The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - Edmonton’s controversial bike lane expansion hits some democratic speed bumps

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,

The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - May 24, 2025

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

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript