00:00:00.000Residents in Edmonton are demanding that the Alberta government step in to stop a controversial bike lane expansion, calling it undemocratic, unsafe and fiscally irresponsible.
00:00:21.000Despite securing majority opposition through a petition, the city has yet to respond, prompting locals to turn to the province as their last resort.
00:00:29.000Meanwhile, a new anti-separatist group is pushing a referendum question of its own, which is to maintain the status quo, something I didn't know a referendum was required for.
00:00:40.000Alberta is fast-tracking school builds to keep pace with immigration-fueled growth, and a new Canada-US policy hub is launching in Calgary, which will be the lone Canada-US policy hub in North America.
00:00:52.000All that and more on this week's Alberta Roundup. I'm your host, Isaac Lamoureux. Let's jump into that top story now.
00:00:58.000Residents from several Edmonton neighborhoods are pleading with the Alberta government to halt a sweeping bike lane project that they say was forced on them without proper consultation.
00:01:07.000The city's active transportation network expansion would turn roads into one-way streets, divided one-lane roads, remove street parking, and add protected bike lanes along 92nd Street, 96th Street, and 124th Avenue.
00:01:21.000But residents say they weren't informed or consulted, and that the bike lanes cause more problems than they solve.
00:01:27.000Petition organizer Jeremiah Rowling sent a formal letter to Municipal Affairs Minister Joseph Scow, writing, quote,
00:01:33.000Our community is not opposed to cycling or safe transportation. What we oppose is the unfair, unsafe, and undemocratic way this particular plan has been forced upon us.
00:01:44.000The petition gathered 292 valid signatures, with 262 coming from within the affected area.
00:01:50.000There are 317 homes along the planned bike lanes, and 182 unique households have already signed the petition, representing 57% of impacted homes.
00:01:59.000While receiving a clear majority of signatures, Rowling said this still might be an underrepresentation as some residents were hesitant to open the door to strangers,
00:02:08.000and were confused or had no idea what the canvassers were talking about because they hadn't been consulted on the project.
00:02:15.000At the recent town hall meeting on May 15th, Rowling presented the petition to attendees and held a vote on whether it should be sent.
00:02:39.000Under the Municipal Government Act, the city can classify capital projects as correspondence and ignore the petition entirely.
00:02:50.000Rawling accused city officials of gaming the system.
00:02:53.000He said he received the project notice just 178 days before the October 20th municipal elections, barely under the 180-day cutoff to block recall efforts.
00:03:06.000It followed an initial meeting held by Rowling on April 30th.
00:03:09.000For that meeting, he hand-delivered around 200 letters to each affected residents in the neighbourhood,
00:03:14.000and over 100 people showed up to the first meeting, the vast majority of whom signed the petition.
00:03:20.000During both meetings, anyone who wanted to speak was welcome to share their thoughts in support or in opposition.
00:03:27.000Even other communities showed up, telling the tales of their past battles with the city, which failed as the city installed bike lanes in their neighbourhoods despite strong opposition.
00:03:37.000The first meeting saw one or two people in opposition, but the overwhelming majority of attendees were trying to figure out how to save their community from bike lanes.
00:03:46.000Numerous disabled people and seniors who rely on street parking to access their homes have raised concerns.
00:03:52.000Residents from other communities have told stories of having their homes and foundations damaged during previous bike lane construction projects.
00:04:01.000The city and insurance companies allegedly told them that there was nothing they could do for them.
00:04:06.000Emergency vehicle access was also a major concern raised during the meetings.
00:04:11.000Residents say existing east-west and north-south bike routes already serve the area, including protected lanes on 119th Avenue and a shared use path along 97th Street, making the new plan a redundant and disruptive duplication.
00:04:26.000Residents also expressed outrage that the city plans to tear up recently improved streets that were funded through local improvement taxes, calling it fiscally irresponsible and deeply disrespectful.
00:04:38.000Residents say they had previously invited their local councillor Ashley Salvador and city transportation staff to attend their first public meeting on April 30th, but neither attended.
00:04:48.000City officials have justified the project using city-wide feedback from a 2019-2020 bike plan.
00:04:53.000However, residents point to the city planning records showing no mention of 96th Street or 124th Avenue in any public engagement before this year.
00:05:02.000Rawlings said residents now see provincial action as their only recourse.
00:05:08.000There must be balance. There must be justice.
00:05:10.000In an email Rawlings sent to the Minister of Municipal Affairs, he gave the province five business days to respond.
00:05:16.000He CC'd over 80 people on that email, including the mayor, the premier, Naheed Nenshi, local MPs, but primarily those who signed the petition.
00:05:24.000This was on May 16th, and I'm recording this episode a day before the deadline, so we'll see if any replies are to follow.
00:05:29.000The municipal elections are taking place in Edmonton and across Alberta on October 20th.
00:05:34.000Rawlings said he received the city's project letter 178 days before the planned election, just two days before the 180 day cutoff for initiating a recall petition under the Municipal Government Act.
00:05:46.000This timing appears strategic, potentially designed to prevent residents from using available democratic tools to stop the planning.
00:05:53.000Rawlings and residents are now counting on the province to intervene.
00:05:56.000Before we hop into the next story, I just wanted to share a bit about my experience as a homeowner in Delton, which is how I heard about this story,
00:06:03.000because Rawlings dropped a flyer for the town hall meeting at my door.
00:06:06.000And I didn't expect much from the first meeting, but I was very surprised when I showed up and saw over 100 people there.
00:06:12.000And then once I heard the stories told by others and what their communities went through, I began to realize the importance of the issue.
00:06:18.000Hearing it directly from people at the meeting set off the alarm bells when people said their foundations were cracked during construction and they were left with zero help.
00:06:26.000In many instances, those homes represented their life savings.
00:06:30.000Another thing worth noting was the general demographic in the community being seniors, many of whom are disabled and who may end up having their handicap parking removed,
00:06:39.000along with other cited issues of emergency service problems upon turning the streets into divided single lanes.
00:06:46.000And something a realtor and investor told me recently was that builders are fuming about this, considering the city plans to remove parking all the while building 12 and 16 plexes in the neighborhood, making parking even scarcer.
00:07:02.000Also, the city wants to tear up all of the road construction they just did. That's right. I mean, I just got my property tax bill, which, by the way, I'll be paying two and a half times more than I did last year.
00:07:12.000But that's mostly because of the assessed price of this home when I when I purchased it, which I missed the deadline to contest.
00:07:19.000And it was ludicrous, by the way. But among the charges are thirteen hundred dollars for the recent sidewalk and road improvements, which now the city wants to tear up.
00:07:27.000Look, the list goes on. But most importantly, with a clear democratic majority in opposition to the bike lanes, how can the city justify moving forward?
00:07:36.000And we'll see if the province intervenes. For our next story, we'll be covering Alberta separatism.
00:07:42.000A new group calling itself Forever Canada has filed its own petition with Elections Alberta to ask a different referendum question.
00:07:49.000The question is, do you agree that Alberta must remain in Canada and any form of separation be rejected?
00:07:55.000Remember that the Alberta Prosperity Project unveiled its separation referendum question on May 12th.
00:08:00.000The question for them was, do you agree that the province of Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province of Canada?
00:08:07.000Now, you might be wondering why Forever Canada's question would bother being asked,
00:08:11.000because the APP's question, should it become an official referendum, would answer this automatically.
00:08:15.000If people voted no, then they clearly want things to stay as they are.
00:08:18.000However, this new movement is slightly less ironic than Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi's recent move.
00:08:24.000You may recall that Nenshi recently launched a campaign website, Separatist Smith, making accusations against the Premier,
00:12:40.000This is a made-in-Alberta long-term response to the changing Canada-US relationship.
00:12:45.000Canadian institutions include the University of Alberta, University of Lethbridge, and Mount Royal.
00:12:50.000U.S. partners include Rice, Arizona State, Nebraska, and Colorado.
00:12:55.000Researchers will conduct trade modeling, policy analysis, and provide municipalities with practical tools to navigate U.S. policy shifts.
00:13:03.000The initiative will also train students in skills relevant to government, business, and civil society as part of a long-term strategy to build Alberta's policy capacity.
00:13:13.000That wraps up this week's show. My name's Isaac Lamoureux, your host of the Alberta Roundup.
00:13:17.000Thank you, have a great weekend, and God bless.