Edmonton Minute: School Closures, Council Break, and Provincial Budget Funding

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

This Week In Edmonton:

• City Council is taking a break this week. There is a lone meeting, the Agenda Review Committee meeting, taking place at 9:00 am on Tuesday. Next week, Council will resume.
  
  
• Students and teachers are grappling with the news that two Catholic schools in the city will be shut down at the end of the academic year. St. Basil Catholic, with its Polish bilingual program, and the junior high program at Our Lady of Mount Carmel are slated for closure. Almost 200 students will be impacted. Those enrolled at Our Lady of Mount Carmel will transfer to St. Brendan or Louis St. Laurent Junior/Senior High School.
  
  
• Edmonton is gathering insights about this year's snow and ice control program through a survey. While we don’t know the results of the survey yet, we’ve heard loud and clear what residents think and it’s not good news. A year ago, Edmonton noted that complaints about snow removal had increased by over 2,000%. We’re guessing they’ve increased even more now. The survey is open until March 6th.

Last Week In Edmonton:

• The provincial budget was delivered last Thursday and Edmonton’s Mayor is not pleased with the provincial government. Amarjeet Sohi said Edmonton didn’t get anything it wanted and this budget was a “slap in the face". Edmonton requested funding for $49.7 million in capital spending for affordable housing, a request which was denied. Additionally, the City asked for $41 million to cover a transit shortfall and that funding was also not included in the provincial budget.
  
  
• Edmonton police shot and killed an innocent man who was in his apartment near downtown in an attempt to stop an armed robbery suspect. Police caught up to the suspect around 105 Street and 107 Avenue where, after a confrontation, firearms were discharged, fatally wounding the suspect and the innocent third party. ASIRT will be investigating and the officers involved have been placed on administrative leave.
  
  
• In what can only be described as a massive federal government flip flop, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau forced through a vote to approve his use of the Emergencies Act in the House of Commons by declaring the vote was a confidence vote, only to - just two days later - drop the whole thing, cancel the vote in the Senate, and announce that the national emergency was, in fact, over.

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