Week in Review - May 6, 2016
May 06, 2016
This week has been rightfully dominated by news coming out of northern Alberta where residents of Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, which includes Fort McMurray, have been evacuated due to devastating wildfires. This post will touch on Edmonton and the Mayor’s response to this disaster, but first there are other events that took place in our city that Edmontonians should be aware of.
At Tuesday’s City Council meeting there was deliberation over reports that would prioritize future LRT projects, now that Phase 1 of the Valley Line LRT from downtown to Mill Woods is fully funded and officially under construction. Mayor Iveson made a motion that sought to split the prioritization of work to be performed into planning and construction functions, setting both the Valley Line LRT from downtown to Lewis Estates and an extension of Metro Line from NAIT to Blatchford as the city’s next priorities. The motion also advances some design work to expand the network to the NW and further south.
As Tuesday went on, it became clear that the wildfires in Fort McMurray were becoming a significant crisis. Within hours, tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes and onto clogged highways surrounding the city. Soon after the fire escalated, the City of Edmonton established a reception centre at Northlands and dispatched fire rescue teams to the affected region to aid in the fire fighting. Mayor Iveson was on hand at the reception centre on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning to speak to some of the evacuees and tour the centre, which is equipped to handle more than 5,000 evacuees. With every passing hour the empty cots began to fill and as evacuation notices spread, more people began to arrive.
“Staff from our emergency services group have done a superb job...and folks are being really well looked after. We have done this before, and hopefully we don’t have to do this again. But we are always ready and it has been all hands on deck.” said Mayor Iveson.
Edmontonians looking to help evacuees should check out this comprehensive list on the different ways they can assist at the City’s website under the Helping Fort Mac Evacuees banner. The easiest way to help directly is to donate funds to evacuees through the Red Cross online or by texting ‘REDCROSS’ to 30333.
This week the Mayor also announced that the City will not be proceeding with a bid to host the Canadian Finals Rodeo after the 2016 season and gave a statement on why Council reached this decision. Edmontonians should know that “this does not mean that the door for rodeo in Edmonton is closed forever.” Instead, work is currently underway to bring professional bull riding to the city, and a letter of intent has been signed between the Oilers Entertainment Group and the Professional Bull Riding Association to host a larger festival event in 2017 in support of Farm Fair.
Capping off the week, the Mayor and the entire community was out in full force Friday morning to attend the ‘We Love Ft. Mac’ pancake breakfast organized by EEDC in Churchill Square. The Mayor flipped pancakes and met with evacuees who were given free pancakes and coffee while Edmontonians donated $5 to the Red Cross in order to get their syrup-smothered flapjacks.
This spontaneous event and the countless others being organized city-wide in order to welcome, support, and provide refuge for our northern neighbours have shown Edmonton’s true colours as a welcoming, compassionate place - especially in times of need. Keep it up!
For More Information
Mayor Don Iveson
2nd Floor, City Hall
1 Sir Winston Churchill Square
Edmonton, AB
T5J 2R7
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