Edmonton

How did the driver not see this coming?! So sad.

I'm a school bus driver myself. I'll tell you the issue is that they're short drivers because they pay peanuts. The buses are coming that late because drivers are doing routes after their first routes. All the school bus companies somehow pay the exact same rates. There is no competition between them, but "they're trying everything."

This guy deserves a medal. At first I thought, meh just another guy doing good stuff. Then I watched the video.

I noticed the concrete barricades on the Valley Line tracks were removed earlier this week. Be on the lookout if you are driving, walking or biking close to the tracks. These trains are super quiet.

I passed this place here earlier and couldn't find any information about it online. It's the lot with the brick wall. Just wondering if one of you folks might have an idea of what it could be!

A round up of opportunities to offer your input on various issues of civic interest

In the interest of public safety, the Edmonton Police Service is issuing the following warning; 38-year-old Alexandre Passechnikov is a convicted violent sexual offender, and the Edmonton Police Service has reasonable grounds to believe he will commit another violent offence against someone while in the community.

Ralphs Handi Mart fried chicken is back.

Keeping up with the City of Edmonton tradition of project management.

A friend shared this with me and I enjoyed it :)

Top 10 intersections by number of tickets (both speeding and red light):

• 127 Street at 126 Avenue — 156,565
• Gateway Boulevard at 34 Avenue — 128,473
• 170 Street at 118 Avenue — 80,607
• 50 Street at Ellerslie Road — 74,364
• Yellowhead Trail at 107 Street — 71,954
• Mark Messier Trail at Campbell Road — 68,876
• Gateway Boulevard at Whitemud Drive — 63,255
• Fox Drive at Fort Edmonton Park Road — 59,424
• 170 Street at 95 Avenue — 43,550
• 97 Street at 122 Avenue — 35,952

The automated enforcement program in Edmonton generated 29.86 million dollars in 2022. Source: Automated Traffic Enforcement Report 2022

This looks really fun! Starts tomorrow (July 6th) evening at Fort Edmonton Park.

Build toll roads on all entries to Edmonton and make all those freeloading Sherwood Parkers, Beaumontois, Leducats, Stony Plainers, and Fort Saskatchewankers pay.

Effective July 1st, businesses are no longer permitted to provide new plastic shopping bags to customers. Paper bags now come with a mandatory minimum fee of $0.15 as well.

Happy waste reducing, y'all!

You ever just want to eat a stack of meat? Want it covered in cheese and sauce? You're in luck! Check out Versato's. If you've ever had Vern's Pizza then this is similar.

These pizzas are heavy, and they are very tasty. The prices may seem high, but keep in mind that there's a lot of toppings per slice.

Look up an address, assessed tax value, legal land description and more!

Hint: Click "Pictometry" at the top of the map to see high-res , low altitude photos of any location in Edmonton from various angles!

Restaurants and "Best Of"

• Vue Weekly's Best of Edmonton 2013
• Vue Weekly's Best of Edmonton 2014
• EDify Food

Activities

• 50 places in YEG
• https://justpaste.it/kwvs
• EDift Active
• Things to Do This Weekend in Edmonton
• Edmonton Family: What to do in Edmonton with kids
• Edmonton Kids: What to do in Edmonton with kids
• Indoor commercial playground
• Outdoor skating rinks
• City outdoor rinks
• List of community rinks
• Tabletop Cafe
• Hexagon Board Game Cafe
• Board and Brew Cafe

Places

• Downtown
• Whyte Ave
• West Edmonton Mall
• Fort Edmonton Park
• High Street/124th Street Area and Oliver Neighborhood
• South Commons
• University of Alberta
• River Valley

Music & Arts

• Festival Calendar
• http://www.winspearcentre.com/wins-home?view=featured
• http://wunderbar-edmonton.com/
• http://theartery.ca/
• http://artmuzak.ca
• http://www.metrocinema.org/
• http://www.youraga.ca/
• http://yeglive.ca/
• http://www.edmontonjournal.com/entertainment/whats-on/index.html
• http://www.edmonton.ca/attractions_recreation/festivals_events/events-calendar.aspx
• http://vueweekly.com/events/
• http://www.ckua.com/pages/events#

Fromer's Has some tips about Edmonton:

• Introduction
• Planning a trip
• Fast Facts
• Transportation
• Nightlife

Credit: /u/Anabiotic on Reddit

Similar to gas, many people believe their bill is entirely fixed and everything except for the energy charge is unavoidable, even with reduced usage. This is particularly untrue for power, where the fixed charge is significantly smaller than it is for gas. The distinction is important when making decisions on efficiency upgrades and conservation, such as installing solar, purchasing more efficient lighting, or choosing appliances.

For context, the AUC estimates consumers use approximately 600 kWh per month, which I believe is a bit overstated. Usage can vary widely; small apartments may use less than 200 kWh, while large homes with a heavy power draw may use 800 kWh or more. (I typically use around 300-350 kWh in my detached house; my apartment usage was 175-250 kWh). Usage is typically highest in the winter because of electricity usage from increased lighting load and furnace blowers. Houses with air conditioning will often see a second usage peak in the summer. Despite these differences, power usage is typically more stable than gas usage over the year because few in Alberta use electric heat or heat pumps, primarily because it's cost-prohibitive to operate.

Gas usage is more driven by structural/mechanical components of the house (furnace and water heater efficiency, quality of insulation & air sealing, number and placement of windows, house size, heated garage, etc.) whereas power usage is more linked to consumer behaviour (number, type, and efficiency of appliances, number of people in the home, how often people are home, electronic usage, air conditioning usage, unusually high usage for reasons like doing a lot of laundry, bitcoin mining, grow lamps, having multiple freezers/fridges, and so on).

Your power bill is made up of several components. Here is what these charges are for:

Components of your power bill:

How can you control each component of your bill?

• Deregulated variable: Use less power or change retailers
• Deregulated fixed: Change retailers
• Regulated variable: Use less power
• Regulated fixed: Not much you can do. The actual variable cost of a kWh of power is not just the energy charge. Below I lay it out using an assumed contract price of $0.09/kWh. Your contract may be very different – if you have a legacy contract, it’s likely lower, and if you are on the regulated or variable rate, it’s probably much, much higher because of recent price spikes in the power market.

Variable components

Cost of 1 kWh:

Total variable cost of a kWh that is:

• Regulated - $0.047 (30%)
• Deregulated - $0.090 (57%)
• Tax - $0.020 (13%)

Fixed components

Fixed costs typically vary only by the number of days in the billing period. Below I show a typical 30-day billing period with a retailer who charges $6/month as an admin fee. Retailers’ admin fees may vary from $5-$10/month. ​- Fixed Cost - Charge - Total - Category

• Admin Fee - $6.00/month - $6.00 - Deregulated
• Fixed Distribution - $0.71445/dayx30 days - $21.43 - Regulated
• Subtotal fixed - - $27.43 -
• GST - 5%x$27.43 - $1.37 - Tax
• Total fixed - - $28.81 -

o maintaining service will cost $28.81 even in the absence of power use.

Total fixed cost that is:

• Regulated - $21.43 (74%)
• Deregulated - $6.00 (21%)
• Tax - $1.37 (5%)

Low bill example

If you have a smaller house/apartment with fewer people in it, are home less often, have fewer appliances, etc., then you might use around 300 kWh a month. Your total bill would be something like $28.81 + $0.156 x 300 kWh = $75.41 (38% fixed, 62% variable).

• $35.37 regulated (47%)
• $32.82 deregulated (43%)
• $7.22 taxes (10%)

High bill example

A larger house with more people, lots of appliance use (lots of laundry, bitcoin mining, lots of lighting/computer use, people working from home, cold winter with the furnace on, etc.), might use 800 kWh/month, with a total bill of $28.81 + 0.156 x 800 kWh = $153.92 (19% fixed, 81% variable).

• $58.85 regulated (38%)
• $78.00 deregulated (51%)
• $17.07 taxes (11%)

Choosing a retailer

Same as gas, there are three types of power rates.

• Fixed rate – You sign up for a term (usually 1-5 years) and are guaranteed a stable rate through the contract term. Most companies allow you to exit at any time without penalty. (You should always verify this by reading the T&Cs, just as you would with any contract).
• Variable rate – Typically this is also for a term of 1-5 years, but like a mortgage, it just guarantees you the “adder” or margin that the retailer will add on to the market price; the base price will fluctuate. For example, your contract might be the market price + $0.01/kWh, which is the retailer’s margin. As with gas, I wouldn’t recommend this in the current market as there is little advantage compared to the regulated rate.
• Regulated rate option (RRO) – This is the default rate if you haven’t signed a contract or your old one expired. It is a similar to a floating rate but the price is set in advance (technically speaking it’s based more on forward rates while the variable rate is based on actual settled prices). As with gas, this is “regulated” as it’s approved by the AUC, and the “adder” is smaller than it is for almost any variable plan you can find so if you want to go variable, the RRO is worth a look.

Same as gas, I would highly recommend a fixed-rate contract for the near- to medium-term. RRO and variable rates have skyrocketed, with August and September being the two highest-priced months ever in the spot market. The forward curve shows prices coming off late next year with the completion of two major projects: the Cascade project and the Genesee repowering project, which will add supply to the market and decrease prices. Additional projects are expected to come on-stream in 2024-25, notably a very large Suncor cogeneration facility.

You can use the UCA’s bill comparison tool to find good rates.

Consumers are currently receiving a flat rebate of $50 per site per month from July - December because of high prices. For lower-usage consumers, this can cover most of the entire bill.

TL;DR:

• The variable cost of a kWh of power is much higher than the energy price alone – other variable costs total ~$0.06/kWh (or $30-40 a month with typical usage)
• Power bills can be massively different depending on your usage and energy price plan
• Wholesale power prices are at all-time highs, which will also result in all-time highs for variable and RRO rates; fixed rate is the way to go for at least the next year or so
• Even if you use no power, you should expect a bill of $25-30; the rest is variable and will change based on usage. More of the typical bill is variable compared to gas, partially because of lower infrastructure costs and partially because the City of Edmonton does not levy a tax on fixed charges for power but does for gas
• Use ucahelps.alberta.ca to find a low-cost retailer for the deregulated part of your bill