By the time this newsletter is published, the Edmonton Oilers will be one game away from winning the Stanley Cup or eliminated from the competition.
While in Edmonton recently, I spoke with Amarjit Sohi, who will become the city’s mayor in 2021, to write about the city’s deep-rooted nostalgia for the Oilers’ glory days and excitement for the team’s trip to this year’s Stanley Cup Finals. (Amarjeet Sohi).
Sohi has an unusually diverse background. When he returned from Edmonton to his native India in the late 1980s – a wonderful time for the Oilers – he was imprisoned for 21 months and endured torture after being arrested on what the Canadian government and Indian courts deemed false terrorism charges. Allegation. He has served as a taxi driver, bus driver, federal member of parliament, and minister in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet.
We talked about the Oilers’ return to the finals, highlighting the vibrant bar and restaurant scene that has developed around the team’s stadium since it opened eight years ago and its stark contrast to the rest of downtown Edmonton.
After the last two department stores closed, the mall was filled with mostly empty stores. Like around the world, many of Edmonton’s office towers are still awaiting the return of workers after the pandemic. And there are a lot of people living on the streets, many of whom appear to be suffering from serious addictions and mental health issues.
Our conversation has been edited for space and clarity.
When you’re in Ottawa, what do people outside of Alberta don’t understand about Edmonton?
Well, Canada is a very big country. We are very diverse and do not travel within Canada as much as we should. So the perception of people in each country is always different.
Sometimes people get a very bad impression that Edmonton is just a small town. It’s a big city. People sometimes think Vancouver is bigger than us, but we are bigger than Vancouver.
People are moving to Edmonton. In the last two years we have seen a 10% population increase. That’s almost 100,000 new people. It is a challenge, but it is also an opportunity.
Is this adding to the housing problem affecting most of Canada?
We remain the most affordable metropolitan area in Canada. To maintain this affordability, we aim to build 35,000 homes within three years.
But we don’t have enough low-income or non-market housing. So we’re looking at ways to free up more city-owned land for housing. We no longer collect property taxes on projects undertaken by non-profit, affordable housing providers. There is also now a specific trend for indigenous housing.
What’s behind Edmonton’s homelessness problem?
The number of people experiencing homelessness has doubled. This is the reality emerging from COVID-19. While we are housing more people, more and more people are becoming homeless.
Edmonton is a health and social services hub, serving the larger regional population and the growing population of Alberta. So people in trouble end up gathering in Edmonton. Then they fall through the cracks and end up on the street. We see that happening a lot, but we also see people coming to the city to get health care. When you talk to doctors, you can hear firsthand stories of people who end up on the streets because they have no place to go after being discharged from the hospital.
The second part is that the majority of Indigenous communities in northern Alberta are poorer and smaller than many other communities. So the infrastructure doesn’t exist in that community and people move to Edmonton.
And thirdly, Edmonton has the largest amount of correctional facilities and prisons in Western Canada.
What does it take to solve this?
There are social problems that cities cannot control. We cannot control the root causes of poverty, mental health problems and homelessness. All of these are interconnected and problems beyond the city’s ability to solve. This is where the federal and state governments play a greater role. They are strengthening. But I think the need is much more important than intervention.
Which direction is downtown Edmonton currently headed?
We are creating more festivals to bring more people downtown. We have established specific grant funds to encourage more people to live downtown, and the completion of the 11 projects currently underway will create nearly 2,500 new residential units. Hockey definitely helps bring more people to town.
The situation is gradually improving as more support can be provided to vulnerable people. But we must do more. The worst crisis we face is the overdose crisis.
trans canada
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has previously told asylum seekers that Canada will welcome them. However, thousands of refugees are currently imprisoned every year.
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In the obituary of Donald Sutherland, who died this week at the age of 88, Clyde Haberman said the actor was “a chameleon who could be lovable in one role, menacing in another, and downright strange in a third.” He wrote that they have “the same abilities.” Europe and North America. Scott Tobias selected 15 performances from Sutherland’s nearly 200 films to see. And in her review of Mr. Sutherland’s work, Alissa Wilkinson wrote that he “worked tirelessly and, unlike some actors of his generation, never seemed to belong to one era.”
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Two cyberattacks this week wreaked havoc on Canadian car dealers.
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Pop music critics Jon Pareles and Lindsay Zoladz included releases by Canadian artists Saya Gray and Lido Pimienta in their mid-list of the best songs of 2024.
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Dr. Daniel Drucker, an obesity researcher at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, helped discover obesity drugs that also eliminate other chronic diseases.
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An Indian man has pleaded not guilty to charges that he masterminded a plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist in New York. U.S. prosecutors say the plan was designed at the request of Indian government officials. Evidence links a foiled murder plot to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia, in a case Canada says was carried out by Indian government agents.
A native of Windsor, Ontario, Ian Austen was educated in Toronto, lives in Ottawa, and has reported on Canada for The New York Times for 20 years. Follow him at Bluesky. @ianausten.bsky.social.
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