Category: Taproot Edmonton

Downtown farmers’ market to 104th Street: I can’t quit you!

City Market in The Quarters
The Edmonton Downtown Farmers Market on May 18, 2019, opening day for its new location at 97th Street and 103rd Street. (Photo by Mack Male)

It looks like the downtown farmers’ market may not be moving off of 104th Street entirely.

We reported in March that the Edmonton Downtown Farmers Market would be moving to the old GWG building on 97th Street, where it would have a permanent, year-round presence and be open on Saturdays and Sundays. The market did in fact open there last weekend, setting up outside of the building, as the inside was not ready yet.

But now the market has decided to return to 104th Street on Saturdays, starting on June 15, except on days when construction makes that impossible, indicates an email from the City of Edmonton’s Civic Events and Festivals department, obtained by Taproot.

“After discussion with the Edmonton Downtown Farmer’s Market (EDFM), they have decided to return to 104 St on Saturdays starting on June 15th,” the email says. “The only exception to operation this summer will be if construction impacts arise, in which case the EDFM will be notified on the Monday before the market. On those Saturdays, EDFM vendors will return to their new location. We hope the businesses on 104 St, area residents, and Edmontonians will continue to enjoy vibrant Saturday’s on 104 Street!”

In a follow-up email, City spokesperson Amber Medynski told Taproot that while the prior agreement between the City of Edmonton and the EDFM for 104th Street was cancelled in December “due to anticipated construction restrictions in the area,” those have since decreased and EDFM was given the opportunity to return.

“The plan is for the Downtown Farmers Market to also take place at their new, permanent location at the GWG building on Sundays, but now they will also operate on 104 Street, between Jasper Avenue and 102 Avenue, as well as on 102 Avenue between 103 St and 104 St on Saturdays. The only difference is that the amount of space available in the area each week week may change based on the needs of construction,” said Medynski.

EDFM spokesperson Dan Young confirmed the decision to return to 104th Street was due to the availability of the space. “It’s easy to pick up and move tents to a certain extent,” Young says. “So we thought, ‘Well, we’ll come back and we’ll do what we can to program that street and get it going.

“Part of the other reason, too, is that our building on 103rd Avenue is not ready for occupancy,” he continues. “We thought it would be ready sooner, but it’s not. So we thought we might as well try to split the markets.”

Young says the EDFM will operate the market in both locations for 2019, and will review it with the City again next year.

Kirsta Franke of Wild Heart Collective, which organizes the 124th Street Grand Market, had been in talks to start a new, smaller market on 104th Street between Jasper and 102nd avenues.

“Grand Markets Edmonton has been working on a centrally located Saturday Market option that would extend into the holiday season for some time now,” she told Taproot. “With the news of Downtown Market relocating, our group was approached by local vendors as well as concerned downtown business stakeholders to provide an alternate level of programming for 104 Street.”

She said the well-being and success of local vendors and businesses is her organization’s first priority. “With this surprising news, we will continue to work with stakeholders to provide complementary programming downtown.”

Young confirmed that they were aware through some of their vendors that there was another group interested in running a market on 104th Street. When asked if this played a role in the EDFM’s decision to return to 104th, Young was noncommittal. “I think there’s always some advantages of having a couple of markets [downtown],” he said. “We like to view ourselves as the Edmonton Downtown Farmers’ Market.”

“I think competition is good,” he said, in response to whether he thinks there shouldn’t be another market downtown. “We think that that will settle out over time.”

The market’s first day at the Quarters location seemed to be a success, with lots of people turning up at the new location on Saturday, the first day of the market’s outdoor season.

“All the comments we’ve got from the vendors on Saturday is that they did very well,” said Young. “They didn’t do quite as good as they did on opening day on 104. But for a brand new market and a brand new area they were very happy.”

Chris Buyze, president of the Downtown Edmonton Community League, called for collaboration. “We hope area residents, businesses, farmer’s market, City of Edmonton, and other stakeholders will work together to coordinate programming on 104 Street this season,” he said. “We believe we can all work together to balance the needs of 104 Street and programming, with future construction challenges.”

With files from Mel Priestley and Mack Male

Taproot tends to stay away from breaking news, but we know from the reaction to our first story on the market that you’re interested, so we wanted to share what we know. Mel Priestley, who wrote our initial story, is working on a follow-up piece about the economics of multi-day markets in Edmonton. Stay tuned for that.

Stay on top of local food news by subscribing to our weekly Food Roundup, written by Sharon Yeo of Only Here for the Food.

You can help us pay attention to such matters by becoming a Taproot Member. Just $10 a month or $100 a year helps us compensate our writers and cover our community.

Introducing the Business Roundup

We recently launched our newest roundup: the Taproot Edmonton Business Roundup.

Each week we bring together the latest on the companies, entrepreneurs, employees, investors, leaders, and others shaping Edmonton’s economy. Read the Business Roundup to stay informed on what’s happening in local business. Sign up here to get the Business Roundup delivered to your inbox.

We are constantly gathering business-related updates from a variety of sources and each week we distill what we’ve discovered into an email update containing everything you need to know about local business. We save you time and keep you informed, and we add context where appropriate to help make sense of the news.


I (Mack) am currently writing the Business Roundup. I have been writing about urban affairs for more than 15 years at mastermaq.ca and have cultivated great information sources during that time. That said, I have my hands full building the engine that makes Taproot go, so we’re looking for a talented curator to help us tackle this beat! Learn more and apply here.

We believe that beat reporting is a critical part of the intelligence gathering that we do at Taproot. Paying concerted attention to a local topic that Edmontonains are curious about helps us ensure the stories we produce serve the community. We have covered business in the past with our stories on building an AI industry and the expectations facing 104 Street. Of course, our existing roundups like Tech and Food also cover aspects of business.

We’ll publish the Business Roundup for Taproot Members and subscribers first, each Friday morning, with social media shares to follow later. You can see the launch edition here. Let us know what you think! Your feedback will help us improve the roundup and make it even more useful.

You can read the Business Roundup for free, because we believe good stories should reach as many people as possible. Taproot Members get it first though, and will have access to the full Business Roundup archive and other benefits. You can join Taproot as a paying member or a free reader here.

Introducing the Food Roundup

This week we’re excited to share our newest roundup with you: the Taproot Edmonton Food Roundup.

Each week we bring together the latest on the restaurants, chefs, producers, events, and other updates from Edmonton’s food scene. Sign up here to get the Food Roundup delivered to your inbox.

We are constantly gathering food-related updates from a variety of sources and each week we distill what we’ve discovered into an email update containing everything you need to know about local food – the cream of the crop! We save you time and keep you informed, and we add context where appropriate to help make sense of the news.

Sharon Yeo is curating and writing the Food Roundup. She has been writing Food Notes on her blog for years and will continue doing so. Taproot readers will benefit from her experience and attention to Edmonton’s food scene, and we’ll work together to produce even more great coverage of local food.

We believe that beat reporting is a critical part of the intelligence gathering that we do at Taproot. Paying concerted attention to a local topic that Edmontonains are curious about helps us ensure the stories we produce serve the community. On the food beat this effort has already borne fruit as we were first to tell you about the City Market’s impending move away from 104 Street.

We’ll publish the Food Roundup for Taproot Members and subscribers first, each Tuesday morning, with social media shares to follow later. You can see the launch edition here. Let us know what you think! Your feedback will help us improve the roundup and make it even more useful.

You can read the Food Roundup for free, because we believe good stories should reach as many people as possible. Taproot Members get it first though, and will have access to the full Food Roundup archive and other benefits. You can join Taproot as a paying member or a free reader here.

Tech Roundup Review: January 2019

Every Tuesday morning we publish the Tech Roundup, a newsletter full of the latest headlines & happenings in Edmonton’s technology community. In addition to the curated, easy-to-scan lists of news and events, each edition includes one or two featured items which are the updates highlighted below. Sign up here to get the Tech Roundup by email each week.

Here’s our look back at the month of January 2019 as captured by our Tech Roundups.

January 8 – BioWare co-founders appointed to the Order of Canada

BioWare co-founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk were the only Edmontonians among 103 new appointments to the Order of Canada in December. The two co-founders were named Members of the Order of Canada for their "revolutionary contributions to the video game industry" and as developers and co-founders "of an internationally renowned studio." In this edition we also highlighted the selection of the founding members of the Edmonton Advisory Council on Startups (EACOS), the refinancing and shareholder consolidation announced by Yardstick Software, and an Alberta Venture feature on Testfire Labs.

January 15 – Alberta AI Business Plan funding ask submitted to Province

The Alberta AI Business Plan, developed by a steering committee made up of local investors, entrepreneurs, service providers, and academics, was released outlining a vision to make AI "a billion dollar industry in the province by 2025." A funding ask was submitted to the Government of Alberta to "kickstart the accelerator and pre-seed funding". In this edition we also highlighted Amii’s announcement that it will host the Deep Learning & Reinforcement Learning Summer School this year, the selection of Testfire Labs as a finalist in the AI category for SXSW Pitch, and a development from the University of Alberta that could make a new generation of lithium ion batteries with 10 times the charge capacity of current batteries.

January 22 – Chris Lumb steps down as TEC Edmonton CEO

After nearly ten years with the organization, Chris Lumb has decided to step down as CEO of TEC Edmonton, effective June 30, 2019. “With outstanding staff and management, a strong culture and excellent client outcomes, TEC will continue to do outstanding work helping to grow emerging technology companies in the community,” he said. In this edition we also highlighted Arden Tse’s move from the Venture Mentoring Service to Yaletown Partners’ Accelerate II fund, the news that Rising Tide’s Ashif Mawji was inducted into the 2019 Alberta Business Hall of Fame, and that Testfire Labs and AltaML were added to the Government of Canada’s list of qualified suppliers for artificial intelligence.

January 29 – Applied Quantum Materials receives funding to turn windows into solar panels

University of Alberta spin-off company Applied Quantum Materials was one of 29 successful projects in the Climate Change Innovation Technology Framework (CCITF) – Clean Technology Development program, receiving a $420,000 grant from Alberta Innovates to use nanomaterials to turn windows into see-through solar panels. In this edition we also highlighted F12.net’s acquisition of BC-based Level4 Technologies, the City of Edmonton’s new online system for managing recreation program and facility bookings, and comments from UCP leader Jason Kenney on cryptocurrency.

Popular Clicks

These were the top 5 most clicked on items from the month:

That’s a wrap on January! Sign up here to get the Tech Roundup by email every Tuesday morning.

Thank you to our Tech Roundup sponsors: Advanced Technology Centre, Amii, EEDC, Startup Edmonton, Stormboard, TEC Edmonton, Jobber, Testfire Labs, VMS, Instamek, and CompuVision.

Tech Roundup Review: November 2018

Every Tuesday morning we publish the Tech Roundup, a newsletter full of the latest headlines & happenings in Edmonton’s technology community. In addition to the curated, easy-to-scan lists of news and events, each edition includes one or two featured items which are the updates highlighted below. Sign up here to get the Tech Roundup by email each week.

Here’s our look back at the month of November 2018 as captured by our Tech Roundups.

November 6 – Electric Autonomous Vehicle Pilot Project wraps up

The City of Edmonton’s electric autonomous vehicle pilot project, featuring a shuttle known as ELA (for Electric Autonomous), wrapped up at the beginning of the month. The ELA vehicle was a 12-person shuttle manufactured by EasyMile called the EZ10. It operated at low speeds (less than 12 km/h) and featured a battery that could last up to 16 hours. In this edition we also highlighted the new Dev Edmonton Society, Athabasca University’s use of AWS, and that Extra Life Edmonton raised $69,303 for charity.

November 13 – City of Edmonton named Most Open City in Canada

For the third year in a row, the City of Edmonton has been named the "Most Open City" by Public Sector Digest at the Canadian Open Data Summit. Wendy Gnenz, Chief Information Officer at the City of Edmonton, won the Canadian Open Data Leader of the Year Award. We also highlighted the launch of WAV Capital, new research from the U of A to build quantum memory, and a feature on former City Councillor Kim Krushell who has launched Bar-Tech.

November 20 – Artificial Intelligence-Supercomputing Hub to be established at the University of Alberta

The Government of Canada is investing $2.5 million in the University of Alberta to establish an Artificial Intelligence-Supercomputing Hub for Academic and Industry Collaboration ("the AI-Hub") "equipped with high performance computers capable of processing vast amounts of raw data in hours instead of days." The AI-Hub is expected to open in Spring 2019. In this edition we also highlighted an interview with Jonathan Schaeffer about AI and Edmonton, a photo feature on NAIT’s new Productivity & Innovation Centre, and the news that Edmonton was shut out of the inaugural Start Alberta awards.

November 27 – Four Edmonton companies receive federal funding to get innovative products to market

Edmonton-based DevFacto Technologies, instaMek Solutions Inc., Intelligent Imaging Systems, and Lumican Corporation have received a combined $3.2 million to "help move their new and innovative technologies from the later stages of research and development to the marketplace." The funding comes through the five-year Western Innovation (WINN) Initiative. We also highlighted an interview with Amii’s new CEO John Shillington, a recap of DemoCamp Edmonton 43, and that Myrna Bittner and Ashley Janssen were accepted into the fall cohort of Connection Silicon Valley’s Canadian Women’s Network.

Popular Clicks

These were the top 5 most clicked on items from the month:

That’s a wrap on November! Sign up here to get the Tech Roundup by email every Tuesday morning. And in case you missed it, here’s our review of October 2018.

Silver for our election microsite at the 2018 COPAs

The 2018 Canadian Online Publishing Awards were handed out last week and Taproot Edmonton is thrilled to share that we won Silver in the Best Interactive/Infographic Story category for our 2017 Municipal Election microsite.

Martin Seto, producer of the COPAs, said they “celebrate the people that produce content in a world where there is growing mistrust of the media and the widespread distribution of tabloid and farticle content on the internet.” This year was the 10th anniversary of the awards.

We combined open data from the City with other data that we collected to build the election microsite. Prior to Election Day, readers could use the Election Guide to find their wards, candidates, voting station, and more simply by entering their address or clicking the “Locate Me” button. On Election Night, the results dashboard provided real-time updates on every race, total voter turnout, and other interesting data points, such as the incumbents being defeated and the most supported candidates. Once the information became available, we updated the microsite with campaign finance disclosures. You can easily search the data to see all the donations that candidates received.

The microsite was built by Mack Male, with editing from Karen Unland and research by Anna McMillan.

Read more about our microsite and companion email newsletter.

Tech Roundup Review: October 2018

Every Tuesday morning we publish the Tech Roundup, a newsletter full of the latest headlines & happenings in Edmonton’s technology community. In addition to the curated, easy-to-scan lists of news and events, each edition includes one or two featured items which are the updates highlighted below. Sign up here to get the Tech Roundup by email each week.

Here’s our look back at the month of October 2018 as captured by our Tech Roundups.

October 2 – EEDC signs conditional lease for Innovation Hub concept test

We began the month noting that EEDC had signed a conditional lease to test its Innovation Hub concept at the former Enbridge building on 103 Street downtown. "Should the Innovation Hub go ahead, Startup Edmonton would move out of the Mercer Warehouse to be the primary tenant in the space." We also highlighted NAIT’s new entrepreneur-in-residence program for students.

October 9 – Edmonton Startup Week runs October 15-19

This edition featured a preview of Edmonton Startup Week, including a Q&A with Startup Edmonton CEO Tiffany Linke-Boyko. "One of the major goals of this week is to create different opportunities for Edmontonians that don’t know anything about the startup community to experience it," she said. We also highlighted the lineup for Launch Party 9.

October 16 – EEDC leased it, but will they come?

Startup Week kicked off with a big discussion on innovation at City Council’s Executive Committee and a new story from Taproot focused on EEDC’s proposed Innovation Hub and what it could mean for Edmonton’s startup community. We also highlighted the announcement that Edmonton will host the 2019 SingularityU Canada Summit on April 23-24.

October 23 – Edmonton Startup Week: All good things must come to an end

We started this edition with a recap of Startup Week, which saw more than 50 events focused on innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship take place throughout the city. The flagship event, Launch Party, highlighted ten local companies on the rise. The conversation about the proposed innovation hub continued, with a new episode of Speaking Municipally focused on the project and our story about it.

October 30 – City Council presses pause on the Innovation Hub

City Council picked up the innovation discussion and decided to ask EEDC to pause plans for the Innovation Hub. They wanted to see alternatives and ensure more public engagement was conducted. This edition also highlighted the grand opening of TEC Centre Labs, home to the Merck Invention Accelerator and the University of Alberta Health Accelerator. The October 31 edition of the Health Innovation Roundup provided more information on the new accelerators.

Popular Clicks

These were the top 5 most clicked on items from the month:

That’s a wrap on October! Sign up here to get the Tech Roundup by email every Tuesday morning. And in case you missed it, here’s our review of September 2018.

Tech Roundup Review: September 2018

Every Tuesday morning we publish the Tech Roundup, a newsletter full of the latest headlines & happenings in Edmonton’s technology community. In addition to the curated, easy-to-scan lists of news and events, each edition includes one or two featured items which are the updates highlighted below. Sign up here to get the Tech Roundup by email each week.

September was an exciting month for us as we added our first sponsors to the Tech Roundup! Their support enables us to chronicle Edmonton’s tech sector each week. We also launched a new roundup focused on Health Innovation. Here’s our look back at the month of September 2018 as captured by our Tech Roundups.

September 4 – Avenue Edmonton puts the spotlight on AI

The first edition of the month had a big focus on artificial intelligence as we highlighted Avenue Edmonton’s three features. The September 2018 edition of the magazine talked about the context of Edmonton’s position in the world of AI, featured Edmonton.AI as a community initiative to grow the industry, and looked at how robots will change your job,

September 11 – NAIT’s new Productivity & Innovation Centre

NAIT’s newest facility is the $83.4 million Productivity and Innovation Centre (PIC). The building houses manufacturing labs, acceleration spaces, and a hub for applied research activity and is described as one of North America’s largest innovation spaces. This edition also featured a bunch of AI-related news, such as Folio’s feature on machine learning and research. People were also talking about an Edmonton Journal article that suggested the improvement in downtown’s office vacancy rate is the result of tech companies.

September 18 – New funding for Computing Science students

The University of Alberta is adding 25 additional students to its computing science after-degree program thanks to new provincial funding as part of the Growth and Diversification Act. We also highlighted a video feature on Frettable, which uses AI to provide transcriptions for instruments and songs.

September 25 – Hendrix.ai launches, Improbable expands to Edmonton

Testfire Labs officially launched its flagship product, Hendrix.ai. The product aims to improve meetings by providing automatically transcribed summaries and action items alongside other insights about users’ meeting history. Also making headlines at the end of the month was the announcement that former BioWare GM Aaryn Flynn will lead the Edmonton office of UK games tech startup Improbable. We also linked to the recap of DemoCamp Edmonton 42.

These were the top 5 most clicked on items from the month:

That’s a wrap on September! Sign up here to get the Tech Roundup by email every Tuesday morning. And in case you missed it, here’s our review of August 2018.

Introducing the Health Innovation Roundup

Today, we’re excited to share our newest roundup with you: the Health Innovation Roundup, sponsored by Health City.

Each week we bring together the latest headlines & happenings in Edmonton’s health innovation sector. You’ll get the latest on the research, technology, companies, and people changing healthcare for the better in Edmonton. Sign up here to get the Health Innovation Roundup delivered to your inbox.

As with our other roundups, the goal of the Health Innovation Roundup is to save you time, keep you informed, and satisfy your curiosity. We sift through all of the information that’s constantly being shared to determine which is important and worthy of your time. Then we add some context to help you make sense of it all.

Why health innovation?

Edmonton is rich with all the ingredients necessary for a thriving health innovation sector. Our city is home to Alberta Health Services (AHS), the largest fully-integrated health system in Canada, a rich source of health-related data. Edmonton is also home to the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii), a world-leader in the science of machine learning and artificial intelligence. The opportunity before Edmonton, to combine health data with artificial intelligence algorithms to develop solutions that improve health outcomes, reduce costs, and increase economic activity, is unrivaled.

According to Health City, Edmonton is already home to more than 50% of Alberta’s life sciences companies, and organizations like Startup Edmonton and TEC Edmonton are working to help new entrepreneurs turn their ideas into thriving, scalable companies that can compete on the global stage. With increased attention from political leaders, new investment from both public and private sources, and greater supports for innovators at all stages, activity in Edmonton’s health innovation sector is sure to accelerate.

The Health Innovation Roundup will chronicle Edmonton’s health innovation sector, to amplify the efforts already underway, help attract new interest to the sector, and keep everyone informed about the latest developments.

The Details

We’re thrilled to have Catherine Griwkowsky on board to curate and write the Health Innovation Roundup. She is an Edmonton-based journalist with a decade of experience. Her work has appeared in the Edmonton Sun, Edmonton Journal and StarMetro Edmonton. You’ll benefit each week from her experience and keen interest in health.

We’ll publish the Health Innovation Roundup for Taproot Members and subscribers first, each Wednesday morning, with social media shares to follow later. You’ll also be able to find highlights from each edition on Health City’s website.

Health City

Health City is “a cluster-led economic development organization that leverages Edmonton’s tremendous health assets to create a fast, competitive and lucrative health innovation ecosystem.” They act as a central connection point for the sector, and we’re very grateful for their support in making the Health Innovation Roundup possible. You can read more about their support here.

If you’d like to join Health City in sponsoring the Health Innovation Roundup, we’d love to hear from you!

Read & Feedback

Here is the latest edition of the Health Innovation Roundup. Let us know what you think! Your feedback will help us improve the roundup and make it even more useful. If you have a suggestion for something we should include in a future edition, send it along and we’ll consider it. Here’s how to get in touch with us.

You can read the Health Innovation Roundup for free, because we believe good stories should reach as many people as possible. Taproot Members get it first though, and will have access to the full Health Innovation Roundup archive and other benefits. You can join Taproot as a paying member or a free subscriber here.

Welcome to our first Tech Roundup sponsors

Today we’re excited to welcome our first sponsors to the Tech Roundup! Thank you to the Advanced Technology Centre, Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii), Edmonton Economic Development Corporation (EEDC), Startup Edmonton, Stormboard, and TEC Edmonton for supporting the work we’re doing to chronicle Edmonton’s technology community.

We launched the Tech Roundup in early June with the goal of creating an informative, interesting, and timely resource to highlight the latest headlines and happenings in the tech community. The feedback we’ve been receiving is encouraging, and suggests we’re on the right track. Readers have told us they are happy to have a single place to look at for the latest news. And they have told us that before the Tech Roundup, they didn’t realize just how much activity there was week-to-week. It’s a positive start and we’re excited to build on that.

The Tech Roundup is free for everyone to read. You can get it by email or you can click through from our social media updates each week. Taproot Members receive the Tech Roundup first and have unlimited access to all of our roundups – learn more here.

Our sponsors are contributing to the sustainability of Tech Roundup. Editorial independence is important to us and to these sponsors; they have no say over what we put in the Tech Roundup, and we won’t let their sponsorship alter our decisions about what we round up and how.

Our initial sponsors all care deeply about Edmonton’s technology community and we’re grateful for their support:

ATC Amii EEDC Startup Edmonton Stormboard TEC Edmonton

If you’re interested in joining them as a sponsor of the Tech Roundup, we’d love to hear from you! We currently offer two levels of sponsorship: Cultivators ($100/month, billed annually) and Pollinators ($50/month). Have a look at our sponsorship page for more information and please reach out via email. We look forward to working with you!