It’s a hopeless economic proposition to prove or debunk. That the $15 million spent in 2011, to house and support 1,789 formerly homeless Edmontonians within an umbrella of complementary social programs coordinated by The Edmonton Homeless Commission, is money well spent. The idea of this column was to look at the cost/benefit ratio of that $15 million not through compassionate eyes (for who can argue with any social program that relieves the misery, loneliness, mental and physical pain of those reduced to having no place to call home) but through practical eyes. In the third year of its 10 year mandate from city hall to end homelessness in Edmonton, the Homeless Commission announced last week that, over three years, 1,789 individuals who were once homeless are now housed. The “cost avoidance” argument can be easily proved. – before and after arguments are shut-and-dried. The newly housed, with the right social supports, do cost much less for emergency room use, ambulances, incar ...
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It’s an unjust world.
Big box restaurants have massive marketing budgets for bland, warmed-up frozen food.
The best restaurants in Edmonton — small and intimate, with superb chefs using local suppliers — can’t compete marketing-wise. Once past the trendy new restaurant stage, they can’t afford the advertising to stay top-of-mind.
Pity. It’s the independents who deliver the very best dining that Edmonton has to offer.
The Manor Bistro (originally the Manor Café) is almost 20 years old.
The food, the ambience, the entire dining experience is as good, if not better, than ever.
You cannot beat The Manor for location. In a former stately old home where 125 Street turns into an elm-lined lane south of Stony Plain Road, the main floor has been opened up to accommodate about 10 dining tables, the upstairs rooms converted into three popular group dining areas. The patio is drenched in dappled sunlight.
The Manor has such longevity that chef/owner Cyrilles Koppert is ...
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(This column originally appeared in the Edmonton Sun, entitled "Time to Talk Upgrades" with 17 comments as of May 7, 2012. Comments almost all decrying the shipping of oil sands bitumen without value-added processing in Alberta.) About six years ago Greater Edmonton was hot-to-trot about the possibility of seven upgraders being built (over time) in Alberta’s Industrial Heartland – the petrochemical industrial zone around Fort Saskatchewan. Such a vision it was: Seven super-sized, pre-refineries, taking in the molasses-like heavy oil or bitumen from the oilsands at one end, turning out sweet, easy flowing “synthetic” (or refinery-ready) oil at the other. Each upgrader would pump billions of new dollars into the local economy and keep the trades busy for decades without ever having to leave home. Once up and running, the upgraders would still continue to expand to handle the ever-growing bitumen supply, hire hundreds of operators, pay local taxes, and so on. With today’s techno ...
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It's a pleasure to find a gentle, unpretentious, consistent place to eat.It's even more unusual when the establishment is actually a chameleon, a gastro-pub/lounge in the early evening, morphing into a nightclub as time goes by.Suede Lounge has managed to own this turf on the west end of Jasper Avenue (across the parking lot from Earl's Tin Palace) since Jeff Koltec opened the restaurant/lounge in 2004. He sold it last fall.The new owners, thank goodness, see no need for drastic change and have in fact brought in Chef Andrew Seguin from Calgary to maintain Suede's calling card of good, original food.The room is truly versatile. Modern without going overboard on trendiness, it's 60 seats or so, with a stand-up and mingle area, separated by a few stairs from the dining space.We dined at Suede Lounge as a most successful Art of Conversation LXVIII wound down in the stand-up area. While the crowd continued to socialize, the dining area didn't feel crowded or overwhelmed.Suede is known as a wine bar, but its menu ...
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