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Affordable housing for more Edmonton families
June 21, 2016. The province has announced that construction will begin soon on a 70-unit apartment building in Edmonton’s Parkdale community, which will provide affordable homes for approximately 230 people. The new building, with one to three-bedroom suites, will include mixed-income units and is expected to be completed by the fall of 2017. There are 15,000 Alberta families waiting for units or housing assistance programs. Alberta will invest $14 million in affordable housing for Parkdale and Capital Region Housing. The Parkdale development will be operated by Capital Region Housing. The new building is the second phase of the site’s redevelopment plan and will complement the 66-unit apartment building completed in 2013. Old vacant townhouse units were removed to make way for the new building. “Affordable housing is one of the critical components to ending poverty in Edmonton and we will continue to work with the Government of Alberta, housing providers and community support service providers to ensure these kinds of investments are made," said Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson.
New murals to cover old “offensive” school logos
June 21, 2016. Victoria School of the Arts, in Edmonton, marked National Aboriginal Day by unveiling an art project that will cover paintings of the school’s former team logo. The school’s sports teams used to be known as the Redmen. In 2011, that name and logo were dropped from all teams – deemed to be culturally insensitive. However, paintings of two chiefs heads remained on the gymnasium walls. During the school ceremony on National Aboriginal Day, student speakers called the old images a “stereotypical view of cultural identity,” “wrong” and “offensive.” This year, the school’s Aboriginal Studies class designed and painted two murals with the help of local artists. They were unveiled on Tuesday. The new murals, a collection of imagery that represents voices and perspectives of indigenous peoples, places and their past, present and future, will be hung this summer over the old logos.
Medical services continue to expand in Fort McMurray
June 22, 2016. Dialysis services will resume on Wednesday at the Northern Lights Regional Health Centre in Fort McMurray and the first five long term care patients evacuated from the hospital on May 3 will return on Thursday. Residents of Fort McMurray now have access to almost all healthcare services that were available in the city before the wildfire. On Tuesday, NLRHC returned to providing full comprehensive health care services, including ambulatory care services such as endoscopy and exercise stress testing. However, due to ongoing renovations to clinical areas of the unit at NLRHC as well as the significant loss of smoke damaged equipment, pediatric outpatient programs (including occupational therapy, speech language therapy and physical therapy) will not resume until these issues have been resolved. The Fort McMurray Medical Clinic, at the Keyano Syncrude Sports and Wellness Centre, staffed by physicians and nurses, will remain open until at least June 30, providing daily primary care and family medicine as well as physician psychiatry services.
Celebrations at Canada Place
June 21, 2016. Vivian Kropp and daughter Nemiah (3) enjoy cake at Canada Place in Edmonton, celebrating National Aboriginal Day. Kropp, originally from Inuvik, calls Edmonton home after having completed the Tradewinds to Success program. Kropp is now an apprentice welder.
(Photo: Shari Narine)
Artisan shows her work at National Aboriginal Day celebration
June 21, 2016. Martha Campiou sells crafts and jewellery at the mini-fair during National Aboriginal Day at Canada Place in Edmonton. The Government of Canada Partnership Committee hosted events the entire day.
(Photo: Shari Narine)