In a Week of Bad News a Little Glimmer of Good News

Well it has been a pretty terrible week in terms of news.  Granted this year hasn't exactly been stellar, but this week seemed to be bringing things to new lows.  However for Edmonton at least there was a bit of a bright spot as the 102 Ave Bridge opened City Bridge Project Page.  The long delayed project Originally scheduled to take 15 months which stretched to 24+ months was finally completed this week much to the joy of the shops in HighStreet and the 124 St business association http://www.124street.ca/.  So it's good news for the stores that managed to survive the drop off in traffic that occurred because of the bridges closure, and even better news that it was completed in the summer so that they have a chance to capitalize on the tourist season.  Best of luck to the stores in the area most of which are independent retailers. I hope they can have one of the best summers ever and that anyone that reads this takes a trip down to the HighStreet shops at 125 St NW and 102 Ave NW in Edmonton and takes a look around and hey maybe even buys something.

EPCOR and the Grab for Drainage

EPCOR, The wholly owned subsidiary of the City of Edmonton, which currently runs power and water in the Edmonton area is now seeking to further tighten it's grip on the city's infrastructure by taking over it's drainage department.  The city has recently agreed to allow EPCOR to pay a consultant to determine if the transfer of the drainage department to EPCOR would be a good idea.  From the information provided at the council meeting it seems that the city would get a $20 million boost in the dividend it receives from EPCOR and also benefit from EPCOR taking over the drainage departments debt.  What is odd is that in all the documentation I could find on this idea there seemed to be no direct benefit to EPCOR other than having more city infrastructure under it's thumb.  The thing about the earlier mentioned study is that while council wasn't totally happy with the idea, they figured since EPCOR was paying for the study there wasn't any harm in letting it go ahead.  Something to think about is where is that $200,000 coming from to fund the study?  Since money doesn't come from nowhere, it'll be paid for by ratepayers in their water and power rates, pennies on the dollar to be sure but it'll be there somewhere.  It's too bad that the councilors voted to let EPCOR study the issue, if they reject the study the money will already be spent, and they didn't seem too happy with the idea of turning over drainage anyways.

EPCOR News Release