Gondola wants river valley land lease
Council’s Urban Planning Committee will consider a Gondola Agreement Framework at its February 16 meeting. Last year on February 3, 2020, City Council passed a motion that Administration work with Prairie Sky Gondola to determine the feasibility of a gondola in the River Valley, with the work to be guided by the following governing principles.
No public funding request and all financial risk borne by proponents. Open books to the city for validation on a confidential and proprietary basis. A robust engagement plan for community and Indigenous stakeholders. Mutually beneficial integration with public transit. Minimized ecological footprint. Providing surety, including monetary security, with respect to service continuity or demobilization. An examination of the implications of using air rights and of an emergency response plan for first responders.
Prairie Sky is back requesting the opportunity to lease land to build five stations at the following locations: Downtown, Ortona Armoury, Rossdale, End of Steel Park, and Whyte Avenue through the river valley.
It is expressly understood that the proposed framework is not a legally binding document. It is a statement of mutually agreed upon principles and an expression of a mutual intent to engage in negotiations to enter into legally binding agreements based upon the principles set out herein. To date, a robust community engagement plan has not occurred.
Read the proposed Gondola Agreement Framework between the City of Edmonton and Prairie Sky Gondola at https://pub-edmonton.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=79801
River valley dragons
The Year of the Ox is upon us, officially kicking off on Feb. 12, but there are now nine dragons in the river valley at the Edmonton Chinese Garden, located in Louise McKinney Riverfront Park just off Grierson Hill.
"We are the gem of the river valley," says Wing Choy, president of the Edmonton Chinese Garden Society, established in 2000. Since the garden opened in 2007, the not-for-profit society has added a friendship gate, monument, zodiac statues, and now a Nine Dragon Wall.
"It is one of the biggest dragon walls in North America. It's magnificent!" says Choy. At 17 metres long, five metres high and weighing 106,000 kilograms, the wall built in the summer of 2020 is an imposing addition to the garden. The wall cost $500,000 but Choy says they are now trying to raise $200,000 for a roof.
Choy believes this outdoor space offers tranquillity, good energy and feng shui, especially from the top of the bridge in the middle of the rock pond. Dragon wall video at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/lunar-new-year-wing-choy-cheryl-wang-year-of-the-ox-chinese-1.5899965
Ice age in Edmonton
Even with the arrival of somewhat unpredictable electricity and the burgeoning popularity of refrigeration in the 1920s, many citizens and businesses clung fiercely to their insulated cubicle iceboxes. “Ice is the Safe Form of Home Refrigeration,” declared an Arctic Ice Company advertisement in the June 30th, 1927 edition of the Edmonton Journal. “Ice is the simple, natural way to secure the proper low temperatures of your refrigerator. Ice costs less than any refrigerating method and never goes out of order.”
The “ice age” in Edmonton began at the turn of the century with the establishment of the Edmonton Ice Company and the City Ice Company, followed by the Arctic Ice Company and the Twin City Ice Company, in 1912. They were headquartered on the Ross Flats (today’s Rossdale) on 100 Street between 97 and 98 Avenues, with storehouses for ice and stables for horses and delivery wagons.
A 1912 article extolling the virtues of the new Arctic Ice Company said: The ice taken from the North Saskatchewan was “as pure as nature can make it. Coming as it does from the snow-fed stream of the surrounding country, filtered through the immense gravel beds along the river, and fed from thousands of pure springs, the water is as limpid and as translucent as a diamond.”
Learn more and see photos of harvesting ice from the frozen North Saskatchewan River at
https://citymuseumedmonton.ca/2021/02/03/the-ice-age-in-edmonton/?
Metis and the river valley
Métis history in Alberta originated with the fur trade when French and Scottish fur traders married Indigenous women. From 1670 to 1821 the Métis populations grew regionally, typically around fur-trading posts. After a few generations, descendants of these marriages formed a distinct culture.
Fort Edmonton spawned a large Métis population that was involved in an annual buffalo hunt for many years. These Métis helped to establish the nearby settlements of Lac Ste. Anne and St. Albert. The fur-trade was an economic boom for the Métis as it opened the fur and buffalo meat trades to private Métis traders, however it also exposed them to a flood of European and Canadian colonists seeking to profit and disenfranchise the Metis from their lands.
Métis cultures and communities survived with farming, ranching, fishing, and industry replacing their traditional economy of fur-trading as the main economic activity, though trapping and hunting have remained important in the Rocky Mountain and Boreal Forest regions.
As the fur trade slowed, Métis people developed farms on river lots close to Fort Edmonton. Metis was chosen as the new name of Ward 6 because of the history of the Metis in this region, as well as the river lot system historically used in this area of Edmonton. Learn more at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9tis_in_Alberta
River valley contributions or question
If you have a river valley concern or question, contact us at nsrivervalley@gmail.com
Your friends and neighbours can sign up for this newsletter at https://www.edmontonrivervalley.org/
If you have a photo, information, news or event about Edmonton’s river valley and think it should be in this newsletter, email it to nsrivervalley@gmail.com
Sincerely yours,
Harvey Voogd
North Saskatchewan River Valley Conservation Society
nsrivervalley@gmail.com
https://www.edmontonrivervalley.org/
Facebook @NSRVCS
Instagram @nsrvcs
