Blatchford

Edmonton Centre MP and Federal Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages Randy Boissonnault announced the $23.7 million is earmarked for the Blatchford district energy sharing system. Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said the money will be spent on installing an additional heat pump and auxiliary equipment, as well as funding the design and construction of a growing distribution piping network and sewer heat exchange energy centre.

There's no denying that Blatchford needs much help to fulfill its initial vision of recreating the old municipal airport property into a climate friendly model of urban development. So far Blatchford has fallen short of its objective, and investing more taxpayers' hard-earned dollars into it may prove to be a bad investment.

The announcement may have served the objective of getting Randy Boissonnault's name out of the news cycle because of his former business partner is being questioned by the parliamentary ethics committee about statements to that contradict public records. I'm just wary enough to think that Trudeau will use this Federal funding for his/the Liberal climate change agenda. It didn't take long for the huge signs to be erected.

Its been 15 years since the plans for Blatchford were first revealed and 10 years since city council approved funding for the redevelopment of the former downtown airport, with projections of housing up to 30,000 people. As of now the plans and ROI on the funding have both fallen short and it remains to be seen if 2024 will be the year Blatchford takes off or is grounded.

Like local and translocal jurisdictions in much of the western world Edmonton council has paid heed to and invested in the "green" movement. Not all investments, including "green" bring the promised and expected return. Fortunately there are are many like Lorne Gunter who discern this and will say the "green" emperors have no clothes.

There are 15 steps that a community must go through to become an official Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues (EFCL) member community. It usually takes about 2 years to complete all the steps but the Allard community accomplished that in record time. The Allard community will take the final step will happen on November 22nd when Allard holds its first annual general meeting and board election.

Although people in Blatchford would also like to become an EFCL member Baltchford has been going through growing pains and doesn't even qualify for step 1 as yet. Though becoming an official EFCL member is not yet possible Blatchford have does have a non-profit Community Society presided over by Heather MacKenzie. The Blatchford Community Society benefits from engaging with the EFCL as it advocates for and liaises with the City regarding the community.