-3 with Knack, Janz, and Wright opposed. So for whatever reason, Rutherford voted in favor of those borrowing bylaw I mean, those are more procedural than the master agreement, I suppose.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
This reminds me a little bit about what we talked about last week, right? When I was talking about that book, Abundance, and, you know, all the rules and regulations that come in for building, and we were talking about that in the context of the student- student housing incentive, right? And the more rules and requirements you have, the more expensive it is to build these things. I- I guess, you know, in an ideal world, we'd be able to pick and choose, and when it comes to housing and the housing crisis and building housing as quickly as possible, relaxing some of the requirements seems sensible. For something like an event space like this that, as Councilor Janz pointed out, was not (laughs) in our four-year budget was not in our list of priorities, was not the city's idea, this seems like the appropriate place to have some of those requirements, like climate resiliency. And if we are going to invest a whole bunch of city money into a facility like this, surely we should put in some requirements about how to make it greener. So, that's really disappointing.

Stephanie:
Yeah. It- it truly, like, almost frustrated me to the point of tears when I read about that. Like, ugh, it's just, it just feels like, again, the- that the province and OEG have made this decision and are forcing Edmonton, not only just Edmonton City Council, but all of the residents of Edmonton, whether they want this or not, it's just been a done deal.

Mack:
It does feel like council felt like they had no choice. You know, maybe we have an outgoing mayor who feels like there's no point in trying to- to fight for this. I don't know. Maybe he genuinely thinks this is the only way to get what the city needs in terms of housing units and that funding in. I'll let him explain that to us in the future.

Stephanie:
Hmm.

Mack:
But it does seem like such a missed opportunity, ever since this first came up, for engagement with Edmontonians about whether or not this is something that we actually want, and a missed opportunity for our elected officials to make that decision. Rushing this through before the end of this council term, before the municipal election as well, also feels like a missed opportunity. It feels like it serves the interests of the UCP and the OEG here very well, and serves the needs and interests of the city of Edmonton to a much lesser extent. And- and then I just think it's so disappointing that the communication from the city is not clearer about that, right? There's not 2,500 new housing units-

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
... coming from this. I suppose, in theory, it'll expedite the development of these housing units, which is what a subs- uh, a later paragraph in the news release says. But like you said, there's a lot of weasel words in- in this and a lot of r- wiggle room for the OEG folks to get out of this and to not build that housing for, you know, whatever whims come up at that time. So, that's very disappointing, and I feel like we could do a better job of being honest in our communications about these things.

Stephanie:
Very well said. Um, I did want to talk about one kind of offshoot from this as well. S- part of this whole deal will go towards demolishing Coliseum, the Coliseum, and also doing some improvements in the exhibition lands area. Edmonton Transit Riders was at council to advocate for using some of that money to make the Coliseum LRT station less creepy-

Mack:
(laughs)

Stephanie:
... (laughs) essentially. Um, so backing up a little bit, last year, Taproot wrote a story. Well, I wrote a story (laughs) about the redesign of Stadium Station. It was, um, built around the same time in the '70s. It was one of the original stations, and it was built with lots of little, like, underground nooks and crannies. You had to, like, go down and then go back up, very inconvenient to use. And then they redesigned it, and they saw calls for service drop by 50%. So obviously, it's a success story. Uh, once you build something that's kind of, like, open air, it's pretty cool in there. Now Edmonton Transit Riders wants the same treatment for Coliseum Station, and when I wrote the story about Stadium, Kerry Hauk-MacDonald, the director of ETS, said, "Yeah Coliseum is on the list. We just don't have the money for it." So potentially, maybe s- I'm not sure if, like legally the money could be used to do the redesign of s- of Coliseum, but it's an interesting idea.

Mack:
There was one other subsequent motion we haven't mentioned yet, and that one was from Councilor Salvador, who asked for a report on how a replacement for Coliseum Stadium might be prioritized in the context of this master agreement and everything, and that one carried 13 to nothing.

Stephanie:
Hmm.

Mack:
So we should have more information about that early next year. I love Stadium Station, the redesign of it. It's so great. I'm hopeful they could do something similar with Coliseum. You know, we went to K-Days this year and you have that at very experience especially with a stroller. You're going down, you're going around, you're going back up. You're going, you know, all over the place to get out of there. It is more challenging just given the location of that, uh-

Stephanie:
Yes.

Mack:
... on 118th Avenue there and, you know, the overpass and all the rest of it, but hopefully with Coliseum coming down, there can be some creative work done to improve that for everyone who goes to visit that area, but also for the folks who live around that area. It's been such an opp- or missed opportunity there as well to, you know, really do something, um, for that, for that part of the city and for that neighborhood. Now one of the things that this could lead to, which I'm a bit worried about, Stephanie, is we're trying to build housing at Blatchford. We're trying to build housing at Exhibition Lands. We're trying to build housing at, you know, Village at ICE District. We are continuing to build housing around the city, and as I said, there's a housing crisis. We need this housing and we wanna re- you know, remain affordable. And so the more housing we build, the easier it is to do that. But it does seem like we're gonna come up against maybe some market forces here where there, is there enough demand for all of these different little housing centers, communities that we're, that we're trying to build? I think eventually there is. I have no doubt that there is eventually, but, you know, back to whether or not these things will be financially feasible, I think that's a thing we'll have to wait and see.

Stephanie:
Yeah, for sure.

Mack:
Well, every now and then we get something like an arena or an event park to talk about, but all the time we get to talk about snow and ice control and snow clearing and all the rest of that stuff on this podcast, especially when Troy's here. He likes to talk about that stuff. It's 34 degrees out there or something, but you did a story about snow clearing.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
Tell us why.

Stephanie:
Well, it's almost September, and if you listen to some people, the sixth mon- the six months of snow that Edmonton has must be about to start because, you know, we're, we're getting closer to winter and w- and we do have six months of snow as many, as many have pointed out, obviously also a joke. Um, so I wrote a story based on this w- little detail that I saw in a council report. The little detail is that the City of Edmonton spends close to the same amount clearing snow from 11,000 linear kilometers of roads as it does clearing it from about 1,500 kilometers of active pathways and other pedestrian spaces. So basically anything other than, than a road. Um-

Mack:
Maybe we shouldn't talk about this. This is not going in a good direction. (laughs)

Stephanie:
I'm gonna ... You know what? As a journalist, I have to m- you know, Capra writes a lot of stories that, um, give like a fair microphone to active transportation, and it is my job to also, you know, talk about the cons. Now I will say it is no question that active transportation infrastructure is much cheaper to maintain every single day of the year that snow is not actively falling from the sky. So it costs about $178 per kilometer to replace, repair, and maintain active pathways and other pedestrian infrastructure and $1,285 per kilometer to do the same for roads. But-

Mack:
When there's no snow.

Stephanie:
When ... So on on snow days, and there was 25 of those last winter, for example, on the snow days it costs much more. So my, I did some napkin math for the snow clearing. Uh, now this isn't a perfect comparison because the pedestrian spaces aren't like necessarily measured by kilometers. Like I said, there's like plo- pl- pedestrian plazas and bus stops in there, but if we just use the kilometer number, per kilometer, the city spends more than $20,000 on active pathways and pedestrian spaces and $3,350 per kilometer of roadways. So that's a big difference, and it, like you said, it makes it look really, really bad. And I thought, well, I need to investigate why this is. Uh, this is what I found. There's a couple factors. One, pedestrian and bike and active infrastructure, it's all very varied first of all. For a just a regular separated bike lane, they just need one staff member to push the little machine down the bike lane and then they clear, it's cleared off to the side and then it's done. And it's like relatively quick and cheap to do. But then when you get to something like, um, brick sidewalks or brick crosswalks like there w- are on, for example, Rice Howard Way, you actually have to get staff members to take a hard bristle broom and clear out the ice from between each and every crack in those bricks or else it'll, the ice will go down and melt and then freeze and then expand and then destroy the, destroy the bricks. And then also there are even some areas that are just because of space and size restraints, you have to go in with a shovel and just clear them manually. So, and then obviously with a road, you just drive the snowplow right down and basically that's it.

Mack:
So a lot more manual labor involved.

Stephanie:
Mm-hmm.

Mack:
And a lot more different kinds of equipment and tools and things-

Stephanie:
Right.

Mack:
... needed to do those active pathways then for roadways.

Stephanie:
Yeah, and an- and another thing is that just because it's a lot easier to drive through, let's say, five to 20 centimeters of snow than it is to walk through that much snow or ride your bike through that much snow, so the city clears it down further-

Mack:
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie:
... faster or they prioritize clearing it down to bare pavement more than they do for vehicles on the road. So that's, um, two reasons.

Mack:
So when I saw the overall numbers here, so $67 million is what we spend annually on the snow and ice control budget, and you found that about 55% of that is on roads.

Stephanie:
Mm-hmm.

Mack:
45% of that is on anything that's not a road, so active pi- pathways, trails, bike lanes, pedestrian squares, bus stops, et cetera.So that sounds like there's some maybe truth to the thing I hear out there sometimes, which is that people say, "Well, why are we spending so much money clearing the bike lanes? Why don't we just redirect that money and clear the roads?" We could have much better, clearer roads or less snow pack or all the rest faster if we spent more money on that, and maybe we change that percentage so it's not 55 and, and 45. I think, you know, the problem with that idea, the problem with that notion is that clearing all of these other areas helps with the roads, right?

Stephanie:
Mm-hmm.

Mack:
You know, when the bike lanes are clear, there's people using bikes who aren't on the road in a car. Uh, you know, when you get out of your car, you got to walk somewhere usually, unless you're parking indoors, and having, you know, clear sidewalks and all the rest of it is a way to do that. So, you know, I, I don't think it's as simple as just saying, "Well, let's redirect money from one to the other," but I do think it would be surprising for people to hear, you know, just how much we spend on, on those things.

Stephanie:
Yeah, and yeah, like I said, it is just the- on the- when they're just clearing the snow and every other day, the vehicle roads are much more expensive to maintain. But yeah, I get your point. Like, if, if it snows and you essentially completely delete active transportation from the network by not clearing it yeah, there would be a whole heck of a lot more people that would say, "Okay, well, I can't take my bike, I guess I'll have to drive to work," and then put more people on the roads. So yeah, and also, I mean, the city has the goal of not only becoming, you know, more pedestrian-friendly, but specifically to be a more pedestrian-friendly winter city. That takes an extra level of, of design work, but I could go into that pedestrian winter city design. Don't get me started.

Mack:
(laughs)

Stephanie:
(laughs) But yeah, one of those things is, is prioritizing clearing pedestrian spaces so that people do feel like they can a- access that form of transportation. And I will say, in the winter, I mean, I do live very centrally, so definitely take this with a grain of salt, but in the winter, I far prefer to use, um, active transportation than, than a car because A, I don't have to wait for the car to warm up, B, I don't have to risk my car not starting, C, I don't have to worry about sliding and slipping around on the roads a- or potentially getting in a car accident.

Mack:
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie:
Um, with- when you take the bus, you walk onto the bus, it's already heated up for you. Sure, y- yes, you have to wait on the, on the sidewalk o- or at the bus stop, but you don't have to wait in t- um, you don't have to, like, struggle to get out of your garage. Like, um, in the winter, I will most likely walk. As long as it's not too cold, I will walk places before I, I drive.

Mack:
Me too. If I can, I'll, I'll walk and even if it is really cold, I'll just bundle up and try to do that.

Stephanie:
Mm-hmm.

Mack:
You know, that's another thing that is, is very connected about the two sides of our snow and ice control budget, is obviously we have a lot of bus routes, a lot of bus stops, and if I'm reading this correctly, bus stops and clearing those is counted in that 45% that is for, you know, active pathways and pedestrian areas and things-

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
... like that. So I mean, obviously the bo- the, the buses need both things in order to run effectively, right?

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
You need to have the streets clear so the bus can drive, but you also need to have the bus stops and the areas around them clear so people can get on and off the buses.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
And so, like, you imagine if we took that out of this, I don't know what the breakdown would be for, you know, bike lanes versus bus stops and things like that. But there's an awful lot more bus stops than there are bike lanes and I would imagine that would have a huge impact on, on roads. So-

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
... maybe it's not as bad as it first looked when I saw these numbers.

Stephanie:
No. Yeah, and that's why I wanted to explain it because I actually... So in between me learning about these numbers and then a- the article being published, there was a certain op-ed published by, um, a certain local newspaper that just mentioned in the story, "Ugh, and the city spends just as much on pedestrian stuff as it does on the roads," and I thought, "Okay, well, before we get mad about this, let's examine why-"

Mack:
Yeah.

Stephanie:
"... and see what- see what's actually going on here."

Mack:
Thank you, Stephanie. I think that's pretty interesting. I'm glad you looked into that. Uh, we also published a story recently, or you folks did, about what we heard from voters on snow clearing. So you can check that out in the show notes as well. Uh, we heard everything from compassionate calls to clear things for neighbors who are unable to do so to people who want to dump the snow into the bike lane. So-

Stephanie:
(laughs)

Mack:
... uh, I think it was a pretty diverse set of input that we gathered there.

Stephanie:
Yes.

Mack:
Um, I always think when it comes to snow and ice that maybe we just need to be more innovative and there's got to be a better way to clear this stuff than what we do currently. If innovation's your thing, uh-

Stephanie:
(laughs)

Mack:
... you will want to know that Edmonton Startup Week is coming up, and I had the opportunity recently to talk to, um, Stephanie Gillis-Paulgaard from Edmonton Unlimited about that event. Here's my conversation with her. Well, I'm excited to be joined by Stephanie Gillis-Paulgaard, the vice president of marketing and communications at Edmonton Unlimited, and importantly for this conversation, the producer of Edmonton Startup Week. Big festivity, always happens in the fall, it's coming up rapidly. Uh, welcome to Speaking Municipally, Stephanie.

Stephanie:
Thanks so much for having me, Matt.

Mack:
All right. Well, for those who are unfamiliar, maybe they've never attended before, maybe they've heard about it but don't know too much about it, how do you describe what Edmonton Startup Week is?

Stephanie:
Edmonton Startup Week is a five-day celebration of the city's startup and innovation ecosystem. It's for founders, it's for funders, it's for students, it's for creatives, it's for tech talent, and it's for startup curious.

Mack:
So it's a multi-day event, which means there's lots of events that happen throughout the week. Lots of it, I imagine, is at Edmonton Unlimited downtown on on Jasper and 101st, but other locations too, right?

Stephanie:
Ab- absolutely. You know, this is going to be a major hub of activation over those five weeks, but you're going to see other sites in the downtown core and outside the downtown core across the community activated over the course of the five days.

Mack:
There's always a flagship event, or I think about it as the flagship, maybe you folks don't anymore, and that's Launch Party. That's happening again this year?

Stephanie Gillis-Paulgaard:
It certainly is. You have to pencil it in. It is a not-to-miss one of the flagship events. Uh, it is gonna be held on the Wednesday, October 8th. Disclosed venue, not ready for it just yet, but it is coming, so people have to stay tuned and follow us.

Mack:
And this is to launch 10 usually company startups, products into the community to say, "Here's some i- interesting things that people are working on," right?

Stephanie Gillis-Paulgaard:
Yeah, kind of like those up-and-comers, right? The ones to watch, if you will. This is effectively Launch Party 16. So you think about, um, most years we have had that 10 companies, the, the next ones to watch, as I say. But w- applications just closed, believe it or not, last night, um, and we had a whopping amount come through. So now it's up to that selection committee to narrow it all down, and they'll be looking to announce the Launch Party companies, those 10 to watch by the end of August.

Mack:
Very exciting. Okay, last year you folks had a pretty creative theme. What about this year? Is there another theme or anything you're particularly excited about for 2025?

Stephanie Gillis-Paulgaard:
I, I can't stop smiling when I think of this year's theme. You know, um, last year thinking bigger worked and it's not just a one-off, and that's what we wanted to really bring into effect this year as well, building on the momentum that we're seeing in this city, but also using it as a really a call to action. How do you get involved? What does it look like? And then the theme kind of unveiled itself to us. It is step in, step up, step forward, and it can really look and feel different depending on where you are in your journey. And that's what I think is really exciting is that there's something for everyone regardless of where you are, whether you are that, you know, tech-curious person, "Ooh, I'm thinking about... I've got this side hustle. Maybe I do wanna step full-time into entrepreneurship." All of it is there, and it's also thinking about stepping up. What does that look like for people that maybe wanna give back to a community that's already helped them succeed along their journey? And then what does it look like to really step forward into entrepreneurship, into tech and innovation? Um, there's something for everyone, so step in, step up, step forward is this year's theme.

Mack:
Very exciting. I'm looking forward to seeing how that manifests and comes to life at the event.

Stephanie Gillis-Paulgaard:
Mm-hmm.

Mack:
Well, I know as the producer, you probably can't pick a favorite. It's kind of like picking between your kids. But is there something in particular about the events so- that you know about so far that you're particularly looking forward to?

Stephanie Gillis-Paulgaard:
You're, you're right. And I have two children, so yes, I, I don't like to pick. But I will say that there are some favorites that are coming back, but we're expanding. We're building upon them. So Women in Tech & Innovation is coming back for its second, um, version, if you will, at Edmonton Startup Week. We launched it for the first time last year, so that is coming back. And the beloved Startup Crawl, um, it has been going for many, many years in the downtown's core, and this year we're doing it a little different. We are going to be expanding outside of the downtown core, because while we know there's a lot of startups, a lot of tech, a lot of innovation happening downtown, it's also happening and unfolding in other parts of the city, and we really wanna use Startup Week to be able to celebrate everything that's happening across the city. So there's going to be a couple of new versions in the Startup Crawl South and North Edition, if you will, this year.

Mack:
Hmm. Sounds like a fun adventure. Okay.

Stephanie Gillis-Paulgaard:
(laughs)

Mack:
Well, for anyone who's listening, they're curious about Startup Week, when is it happening? How can they get involved?

Stephanie Gillis-Paulgaard:
Edmonton Startup Week is taking place from October 6th through to the 10th. And how can they get involved? It's pretty easy. Uh, first of all, they can attend. There is a whole schedule of calen- a calendar of events, if you will, that is being populated on a regular. So don't just look twice, bookmark it, keep coming back to it at edmontonstartupweek.com. You'll be able to find the full calendar there. And you can also host. Remember that part that I was talking about, about step up? There's a way to give back to the community and become a community host. Maybe show people what you're working on. Inspire, educate, motivate, allow somebody else to take a step forward in their own journey. And there is an application form to host a community event right on our website, and it comes with a full toolkit and venue selections, all of it to help make it easy for people to step up and step in and step forward this year.

Mack:
Excellent. Well, I always look forward to it. It's such a fun event. It's inspirational. I always love learning about new people, organizations, entrepreneurs, that sort of thing. Uh, I, I'm imagining it'll be a huge success again. Uh, good luck with the rest of the planning. And thank you for coming to tell us about Edmonton Startup Week.

Stephanie Gillis-Paulgaard:
Thanks so much for having me, Mack. Really appreciate it.

Mack:
All right, Stephanie. Off the top, we promised everyone's favorite things. Uh, bike lanes is another thing that is, you know, a quote-unquote "favorite thing to talk about."

Stephanie:
(laughs)

Mack:
And as you know, they're continually in the news. Uh, what's the latest on the battle for bike lanes?

Stephanie:
(laughs) The latest is that Devin Dreeesan, he made the trip on up here f- uh, again, to talk to folks in Deltan about the bike lanes that are about to be, um, constructed there. Devin Dreeesan had a mee- meeting with Mayor Amarjeet Sohi where Devin Dreeesan asked him to cancel these bike lanes and ones that were already either under construction or about to be constructed in Amarjeet. So he said, "No, we already have the contracts in place." That was his excuse is that "We already have the contracts in place." Um, and, and another-

Mack:
It's like you wanna let, you wanna let somebody down easy. You're like-

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
... "Well, I'd love to-"

Stephanie:
Oh.

Mack:
"... accommodate, but I can't. My hands are tied."

Stephanie:
It's like when, when you, your friend asks you if you wanna have a sleepover and you really don't want to, so you're like, "Mom, say no. Mom, say no." (laughs)

Mack:
(laughs)

Stephanie:
Um, and then the other thing was that Devin Dreeesan said that he wanted any bike lane projects that are in the planning stage currently to now have to have a traffic impact assessment before they move forward. Now...I think the funniest possible outcome of this would be the first traffic impact assessment to come out and for it to say, "Oh my gosh, the bike lanes are gonna really be good for traffic because it'll get people out of vehicles." I think that would be- (laughs)

Mack:
(laughs)

Stephanie:
... the funniest possible outcome. (laughs)

Mack:
That would be amazing. I mean, there's definitely a possibility. You know, you see some of the existing bike lanes and how busy they are and how many people that means are not on the road.

Stephanie:
Mm-hmm.

Mack:
It's very possible that that could happen. Um, I think it's also probably true that the city has looked at this when they planned the bike network in the first place, right? It's not like nobody's ever considered the potential impacts on traffic to doing this, so it just feels like for a government that wants to get rid of red tape, a weird amount of red tape to add back into the process.

Stephanie:
Yeah, and also, I mean, another thing that I saw in another story was D- Devendra Rishi's big thing is that we don't want these on arterial roads. We don't want these on big roads, and very few of Edmonton's bike lanes are on arterial roads. I actually don't know if I can think of any. The or the 132nd Ave. ones, I don't think that that technically counts as an arterial road. Like, they, their practice is to do them off of the main roads, I mean, 83rd Ave. instead of 82nd Ave., 102nd Ave. instead of Jasper Ave. And, you know, some bike activists have thoughts about that, but in general it's seen as good because then it's on a quieter road, more shade. It's quieter, like less traffic, so there's less people turning across the bike lane.

Mack:
Right.

Stephanie:
Um, yeah, and we don't really have them on, on arterial roads, so it wouldn't really affect traffic.

Mack:
Well, that won't stop the minister from trying to-

Stephanie:
(laughs)

Mack:
... slow it down, so I'm sure this is not the last we'll hear about about bike lanes.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
Okay, one other thing I wanted to mention given the temperature outside is just what the city has announced about outdoor pools. So, they put out a news release and said outdoor pools, with the exception of Queen Elizabeth Pool, which is the busiest one, it'll stay open a little longer, the rest of them are closing as of Tuesday. I, this sounded really familiar to me, and so I looked back, and it was the same time last year that we closed the pools. It was the Tuesday following Labor Day. Last year, the same time they announced they were gonna start a phased closure of all the spray parks, and I just remember thinking, "It's too early to close the spray parks." September can have really nice warm weather. Last year, in 2024, the average high in September was 21.6 degrees. It was the sixth warmest on record.

Stephanie:
Wow.

Mack:
You know, as l- as late as September 24th last year, it got up to 26 degrees, so it can be pretty hot, and, you know, and s- w- we have emergency response and, um, we, the heat warning goes out, and we do all of these things to try to make sure people can handle the heat. A really simple thing is just leave the spray parks on longer. Now, I know in the past we've had this conversation about funding and it's more expensive the longer they keep it on and, and all that other stuff. But every time around this year, I just feel like it's such a, a waste of uh, of good infrastructure when we know that it's gonna be hot through September. Why not leave them running? So this year when they announced the closure of the pools, they didn't say anything about the spray parks, Stephanie. So, maybe there's hope. Maybe they'll stay open a bit longer.

Stephanie:
Yeah, I mean, I think with spray parks, there's no staff that need to be attending it. I could understand for the pools because they need lifeguards and people at the front to b- buy tickets, but with spray parks, it's literally just turning on and off the water, so yeah, it would make a lot of sense to keep them open basically until you couldn't anymore. I think that this whole Tuesday after Labor Day closure date, um, aligns with what would've happened when I was a child, um, but the w- climate is rapidly warming, so (laughs) like, come on. September is part of summer now. Oh wait, no wait. Wait, we have six months of snow in Edmonton though.

Mack:
(laughs)

Stephanie:
Wait. (imitates explosion) Brain explodes. (laughs)

Mack:
Yeah. That's the, that's the, that's what they tell me.

Stephanie:
(laughs) Yeah. No, but, um, I agree a spray park is a great way to stay cool, especially with, um, if you offer it up during, like, extreme heat events. And yeah, it would be r- definitely a shame to have them close too early.

Mack:
So hopefully when we talk next week we're not informing you that the spray parks have now been closed.

Stephanie:
(laughs)

Mack:
So, we'll see. Uh, it'll probably also be a little bit cooler next week, but it's hot right now in the rapid fire. Edmonton students are set to return to school next week. Second grader, Sally Smith told reporters, quote, "Thank you to the UCP for protecting my fellow students and I from woke pronouns and puberty education. Now, it's pretty hot out. Do you think we could have AC installed in all the schools? No? H- how about a protected bike lane on the way to my school? No? M- more teachers, so there aren't 40 kids in my class? No? Oh, okay."

Stephanie:
Mayoral candidate Andrew Knack announced he will be completing the first ever mayorthon where he will walk across the whole length of the city over Labor Day weekend. His competitor, Rahim Jaffer, was overheard saying, "Pfft, come on, walking everywhere? That's so 2009." Specifically, a 90-day period in late 2009.

Mack:
Negotiations for the proposed event park beside Rogers Place took on an exciting tone when OEG Vice President Tim Shipton revealed a shocking late addition to the master agreement. If City Council agrees to hand over more than $100 million for the facility, Oilers forward Connor McDavid said he would agree to an eight-year contract extension. The agreement passed unanimously as City Council acknowledged that one more Oilers playoff run is sure to revitalize downtown permanently. Uh, well, Stephanie, I've been enjoying the reporting you folks are doing about things we've heard from our, election question that we put out. We are very close to putting out our candidate survey to all of the election candidates. I see more and more in- things in my inbox about, um, election platform announcements and policies and that kind of stuff. It really feels like we're getting into election season, and I think Labor Day, you know, as I always say, kind of feels like the unofficial New Year, right? People go back to school-

Stephanie:
Totally.

Mack:
... back to work, and I feel like-

Stephanie:
The smell of pencils, you know?

Mack:
Oh, yeah. It'll be strong next week.

Stephanie:
Mm-hmm. (laughs)

Mack:
Until then, I'm Mack.

Stephanie:
I'm Stephanie.

Mack:
And we're...

Both:
Speaking Municipally.