The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - May 24, 2025


Edmonton’s controversial bike lane expansion hits some democratic speed bumps


Episode Stats


Length

14 minutes

Words per minute

158.76688

Word count

2,242

Sentence count

125

Harmful content

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

This week on Alberta Roundup: Residents in Edmonton are demanding that the Alberta Government step in to stop a controversial bike lane expansion, calling it undemocratic, unsafe, and fiscally irresponsible. Meanwhile, a new anti-separatist group is pushing a referendum question of its own, which is to maintain the status quo. Alberta is fast-tracking school builds to keep pace with immigration-fueled growth, and a new Canada-US policy hub is launching in Calgary.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Residents in Edmonton are demanding that the Alberta government step in to stop a controversial
00:00:15.680 bike lane expansion, calling it undemocratic, unsafe, and fiscally irresponsible.
00:00:21.060 Despite securing majority opposition through a petition, the city has yet to respond,
00:00:25.660 prompting locals to turn to the province as their last resort.
00:00:28.980 Meanwhile, a new anti-separatist group is pushing a referendum question of its own,
00:00:34.680 which is to maintain the status quo, something I didn't know a referendum was required for.
00:00:40.400 Alberta is fast-tracking school builds to keep pace with immigration-fueled growth,
00:00:45.020 and a new Canada-US policy hub is launching in Calgary, which will be the lone Canada-US policy
00:00:50.840 hub in North America. All that and more on this week's Alberta Roundup. I'm your host,
00:00:55.600 Isaac Lamoureux. Let's jump into that top story now. Residents from several Edmonton neighborhoods
00:01:00.380 are pleading with the Alberta government to halt a sweeping bike lane project that they say was
00:01:05.180 forced on them without proper consultation. The city's active transportation network expansion
00:01:10.240 would turn roads into one-way streets, divided one-lane roads, remove street parking, and add
00:01:16.280 protected bike lanes along 92nd Street, 96th Street, and 124th Avenue. But residents say they weren't
00:01:23.180 informed or consulted and that the bike lanes cause more problems than they solve. Petition organizer
00:01:28.820 Jeremiah Rowling sent a formal letter to Municipal Affairs Minister Joseph Scow, writing,
00:01:33.400 Our community is not opposed to cycling or safe transportation. What we oppose is the unfair,
00:01:39.740 unsafe, and undemocratic way this particular plan has been forced upon us. The petition gathered 292
00:01:46.200 valid signatures, with 262 coming from within the affected area. There are 317 homes along the
00:01:52.420 planned bike lanes, and 182 unique households have already signed the petition, representing 57% of
00:01:58.700 impacted homes. While receiving a clear majority of signatures, Rowling said this still might be an
00:02:03.940 underrepresentation as some residents were hesitant to open the door to strangers, and were confused or
00:02:09.820 had no idea what the canvassers were talking about because they hadn't been consulted on the project.
00:02:15.480 At the recent town hall meeting on May 15th, Rowling presented the petition to attendees and held a vote
00:02:20.860 on whether it should be sent. Take a listen to how that vote went.
00:02:24.360 So, all those in favor of requesting provincial intervention, say aye. Aye.
00:02:31.320 All those opposed, say no. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. The ayes taken. We have a mandate from the future.
00:02:43.120 Under the Municipal Government Act, the city can classify capital projects as correspondence
00:02:48.100 and ignore the petition entirely.
00:02:50.560 Rawling accused city officials of gaming the system.
00:02:53.860 He said he received the project notice just 178 days
00:02:57.140 before the October 20th municipal elections,
00:03:00.020 barely under the 180-day cutoff to block recall efforts.
00:03:04.180 May 15th's meeting was the second.
00:03:06.240 It followed an initial meeting held by Rawling on April 30th.
00:03:09.500 For that meeting, he hand-delivered around 200 letters
00:03:12.580 to each affected residents in the neighborhood,
00:03:15.300 and over 100 people showed up to the first meeting.
00:03:17.660 The vast majority of whom signed the petition.
00:03:21.220 During both meetings, anyone who wanted to speak
00:03:23.700 was welcome to share their thoughts in support or in opposition.
00:03:27.780 Even other communities showed up,
00:03:29.600 telling the tales of their past battles with the city,
00:03:31.860 which failed as the city installed bike lanes in their neighborhoods,
00:03:35.320 despite strong opposition.
00:03:37.660 The first meeting saw one or two people in opposition,
00:03:40.380 but the overwhelming majority of attendees
00:03:42.360 were trying to figure out how to save their community from bike lanes.
00:03:46.240 Numerous disabled people and seniors who rely on street parking
00:03:49.980 to access their homes have raised concerns.
00:03:53.220 Residents from other communities have told stories
00:03:55.440 of having their homes and foundations damaged
00:03:57.900 during previous bike lane construction projects.
00:04:01.260 The city and insurance companies allegedly told them
00:04:04.320 that there was nothing they could do for them.
00:04:07.100 Emergency vehicle access was also a major concern
00:04:09.940 raised during the meetings.
00:04:11.240 Residents say existing east-west and north-south bike routes
00:04:15.520 already serve the area,
00:04:17.080 including protected lanes on 119th Avenue
00:04:19.460 and a shared-use path along 97th Street,
00:04:22.740 making the new plan a redundant and disruptive duplication.
00:04:26.560 Residents also expressed outrage
00:04:28.260 that the city plans to tear up recently improved streets
00:04:31.000 that were funded through local improvement taxes,
00:04:34.240 calling it fiscally irresponsible and deeply disrespectful.
00:04:37.300 Residents say they had previously invited their local councillor,
00:04:41.240 Ashley Salvador, and city transportation staff
00:04:43.860 to attend their first public meeting on April 30th,
00:04:46.820 but neither attended.
00:04:47.900 City officials have justified the project
00:04:49.740 using citywide feedback from a 2019-2020 bike plan.
00:04:53.940 However, residents point to the city planning records
00:04:56.340 showing no mention of 96th Street or 124th Avenue
00:04:59.860 in any public engagement before this year.
00:05:02.360 Rawlings said residents now see provincial action
00:05:05.000 as their only recourse.
00:05:06.620 He said, quote,
00:05:07.660 There must be balance.
00:05:08.940 There must be justice.
00:05:10.640 In an email Rawlings sent to the Minister of Municipal Affairs,
00:05:13.420 he gave the province five business days to respond.
00:05:16.280 He CC'd over 80 people on that email,
00:05:18.540 including the mayor, the premier, Naheed Nenshi,
00:05:21.280 local MPs, but primarily those who signed the petition.
00:05:24.180 This was on May 16th,
00:05:25.440 and I'm recording this episode a day before the deadline,
00:05:27.780 so we'll see if any replies are to follow.
00:05:29.940 The municipal elections are taking place in Edmonton
00:05:32.020 and across Alberta on October 20th.
00:05:34.100 Rawlings said he received the city's project letter
00:05:36.620 178 days before the planned election,
00:05:38.960 just two days before the 180-day cutoff
00:05:41.760 for initiating a recall petition
00:05:43.460 under the Municipal Government Act.
00:05:45.500 He said, quote,
00:05:46.320 This timing appears strategic,
00:05:48.200 potentially designed to prevent residents
00:05:49.980 from using available democratic tools
00:05:51.920 to stop the planning.
00:05:53.620 Rawlings and residents are now counting 0.98
00:05:55.140 on the province to intervene.
00:05:56.880 Before we hop into the next story,
00:05:58.300 I just wanted to share a bit about my experience
00:06:00.300 as a homeowner in Delton,
00:06:01.580 which is how I heard about this story,
00:06:03.360 because Rawlings dropped a flyer
00:06:04.980 for the town hall meeting at my door,
00:06:06.900 and I didn't expect much from the first meeting,
00:06:08.740 but I was very surprised when I showed up
00:06:10.520 and saw over 100 people there.
00:06:12.480 And then once I heard the stories told by others
00:06:14.460 and what their communities went through,
00:06:16.040 I began to realize the importance of the issue.
00:06:18.700 Hearing it directly from people at the meeting
00:06:20.440 set off the alarm bells.
00:06:22.320 When people said their foundations were cracked
00:06:24.280 during construction
00:06:25.120 and they were left with zero help,
00:06:26.940 in many instances,
00:06:27.760 those homes represented their life savings.
00:06:30.540 Another thing worth noting
00:06:31.640 was the general demographic in the community
00:06:33.980 being seniors,
00:06:35.020 many of whom are disabled
00:06:36.120 and who may end up having
00:06:37.640 their handicapped parking removed,
00:06:39.540 along with other cited issues
00:06:40.940 of emergency service problems
00:06:42.620 upon turning the streets
00:06:44.580 into divided single lanes.
00:06:47.280 And something a realtor and investor told me recently
00:06:49.840 was that builders are fuming about this,
00:06:52.320 considering the city plans to remove parking,
00:06:55.000 all the while building 12 and 16 plexes
00:06:58.260 in the neighborhood,
00:06:59.780 making parking even scarcer.
00:07:02.220 Also, the city wants to tear up
00:07:04.340 all of the road construction they just did.
00:07:06.220 That's right.
00:07:06.700 I mean, I just got my property tax bill,
00:07:08.960 which by the way,
00:07:09.860 I'll be paying two and a half times more
00:07:11.540 than I did last year,
00:07:12.520 but that's mostly because of the assessed price
00:07:14.980 of this home when I purchased it,
00:07:16.980 which I missed the deadline to contest.
00:07:19.160 And it was ludicrous, by the way.
00:07:20.940 But among the charges are $1,300
00:07:22.940 for the recent sidewalk and road improvements,
00:07:26.040 which now the city wants to tear up.
00:07:28.780 It's the family and friends event
00:07:30.520 at Shoppers Drug Mart.
00:07:31.980 Get 20% off almost all regular priced merchandise.
00:07:35.180 Two days only.
00:07:36.260 Tuesday, February 24th
00:07:37.800 and Wednesday, February 25th.
00:07:39.780 Open your PC Optimum app to get your coupon.
00:07:44.680 Look, the list goes on,
00:07:46.120 but most importantly,
00:07:47.220 with a clear democratic majority
00:07:48.920 in opposition to the bike lanes,
00:07:50.360 how can the city justify moving forward?
00:07:53.300 And we'll see if the province intervenes.
00:07:55.880 For our next story,
00:07:56.980 we'll be covering Alberta's separatism.
00:07:59.320 A new group calling itself Forever Canada
00:08:01.640 has filed its own petition with Elections Alberta
00:08:04.380 to ask a different referendum question.
00:08:06.940 The question is,
00:08:07.620 do you agree that Alberta must remain in Canada
00:08:09.940 and any form of separation be rejected?
00:08:12.600 Remember that the Alberta Prosperity Project
00:08:15.020 unveiled its separation referendum question on May 12th.
00:08:17.820 The question for them was,
00:08:18.940 do you agree that the province of Alberta
00:08:20.780 shall become a sovereign country
00:08:22.260 and cease to be a province of Canada?
00:08:24.300 Now, you might be wondering
00:08:25.320 why Forever Canada's question
00:08:26.800 would bother being asked
00:08:28.220 because the APP's question,
00:08:29.940 should it become an official referendum,
00:08:31.380 would answer this automatically.
00:08:32.860 If people voted no,
00:08:34.000 then they clearly want things to stay as they are.
00:08:35.760 However, this new movement
00:08:36.900 is slightly less ironic
00:08:38.240 than Alberta NDP leader
00:08:39.760 Naheed Nenshi's recent move.
00:08:41.460 You may recall that Nenshi
00:08:42.500 recently launched a campaign website,
00:08:44.520 Separatist Smith,
00:08:45.500 making accusations against the Premier,
00:08:47.240 most of which were easily disproven.
00:08:49.820 Smith has repeatedly distanced herself
00:08:51.580 from the movement
00:08:52.460 and said she wants its support to subside,
00:08:55.380 despite the Alberta NDP
00:08:56.660 trying to label it
00:08:57.500 a completely different way.
00:08:59.000 Of course, the irony occurred
00:09:00.200 when after bashing Smith
00:09:01.540 for a petition she's in no way involved in,
00:09:04.080 Nenshi called on Albertans
00:09:05.260 to sign a petition of his own
00:09:06.800 on his website.
00:09:08.320 But we'll see if the new application,
00:09:10.140 which is led by
00:09:11.080 former Deputy Premier Thomas Lukashok,
00:09:13.260 can receive the 177,000 signatures
00:09:16.240 required to launch a referendum.
00:09:18.740 For our next story,
00:09:20.120 we'll cover some recent developments
00:09:21.560 on school construction
00:09:22.880 from the Alberta government.
00:09:24.880 The Alberta government
00:09:25.780 is accelerating 11 school projects
00:09:27.840 across Calgary, Red Deer,
00:09:29.560 Fort McMurray, and more,
00:09:31.060 aiming to create 8,000 new
00:09:32.800 and modernized student spaces.
00:09:35.200 One of the schools was in Filaire,
00:09:36.960 which is, of course,
00:09:37.680 where I used to live and work,
00:09:39.200 and I have many friends
00:09:40.120 who work at École Heritage,
00:09:41.340 so congratulations to them.
00:09:43.460 The announcement follows Alberta
00:09:44.760 allocating more and more funding
00:09:46.620 for education
00:09:47.340 due to its continuously increasing
00:09:49.800 population from immigration.
00:09:51.640 During the July announcement,
00:09:53.060 chair of the Calgary Board of Education
00:09:54.720 said that Calgary schools alone
00:09:56.760 saw 15,000 additional students
00:09:59.420 enroll in the last three years.
00:10:01.200 And for the next year,
00:10:02.180 she said in Calgary alone again,
00:10:04.240 she expected an additional 8,000 to enroll.
00:10:07.280 And the 11 projects announced on Wednesday
00:10:09.280 will create that many student spaces
00:10:11.120 province-wide.
00:10:12.780 So of the plan to build and renovate
00:10:14.480 more than 100 schools across Alberta,
00:10:16.780 33 have been approved for their next stage,
00:10:18.980 and there are 132 active school projects
00:10:21.820 across the province.
00:10:23.380 Minister of Education and Child Care,
00:10:25.180 Demetrios Nicolaides, said,
00:10:26.580 We are building more schools at a faster rate,
00:10:29.480 never before seen in Alberta.
00:10:31.440 Through this innovative approach
00:10:32.580 to building more schools now,
00:10:34.320 backed by our generational investment
00:10:36.120 of $8.6 billion to build
00:10:38.200 more than 100 schools across the province,
00:10:40.520 we will ensure every student in Alberta
00:10:42.480 has the space to engage
00:10:44.160 in the province's world-class education system.
00:10:47.160 He added that Alberta
00:10:48.080 is investing $1.1 billion
00:10:49.920 over three years
00:10:51.200 to hire over 4,000 new teachers
00:10:53.320 and support staff,
00:10:54.380 part of a broader response
00:10:55.680 to surging student populations.
00:10:57.520 When asked about students
00:10:58.480 with specialized learning needs,
00:10:59.920 especially newcomers learning English,
00:11:02.260 Nicolaides said,
00:11:03.100 From 2020 to 2024,
00:11:05.900 the percentage of refugee students
00:11:07.620 increased by 34%.
00:11:09.900 We're seeing some significant growth
00:11:11.780 in students with English
00:11:12.920 as an additional language.
00:11:14.860 All in all, this year alone,
00:11:16.560 we'll be investing $1.6 billion
00:11:18.840 to support students
00:11:20.220 with specialized learning needs.
00:11:21.920 In totality, the $8.6 billion
00:11:24.160 will be used to deliver
00:11:25.380 up to 90 new schools,
00:11:26.740 up to 24 renovations or replacements,
00:11:29.320 and more than 200,000
00:11:31.180 new and updated student spaces.
00:11:33.800 For our next story,
00:11:34.840 we'll cover a way in which Alberta
00:11:36.380 is standing out in all of North America.
00:11:39.140 So Alberta is launching
00:11:40.080 the only dedicated institution
00:11:41.840 in North America
00:11:42.800 focused exclusively
00:11:44.160 on Canada-US relations,
00:11:46.100 filling a void left
00:11:47.100 by the sudden shutdown
00:11:48.200 of the prestigious Canada Institute
00:11:50.220 at the Wilson Center
00:11:51.440 in Washington, D.C. in April.
00:11:53.100 The province announced
00:11:54.240 a $6.5 million investment
00:11:56.480 to launch the new
00:11:57.340 North America initiative
00:11:58.420 based at the University of Calgary's
00:12:00.100 School of Public Policy.
00:12:01.820 The initiative will unite
00:12:02.760 Alberta post-secondary institutions
00:12:04.460 with top American universities
00:12:06.080 to study the shifting economic
00:12:08.060 and geopolitical ties
00:12:09.400 between the two countries.
00:12:11.100 Premier Daniel Smith said,
00:12:12.340 She added that this kind
00:12:23.080 of constructive
00:12:23.700 and diplomatic approach
00:12:25.000 is what she's been calling for
00:12:26.320 since the trade dispute began.
00:12:28.420 Alberta's Minister of Advanced Education,
00:12:30.480 Rajon Sawney,
00:12:31.460 said that when the tariff war began,
00:12:33.300 she looked across Alberta's
00:12:34.640 post-secondary institutions
00:12:35.900 for academic research
00:12:37.200 on Canada-US relations.
00:12:38.760 However, what she found
00:12:40.480 was a distinct shortage of work.
00:12:42.860 She said that research
00:12:43.860 and analysis
00:12:44.420 on Canada-US relations
00:12:45.820 is primarily emerging
00:12:47.040 from east of the prairies
00:12:48.400 or from the United States,
00:12:50.200 leaving the priorities
00:12:51.080 and concerns
00:12:51.780 of Western Canada
00:12:52.840 as an afterthought at best.
00:12:55.340 Sawney said,
00:12:56.640 This is a made-in-Alberta
00:12:58.180 long-term response
00:12:59.280 to the changing
00:13:00.100 Canada-US relationship.
00:13:02.180 Canadian institutions
00:13:03.220 include the University of Alberta,
00:13:05.340 University of Lethbridge,
00:13:06.680 and Mount Royal.
00:13:07.300 U.S. partners include
00:13:08.760 Rice, Arizona State,
00:13:10.460 Nebraska, and Colorado.
00:13:12.620 Researchers will conduct
00:13:13.700 trade modeling,
00:13:14.640 policy analysis,
00:13:15.620 and provide municipalities
00:13:16.620 with practical tools
00:13:18.100 to navigate U.S. policy shifts.
00:13:20.300 The initiative will also
00:13:21.320 train students in skills
00:13:22.560 relevant to government,
00:13:23.940 business, and civil society
00:13:25.480 as part of a long-term strategy
00:13:27.360 to build Alberta's
00:13:28.680 policy capacity.
00:13:30.400 That wraps up this week's show.
00:13:31.940 My name's Isaac Lamoureux,
00:13:33.020 your host of the Alberta Roundup.
00:13:34.640 Thank you,
00:13:35.240 have a great weekend,
00:13:36.140 and God bless.
00:13:37.300 Thank you,