Red Deer Minute: School Returns, Red Alerts, and Hockey Activities Cancelled

Red Deer Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Red Deer politics

This Week In Red Deer:

• It’s a relatively normal week down at City Hall with two meetings scheduled, the first of which will be a Special Meeting of Council today at 10:00 am. Unfortunately, there’s not much to report because Council has opted to begin this meeting in-camera. What we do know is that the matter in question is concerning the temporary homeless shelter. Council will then revert to an open meeting where they will discuss shelter diversion tactics.
  
  
• On Wednesday, there will be a meeting of the Public Art Commission at 5:00 pm. There is also not a lot to report about this meeting, because Council has opted to conduct it in-camera too.
  
  
• K-12 students will return to in-person learning today. This is welcome news for many parents who had to make last-minute plans going into 2022 after the provincial government announced that schools wouldn’t be back in session until January 10th. Teachers unions' are warning that a move to online learning is still a looming possibility, however, thanks to staffing shortages.

Last Week In Red Deer:

• There was bad news for the Red Deer hockey world. After the World Juniors were cancelled, the Western Hockey League (WHL) suspended all team activities for the Edmonton Oil Kings, Moose Jaw Warriors, and Red Deer Rebels after multiple players and staff showed symptoms of, and/or tested positive for COVID-19. Games have been postponed and will be rescheduled at a later date.
  
  
• An unprecedented number of emergency calls during frigid winter temperatures left many central Alberta communities without access to ambulance services. The Health Sciences Association of Alberta issued a red alert for Red Deer at 10:25 a.m. on Monday, stating that no EMS was available in the city. Alberta Health Services is looking to remedy this ongoing issue by filling 100 paramedic positions across the province, as well as deploying supervisors to calls, and delaying non-urgent transfers.
  
  
• According to Statistics Canada, Red Deer’s labour force declined slightly in December, by about 1,300, while employment decreased by 1,100. Part-time employment remained relatively stable, while full-time employment dropped about 800. Hopefully, we can stop shutting down entire sections of our economy soon, as that will definitely help these numbers!

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