Edmonton Minute: Language Fine, Infill Housing, and a New Pedestrian Bridge

Edmonton Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Edmonton politics

This Week In Edmonton:

• There is only one meeting at City Hall this week. The Agenda Review Committee will meet Tuesday at 9:00 am, and these meetings are generally scheduled for just 30 minutes. Council will then take the rest of the week off. Just because they’re on a break doesn’t mean we will be, though. Hopefully, we will have some exciting news in your inbox this week!
  
  
• The weather is warming up and, on Saturday, the Spring Festival will take place at Manchester Square. Come with the kids and enjoy food trucks, lawn games, live music from local bands, and more. We are excited it’s no longer winter and we can have in-person events again. This event is free, but there will be items available for purchase from a variety of vendors as well as a beer garden. 
  
  
• Starting May 1st, the alcohol in parks pilot project will begin again, this time with expanded locations. Between the hours of 11:00 am and 9:00 pm, people will be able to drink at 124 picnic sites in 18 different parks. While we’re happy to see people being treated more like adults, you will still be unable to walk around the park with your beverage. Why make this so bureaucratic?

Last Week In Edmonton:

• The Edmonton International Airport was issued a fine in the thousands of dollars for a violation of the Official Languages Act. A federal judge said the airport took a “narrow” interpretation of the Act by failing to translate web pages, reports, slogans, and social media posts. The complainant, a man who has never been to Edmonton, says he has filed over 500 complaints in the last five years, resulting in thousands of dollars in damages. He will receive damages for this complaint too - $5,000 in addition to $3,900 in costs from the Edmonton Airport Authority.
  
  
• City Officials said that Edmonton has reached the goal set out in its infill roadmap. Of the new housing built in the last decade, 25% are infill homes located in mature neighbourhoods. Now that goal has been met, the City has set a new goal for 50% of new units to be infill homes by the time the population reaches 1.5 million. More information about the next phase of the plan will be presented to Council in June.
  
  
• Funding for a new pedestrian bridge has been approved. With a price tag of more than $41 million, the bridge will connect Edmonton with Strathcona County. The River Valley Alliance will pick up the tab for half of the costs, while the City of Edmonton and Strathcona County will split the remaining half down the middle. This is why it’s important to leave park lands in municipal hands - when a bridge is needed, a bridge is built. If the River Valley was turned into a national park, you can bet that a project like this would have been ridiculously difficult to get approved, if at all.

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