Edmonton Minute: Many Meetings, Many Restrictions, and Alcohol In Parks

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

This Week In Edmonton:

• Today at 9:30 am there will be an Executive Committee meeting that will consider 8 items, including the Project Reimbursement Agreement for the Fort Edmonton Management Company (we loaned them about $1.5 million a while ago), an environmental report on replacing the 1971 bridge over Horse Hill creek, and a report from the Chinatown Transformation Society, amongst other items.
  
  
• Tuesday promises to be a busy day, starting at 9:00 am with an Agenda Review Committee, followed by an Urban Planning Committee meeting at 9:30 am, a Special City Council meeting at 12:15 pm, and finally, a City Council Public Hearing at 1:30 pm, for which there is no agenda currently posted.
  
  
• Finally, on Friday at 9:30 am there will be another City Council Public Hearing, for which there is also no agenda posted.

Last Week In Edmonton:

• Council approved a pilot project allowing for the consumption of alcohol at 47 sites in 7 designated parks. Alcohol will be allowed in the parks from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm from May 28th to October 11th. Of course, we here at Common Sense Edmonton would go further and allow people to drink at all parks, so long as they're doing so responsibly, but it just wouldn't be Edmonton Council if they didn't create a bureaucratic pilot project, would it?
  
  
• The provincial government announced further restrictions to stop the spread of COVID including all grades at home, limiting further capacity at retail stores, reducing the capacity of funerals, outdoor gatherings, and worship services and, again, closing personal services and indoor dining at restaurants.
  
  
• It was announced that the Edmonton Police will be the first police service in Alberta to use the HealthIM system which is a digital tool that provides front-line officers with an onsite tool and information on how to handle a mental health emergency including de-escalation techniques and a risk assessment screener. The system will also allow police to communicate with health facilities if warranted.

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