The Canadian track and field team at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de janeiro has done well, winning more medals than ever before.
But where was Alberta? None of the athletes, even those born and raised here, trained in the province.
After the 2001 World Championships in Athletics (the 2001 Worlds) were held in this city, the “Edmonton 2001 Athletics Legacy Fund” was set up with a $3 million surplus left over from the games and $5 million in federal government funds.
The fund’s mandate was clear: To assist in the creation and support of the Canadian Athletics Coaching Centre (CACC) at the University of Alberta. The vision was equally clear: Support world-class coaches and facilities, in turn attracting top track and field athletes from Alberta, Canada and abroad.
Here we are, 15 years later.
Despite a half-million dollar annual grant from the Legacy Fund to the CACC, not one athlete on the 2016 Canadian Olympic track and field team came through Alberta. Those who ...
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Holy atomic pile, Batman!
The new JOEY Bell Tower restaurant opened this week, 278 seats with an investment of at least $5 to $6 million in an extension off the downtown Bell Tower, just a 30-second stroll to Rogers Place.
JOEY is the latest hospitality business to make such a bold move. At least 50 existing downtown restaurants/bars are pinning their hopes and improvements on the disposable dollars of the 5,000 to 20,000 people that will flow in and out of Rogers Place some 150 nights a year.
Another 50 – at least – new downtown bars and eateries will open in the near future.
Outside the immediate Ice District (the four office/residential/hotel towers and plazas around Rogers Place) the following restaurants have been announced:
Buco Pizzeria and Vino (Sorrentinos Group) opens in the EPCOR Building.
Baiju (sister to North 53) in the Mercer Building.
Bundok (brand-new, chef Ryan Hotchkiss) in the Fox Tower.
Bottega 104 by the Crudo brothers (Café Amore, Black Pearl Seafood ...
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When I was a kid, we’d ride our bikes to what’s now called a “wetlands”, but back then was simply undeveloped urban land, more swamp than anything else.
We’d crash our bikes on the twisty trails we’d created, we’d build forts, we’d do what kids love to do – play in a natural environment with our pals.
My friend Peter Koziol has the best tales of an idyllic childhood in pre-Abbottsfield Beverly. He and his pals roamed the neighbourhood and local “wetlands” all Saturday. The parents didn’t worry, because the kids were together, checking in regularly at friends’ homes for Kool Aid and cookies. The only rule was be home for dinner when the street lights came on.
But sometime in the early ’70s, neighbourhoods became nothing but cookie-cutter homes on tiny lots with ugly garage doors facing the street. Any open land was transformed into manicured parks, sports fields or playgrounds.
About the same time, parents started t ...
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Sage Restaurant, River Cree Resort and Casino
300 East Lapotac Blvd, Enoch, AB
780-930-2636
http://rivercreeresort.com/dining.php
9:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. seven days a week
Food: 4 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 4 of 5 Suns
Service: 4 of 5 Suns
Dinner for two, just food – basic $60, loaded $100
Alas, we picked the wrong day to visit Sage, the excellent dining room in the River Cree Resort and Casino out where Whitemud Drive turns from a freeway to a country lane.
There’s no “wrong” day per say. Sage maintains its consistently high quality seven days a week, from 9:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. (Casinos rarely sleep.)
It’s just that executive chef Shane Chartrand’s alternative menu, reflecting his indigenous culinary fusion cooking, wasn’t available this particular evening.
Some country band known as the Mavericks was performing that evening in the River Cree concert hall. A concert means Sage fills with diners checking their watches. To meet time demands, the Sage kit ...
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This is it.
Northlands in its current form will no longer exist after its visit with Edmonton City Council later this month, though it may emerge as a much smaller organization.
Edmonton city council will be feeling guilty about yanking the rug out from under Northlands’ feet – opting to build the snazzy new downtown arena with the Oilers, instead of renovating Rexall Place with Northlands. That one move guaranteed Northlands’ current perilous financial state.
But there’s no way on God’s Little Green Prairie that city hall is going to fund the capital costs of Northlands’ no-arena “Vision 2020” that’s coming to council for discussion.
Guilt is not enough rationale to fork over $215 million to the venerable, not-for-profit organization to fulfill its “Vision 2020” wish list/survival plan. And certainly not enough reason to write off the Northlands EXPO Centre’s $45 million mortgage as wel ...
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I am not privy to the goings-on at the board level of Events Edmonton, or to managerial decisions made at the Events Edmonton-produced Taste of Edmonton Festival. Nor do I particularly want to be.
I can tell you, following last year’s scathing Weekly Dish review of Taste of Edmonton, that this year’s festival offerings and ambience were greatly, greatly improved.
The beloved food fair, I had written in 2015, had spiralled downward into a world of deep-fryers, sugar and not much else.
Feedback was positive from discerning consumers and from long-time Taste of Edmonton vendors equally concerned about declining food quality.
I am told that the critique was either seen as a vicious attack on a sacred institution or was grudgingly appreciated as an objective wake-up call, that festival standards had indeed dramatically slipped.
Fast-forward one year: Last week’s festival in Churchill Square featured about 70 vendors, mostly existing restaurants renting booths, plus food truck ...
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Premier Rachel Notley must be asking herself, “What in the world have we done?”
In the few short minutes of a press conference last week, her deputy Alberta government leader Sarah Hoffman declared war on Alberta’s corporate sector.
By deciding to take electricity companies like ENMAX, TransCanada and Capital Power to court, and employing an absurd propaganda campaign to justify the move, the New Democrats have blown up a year’s worth of trying to present themselves as a moderate political party that business need not fear.
The essence of the disagreement — electricity regulation is so complex as to defy any one-paragraph explanation – is about “change-in-law” clauses common in any contract between government and private-sector suppliers.
A “change in law” clause protects the supplier against any arbitrary government move – be it unanticipated taxation or otherwise – that might change the agreed-upon economic outcome of the tr ...
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Uccellino
10349 Jasper Ave.
780-426-0346
www.uccellino.ca
Food: 4.5 of 5 stars
Ambience: 3 of 5 stars
Service: 4 of 5 stars
Wed. to Sun. 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Dinner for two (without tip or beverages): Basic, $40; fully loaded, $75
Between 103 and 104 Streets, at 10345 Jasper Avenue, 10347 Jasper Avenue and 10349 Jasper Avenue are three dining establishments. Corso 32, Bar Bricco and Uccellino sit side-by-side. Each has its own kitchen and staff. All were created by executive chef extraordinaire Daniel Costa.
Alike but different, the trio are inspired by an unwavering commitment to top-quality contemporary, regional Italian dining.
This review is about the latest. Uccellino (little bird in Italian), at 10349 Jasper Avenue, has been open two months.
Uccellino should be placed in the context of its older sisters – Corso 32 (10345 Jasper) and Bar Bricco (10347 Jasper). Corso 32 is intimate and informal, a gourmet Italian dining experience. Reservations must be made months ahead.
Bar Bric ...
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