Latest news with #AaronPaquette
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
City councillors recommend sale of land near Kingsway Mall for $1
Members of Edmonton city council are recommending selling a plot of land to NiGiNan Housing Ventures for $1. The nearly 0.3 hectares of land along 106 Street in the Spruce Avenue neighbourhood would be the site of a development called Ambrose Place II and would provide supportive housing for vulnerable people in the city. Councillors Aaron Paquette, Tim Cartmell, Karen Principe and Keren Tang and Mayor Amarjeet Sohi voted 5-0 in favour of the motion presented to Executive Committee on Aug. 13. This would allow NiGiNan Housing Ventures to develop the five-storey building to accommodate at least 60 housing units. The building would also include a ceremonial room, where programs like medicine picking and beading workshops could take place. A report from city administration also recommends providing around $5.2 million in funding for the project, as a part of its Affordable Housing Investment Program grant. The report estimated that the total cost of the project could reach $30.7 million. Keri Cardinal, CEO of NiGiNan Housing Ventures, said the location of the new development is critical to provide supports for those who need it. "The transit system's right there, the Royal Alex is right there, Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital is right there. So it's just really close to those services that our folks tend to use," she said in an interview Wednesday. The non-profit organization currently operates four other supportive housing sites across the city. She said this new development speaks to the need for more supportive housing developments that are culturally informed. Last September, Homeward Trust calculated that the homeless population in Edmonton hit 4,697. Nearly half of those who were surveyed identified as Indigenous. "Unfortunately, we are still needed in the community. We also don't want to be so needed," Cardinal said. Residents express concern In the committee meeting, residents cited concerns over the height of the building, interference with sewage and drainage, and safety. Residents said the neighbourhood was already dealing with high populations of vulnerable individuals, and felt that a development like this would encourage more to come. Ellie Sasseville, CEO of Kingsway District Association, said while residents and businesses in the neighbourhood are in support of the development, it comes with some caveats. "We need to ensure that the managing agencies who put these kinds of projects together foster good relationships with the surrounding community," she said. "We have an increase in the vulnerable population in our neighborhood. We've had an increase in crime in our neighbourhood, so the reality is, dropping anything in this neighbourhood that doesn't provide supports or address that would be a mistake." Sasseville said many businesses in the area already pay for their own security to deal with the increase in crime. She said NiGiNan Housing Ventures should be responsible for clean up around the area, as well providing wraparound support for individuals to keep them off the streets. Ward Dene coun. Paquette said that while he understands many of the concerns, the ultimate solution would be to provide housing for people to get them off the streets. "When we see someone on the streets, we may not remember the story behind that, and we get frustrated and angry," he said. "But for people who have been broken for generations, it's very hard. Some people do manage to break those chains, some people don't." For Cardinal, the kind of housing and support that NiGiNan Housing Ventures provides focuses on a decolonized method of treatment. "We really are an Indigenous-led recovery model. At the end of the day, we want people to heal. We want people to find, you know, peace in their home that they live in," she said. "So the folks that are with us now, we are a successful solution to those that have been deemed hardest to house and can't be housed anywhere else in Edmonton." Cardinal expects the land sale will be completed by October, so that construction can start in the spring of 2026.
CBC
4 days ago
- Business
- CBC
City councillors recommend sale of land near Kingsway Mall for $1
Members of Edmonton city council are recommending selling a plot of land to NiGiNan Housing Ventures for $1. The nearly 0.3 hectares of land along 106 Street in the Spruce Avenue neighbourhood would be the site of a development called Ambrose Place II and would provide supportive housing for vulnerable people in the city. Councillors Aaron Paquette, Tim Cartmell, Karen Principe and Keren Tang and Mayor Amarjeet Sohi voted 5-0 in favour of the motion presented to Executive Committee on Aug. 13. This would allow NiGiNan Housing Ventures to develop the five-storey building to accommodate at least 60 housing units. The building would also include a ceremonial room, where programs like medicine picking and beading workshops could take place. A report from city administration also recommends providing around $5.2 million in funding for the project, as a part of its Affordable Housing Investment Program grant. The report estimated that the total cost of the project could reach $30.7 million. Keri Cardinal, CEO of NiGiNan Housing Ventures, said the location of the new development is critical to provide supports for those who need it. "The transit system's right there, the Royal Alex is right there, Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital is right there. So it's just really close to those services that our folks tend to use," she said in an interview Wednesday. The non-profit organization currently operates four other supportive housing sites across the city. She said this new development speaks to the need for more supportive housing developments that are culturally informed. Last September, Homeward Trust calculated that the homeless population in Edmonton hit 4,697. Nearly half of those who were surveyed identified as Indigenous. "Unfortunately, we are still needed in the community. We also don't want to be so needed," Cardinal said. Residents express concern In the committee meeting, residents cited concerns over the height of the building, interference with sewage and drainage, and safety. Residents said the neighbourhood was already dealing with high populations of vulnerable individuals, and felt that a development like this would encourage more to come. Ellie Sasseville, CEO of Kingsway District Association, said while residents and businesses in the neighbourhood are in support of the development, it comes with some caveats. "We need to ensure that the managing agencies who put these kinds of projects together foster good relationships with the surrounding community," she said. "We have an increase in the vulnerable population in our neighborhood. We've had an increase in crime in our neighbourhood, so the reality is, dropping anything in this neighbourhood that doesn't provide supports or address that would be a mistake." Sasseville said many businesses in the area already pay for their own security to deal with the increase in crime. She said NiGiNan Housing Ventures should be responsible for clean up around the area, as well providing wraparound support for individuals to keep them off the streets. Ward Dene coun. Paquette said that while he understands many of the concerns, the ultimate solution would be to provide housing for people to get them off the streets. "When we see someone on the streets, we may not remember the story behind that, and we get frustrated and angry," he said. "But for people who have been broken for generations, it's very hard. Some people do manage to break those chains, some people don't." For Cardinal, the kind of housing and support that NiGiNan Housing Ventures provides focuses on a decolonized method of treatment. "We really are an Indigenous-led recovery model. At the end of the day, we want people to heal. We want people to find, you know, peace in their home that they live in," she said. "So the folks that are with us now, we are a successful solution to those that have been deemed hardest to house and can't be housed anywhere else in Edmonton."
CBC
04-07-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Edmonton to consider mandating envelopes, warnings for graphic flyers
Edmonton's city council will consider adding restrictions aimed at preventing people from unwittingly seeing flyers with graphic imagery. Ward Dene Coun. Aaron Paquette introduced a motion during Wednesday's city council meeting that administration prepare changes to the community standards bylaw to require all unsolicited print material containing graphic images to be contained in a sealed opaque envelope with a content warning and senders' names and addresses. Paquette said he regularly receives complaints from residents coming across flyers in their mailboxes with pictures of aborted fetuses. He said such images have traumatized his constituents for a variety of reasons. "It's often children who bring in the mail and they're confronted with imagery that they are not emotionally or developmentally prepared to process in a healthy way," he told CBC News on Thursday. Paquette's motion, which passed unanimously, proposed a minimum fine of $500 for violating the rules. The motion did not mention abortion and the city councillor said he thinks the rules should also extend to other types of graphic imagery. Ward Anirniq Coun. Erin Rutherford said at the meeting that her office has also received complaints about this topic. Ward Sspomitapi Coun. Jo-Anne Wright said she hasn't been hearing the same complaints but she's willing to explore restrictions to address concerns. "I think I'm going to take the guidance from our legal department as to what they define as being graphic," she said in an interview Thursday. Edmonton follows other cities Calgary's city council approved a change to its community standards bylaw in 2023. The regulations apply to graphic images of fetuses and violations carry fines of $1,000. The City of Edmonton's legal team told councillors Edmonton's bylaw requirements could be modelled after Calgary's. Cities in other provinces have also passed similar bylaws, but several have faced legal challenges. The City of St. Catharines, in Ontario, repealed its graphic images bylaw last year after the Association of Reformed Political Action, a Christian political advocacy organization, launched a legal challenge against it. The ARPA filed a notice of application last month challenging the constitutionality of a similar bylaw in London, Ont. Who's distributing flyers? Blaise Alleyne, the eastern strategic initiatives director for the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, said the organization distributes abortion-related images across the country. He said volunteers with a partner organization, Edmonton Against Abortion, deliver postcards in Edmonton year-round and an internship team from Calgary visited the city for a week of outreach in June. Both groups use the same flyers, he said. CBC News has not confirmed which flyers have prompted complaints to city councillors' offices. Alleyne said there are a few versions of the group's most up-to-date flyer and the organization rotates photos every few years, with slight variations since 2017. Alleyne said the CCBR believes bylaws like Calgary's won't survive constitutional court challenges. "City councillors would be better off to recognize that victim photography is a part of discourse in a democracy, even on contentious issues," he said. Gerard Kennedy, an assistant professor of law at the University of Alberta, said there can be limits to expression but the duty is on the government to prove that any are reasonable and proportionate. "Freedom of expression is supposed to be content-neutral with very rare expression limits, which means that you by all means regulate the time, place and manner in which expression is done, and by all means protect vulnerable persons, but you shouldn't be stopping a message being sent out simply because you disagree with the message," he said. Richard Dur, executive director with Prolife Alberta, said Albertans won't reject abortion until they see the reality of it. "When something is so horrifying we can't bear to look at it, perhaps we shouldn't be accepting it," he told CBC News in an emailed statement. Dur said Prolife Alberta launched a province-wide advertising campaign, in part "to bypass unjust municipal censorship." The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada says on its website that graphic images of aborted fetuses are harmful and encourages people to complain to municipalities and ask for regulations. Alleyne said he has not heard of any cases of people being fined under graphic images bylaws. He said the CCBR complies with municipal bylaws, usually by not delivering in communities with them since doing so is much more expensive and time-consuming. "We've not faced fines, but it's impacted our ability to share our message with the public," he said. Councillors on Edmonton's community and public services committee are set to discuss possible bylaw amendments early next year.
CTV News
02-07-2025
- Automotive
- CTV News
City approves return of tow trucks during parking bans
Tow trucks are returning to the city's street clearing strategy. City council voted on Wednesday to use $100,000 from the city's contingency fund to pay for tow truck enforcement the next time plows and street sweepers are out. For the past two years, there was no money in the budget for tow trucks to accompany street cleaners. This spring, more than 700 parking tickets were issued in the first four days of street sweeping. 'Having vehicles parked when our plows are there, when other sweepers are out there, they do create inefficiencies,' said Mayor Amarjeet Sohi. 'And the street doesn't look clean either.' While the number of cars ticketed and towed is expected to increase, city council lowered the fine for parking during a ban from $250 to $150 – or $100 if the ticket is paid within a week. 'The fine will be less, which I think is probably good for people in these times,' said Ward Dene Coun. Aaron Paquette. 'But there will still be consequences.' Paquette said the changes were made in response to feedback from residents, though he doesn't believe additional enforcement is all that's needed. 'I'm hearing from both sides – be more tough or don't penalize me for something I didn't know about – and so that's incumbent on the city to have better signage,' Paquette said. 'At the end of the day, people understand that they have to move their cars,' he added. 'But, personally, I think that the window for when they have to move their car for city work is far too broad and we should tighten that up … so people have more certainty.' Edmonton has more than 12,000 kilometres of roadway and has issued upwards of 2,200 parking tickets in three of the four winters there has been a seasonal parking ban system. Edmontonians can sign up for parking ban notices on the City of Edmonton's website. With files from CTV News Edmonton's Connor Hogg, Jeremy Thompson and Craig Ellingson
CBC
23-06-2025
- Business
- CBC
Footbridge would link growing northeast Edmonton neighbourhoods to shops, councillor says
Social Sharing A city councillor says building a footbridge across Manning Drive, a major arterial road in northeast Edmonton, would connect pedestrians in growing neighbourhoods nearby to the shops and amenities at Manning Town Centre. Ward Dene Coun. Aaron Paquette says residents have been calling and emailing his office for three years about the idea. The road runs through his district. "It's almost impossible to get across this sort of river of cars in a safe way without jaywalking," he said. The shopping area contains more than 50 businesses, including a movie theatre and a grocery store, according to Manning Town Centre's website. Currently, pedestrians can only reach the shopping centre on foot by crossing the freeway at 153rd Avenue. Vehicles can exit the Brintnell neighbourhood at 160th Avenue and enter the shopping centre at 158th Avenue, but there is no pedestrian access nearby. A multi-use path that runs through Brintnell ends abruptly at 160th Avenue, just west of the busy road. Paquette said people often illegally cross the busy road on foot, rather than detour down to 153rd Avenue. "If we can find a way that doesn't interrupt vehicle flow, doesn't make people try to rush across a busy street, that might be the best solution," he said. Paquette introduced a motion during last week's executive committee meeting, asking city administration to find out how much a feasibility study for a bridge would cost. The motion passed unanimously. City councillors could decide in the fall whether to fund the feasibility study. Several residents told CBC News they support the idea. Jennifer Kovacs and her daughter, Alyssa, who were shopping at Manning Town Centre Friday morning, said the bridge could help people who don't drive access the area. "It would bring in more business and revenue for the surrounding community," Jennifer Kovacs said. Jordan Fleury, another shopper, said the bridge would make sense if the density of the nearby neighbourhoods justify it. He said he has seen pedestrian bridges work well in other parts of the world. "As long as there's a good budget, they get good contracts, source the work properly and do a good job that way, that's all that I care about," he said. Paquette said a bridge could cost upward of $10 million, but local developers might be willing to chip in. He said he reached out to some and immediately received positive responses and heard concerns about ensuring safe crossings.
