2022 Annual Report

Key Highlights

• Business Licence Bylaw Rewrite: Full rewrite and adoption of a new Business License Bylaw, which was last amended in 2006.
• Land Supply/Inventory Report: A Land Inventory Report was completed that catalogued three hundred and sixty-seven (367) parcels of Town owned land.
• Regional Business Retention & Expansion (BR+E) Project: In partnership with Community Futures West Yellowhead (CFWY), the Town of Edson, Municipality of Jasper, the hamlet of Grande Cache and the Town of Hinton launched a Business Retention & Expansion (BR+E) survey.
• ABWays2Summer Campaign: Deployed an ABWays2Summer campaign in partnership with the Town of Rocky Mountain House and Whitecourt Tourism.  This was a content production and marketing campaign promoting our golf and outdoor adventure experiences and partially funded by a Travel Alberta – 2022-2023 Cooperative Investment Funding of $15,000. The remaining cost for the campaign was cost-shared by the three (3) municipalities.

Business Licence Stats - Year End Report

Of the number of new business licence applications issued in 2022, 27% of them were identified as a non-resident business, whose business premise is permanently located outside the boundaries of Yellowhead County.

Over this past year, the Human Resources Department has continued to evolve to meet the needs of our organization and the community we serve. We strive to continually provide the resources and support to enable our people to perform at their optimum capacity.

We have continued to build our teams with many notable changes. By continuously assessing and reevaluating our needs, we’ve been able to restructure some key positions. Notably, the role of Recreation Manager has been adapted to expand on the programming offered at the Edson & District Leisure Centre. By building off the skills developed through prior roles held within the organization, they are able to offer new and exciting programs and events to benefit the community. Further, this is only one example where we have proudly been able to promote from within our organization, showing that our strength truly does lie in our people.

As we continue into 2023, the HR department will continue to streamline processes to develop effective and efficient methods that will enhance the employment experience for all our employees.

Health & Safety

2022 was a year of adaptation and growth within the health and safety department. Personnel changes within the department led to a refreshed approach toward developing a behavioral-based safety culture. In December, The Town of Edson welcomed a new Health and Safety Coordinator.

The health and safety program was assessed during the internal COR certification process; contrary to previous internal COR audits, the Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC) was assigned to complete an alternate Alberta Municipal Health and Safety Association (AMSHA) assessment tool called a COR action plan. This plan was developed and submitted by the JHSC to AMSHA for review; the town received 100% for the action plan. Additional health and safety processes are being developed and integrated into the digital safety software (Lighthouse) to streamline operations, assist with productivity, and access safety information. Municipal staff also participated in their first “Safety Day.”  This event was an opportunity to celebrate organizational safe work achievements, COR audit accomplishments and participate in safety awareness presentations. The 2022 Safety Day success will lead to future annual Safety Day events to further encourage safety culture, teamwork and provide learning opportunities with safety professionals and community partners.

" Our Community Development team encompasses the coordination and delivery of programs and events in recreation, arts, culture, neighbourhood initiatives and Family Community Support Services (FCSS) for all ages. We were happy to return to regularly scheduled, in-person activities this year. "

2022 Highlights

• FCSS worked with community partners to update the “I’m Good” Campaign to connect our residents with access to mental health and wellness services in our community and province.
• Youth Council had 18 applications. We have 10 returning councillors and 2 new. Only one graduated last year.
• We received a Federal grant for $17,891 to coordinate technology training for Seniors in our community. “SENIORS TECH TIPS” programs are very popular.
• Art in the Park held 4 outdoor events including Wop May Day, which was celebrated in conjunction with Alberta Day. We received a $5,000 provincial grant for Alberta Day. The turnout for Wop May Day/Alberta Day was great, with about 250 people sowing up. The other events were much quieter.
• Canada Day was back to it’s full glory but the location was changed to the 2 arenas at the Leisure Centre due to an unfavourable forecast. The turnout was great for everything except the evening concert. Estimated attendance was 1,500.
• RecEdson “Try It Month” offered many  free programs to try out in August. This was a collaboration between local not-for-profit and for profit Recreation & Fitness Organizations.
• Early Childhood programs including Move Play Learn, Nature Play, Postnatal Wellness, Dadurday, Grand Buddies, and Parent/Tot Fitness were offered in person this year.
• With financial support from the Province, along with our regional partners, we developed sustainable sexual violence support services for our residents.
• Culture Days, held in September was a huge success this year with more than 10 community partners. We estimate the Downtown Art and Music Walk/Pig Roast brought over 700 people to main street! Edson made the list of top 10 participating communities for Towns and Rural areas in Canada!
• We hosted the Teddy Bear Picnic in collaboration with our Early Childhood partners and had a tremendous turnout.
• CANOE (Culture and Arts Network of Edson) received a $123,000 grant from Heritage Canada and Commemorate Canada to complete the Resilience Project, which highlights the resilience and hope of our community through the pandemic and beyond including murals on 5 downtown businesses, a commemorative book and documentary with interviews from over 20 local people. The project wraps up in spring of 2023.
• Rural Mental Health project partnership created “Community Wellness Reads” which is a collection of mental health resources available at the library.

2022 Arena Highlights

• 15 hockey tournaments.
• Edson Figure Skating Club skated 194 hours.
• Offered 120 hours of free public/family skate courtesy of Repsol Oil & Gas.
• Skate with Santa every December brings over 200 families out.
• Hosted Dangler Hockey Camp in August.

Dry Pad Highlights

Hosted the Trade Show, 4H Show, Eddies Big Run, Road Hockey Rumble, and lots of birthday party rentals and drop in kids programming with the inflatables.

2022 was an exciting and busy year for the Parks and Facility Maintenance Department.

Significant work was done at Griffiths Park Center. Grants were received for the Griffiths Park Centre renovations project for the lighting, accessibility, and the HVAC Systems. These major upgrades to the lighting, accessibility, and the HVAC systems were completed in 2022, substantially moving the renovation forward and closer to completion.

Additional grants were also received for a new multi season outdoor facility at Glenwood Park. The Parks and Facility Maintenance teams demolished the old outdoor rink and construction started on the new facility. The new facility will include an outdoor ice surface on a concrete base with new boards, basketball nets, lighting, and lines for basketball and pickleball. This new facility was completed in early 2023 and is anticipated to have a large positive impact on our community.

Work also continued at Vision Park with construction starting to rebuild five new ball diamonds to replace the ball diamonds removed by the construction of the Trans Mountain Pipeline.

The Town of Edson Enforcement Services Department continues to provide efficient bylaw enforcement and investigations, dealing with a wide range of complaints.

Community Engagement and Service

Post pandemic, regular services have resumed. Our officers continued with proactive foot patrols of our parks, trails, and greenspaces. Our vehicle patrols continued throughout the entire community, including schools and playgrounds. Our officers continue to liaise with the Edson RCMP, Edson Fire, Fish and Wildlife, and CN Police to work towards maintaining and building successful working relationships.

Services Provided

• Bylaw investigations
• Animal care and control
• Traffic services
• Traffic enforcement
• High visibility patrols
• Event support
• Document service
• Speed sign placement and statistics

RCMP Support

The 4.5 (full time equivalent) RCMP detachment assistants that work out of the detachment are employed and paid by the Town of Edson Enforcement Services Department. This team provides essential law enforcement administrative support for the frontline RCMP members in Edson. Their duties include answering phones, attending the front counter, serving documents, court docket assistance, and providing support for a myriad of police duties.

Our photo enforcement program for 2022 saw a significant decrease in violations compared to 2021.

13,734 violators vs. 22,637 violators in 2022.

1. Non-Resident violators 82%
2. Resident violators 18%

Revenues generated for Edson through our photo enforcement program are used to off-set the costs of providing policing to our community as well as a reserve for public safety initiatives. In 2022 there were 13,734 violations with a net revenue for the town of just over $380,000.

Photo Radar Call Stats for 2022

2022 was a busy year for the Edson Fire Department. For the first time in a number of years, COVID regulations were relaxed and we were able to resume public activities like our annual Fire Prevention Week open house, school tours, and special events.

Emergency Response

The Fire Department responded to 413 emergency incidents in 2022 (down slightly from 421 in 2021) as follows:

Medical First Response Program

In 2022, EFD responded to 192 medical-related emergencies, which accounts for about 47% of fire department responses. EFD responds only to life-threatening medical emergencies, or if the local ambulance is delayed. We continue to work closely with Alberta Health Services and our local EMS provider to ensure a high level of service is provided to the Town of Edson.

Membership Commitment

Members provided 37,896 person hours to the fire service in 2022. This accounts for training hours, emergency response, and weekend on-call coverage. These hours do not account for time spent volunteering for public awareness/engagement activities and special events.

Critical Incident Stress Management

The Edson Fire Department has a trained team of peers to provide support to our first responders during and after critical incidents. Led by our Fire Department Chaplain, these Peers are trained in Assisting Individuals in Crisis and Group Crisis intervention. An unfortunate reality is that critical incidents do occur, and EFD has a vested interest in the mental well-being of all first responders. Our Peer Support Network plays a critical role in ensuring our members are mentally prepared and capable of coping with these incidents.

Overview

• In 2022, Demolition of the old Edson hospital, and an 8 Bay Retail Commercial Unit were major permits issued.
• There was one appeal to the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board.

Water

In 2022 we were able to complete phase one of the required Alberta Environment lead service inventory program. After many years of negotiations, we were finally successful in amalgamating all our well licenses into one license from Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP) which should streamline the process for future exploration and implementation. 2022 also saw us break ground and start construction on a joint effort project with our parks department. We started constructing our building that will house a water treatment plant along with a tournament/washroom facility for ball players at Vision Park. Finally, we completed a comprehensive groundwater evaluation report that will help us with future exploration and ensure we are managing our aquifer for years to come.

Sewer

At our Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) we undertook some performance studies to prepare for future upgrades that may be required by AEP. We also installed and sampled monitoring wells all around the site which will allow us to monitor the quality of the surrounding groundwater. We have installed more Smart manhole covers and fitted some of our main sewer lines with flow monitors to capture the flow and capacity so that we can make data based decisions on future upgrades. Finally, we were able to replace our 10 year old sewer camera with a new one this fall. We are now able to get a condition assessment of some of our bigger storm and main sewer lines and have the capability to create reports which will enable us to prioritize repairs or replacements. The same software and unit are also compatible with our smaller push reel camera and are lighter and more compact than the old gear.

2022 Highlights

• Preventative maintenance schedule for roads and storm infrastructure
• Repair of damaged infrastructure
• Training of new personnel
• Infrastructure condition assessments
• Line painting
• Crack sealing
• Scheduled preventative maintenance activities

Snow Removal

• Events 11 (6 exceeding 10cm)
• Total costs $303,000.00
• Cost / Lane km $577.28
• Cost/ Capita $35.90

Fleet

• New Landfill truck was ordered
• New Komatsu grader was purchased

Town of Edson Airport

Aircraft movements

• Total Movements 1,266
• Potential Passengers 7,290
• Tanker Base 43
• STARS 13

The airfield has had a constant movement in 2022 averaging about 105 landing a month. The Fee schedule has been approved by Council and will be put into effect 2023.

After being knocked out by a lightning strike last summer, the airfield lights were restored in December of 2022.

There are so many great organizations in the Edson area, and CANOE (Culture & Arts Network of Edson) brings many of them together. The Edson & District Historical Society, on behalf of CANOE, and in partnership with the Town of Edson, applied for, and received a Commemorate Canada grant supporting a three-part initiative for the area, which includes the murals that have been appearing on local businesses, a documentary and a commemorative book. The Galloway’s main contribution to this initiative is the creation of the commemorative book that will include information on the individuals interviewed for the documentary and photos taken by talented local photographers.

Staff also create the Edson & Area Visitor Guide, to educate, inform and entertain travellers and residents. It is filled with delightful images from local photographers and includes a comprehensive list of local attractions and events, maps, campgrounds, accommodations, local businesses listings and the history of the Edson area. In 2022 4000 guides were printed and distributed in Edson, Yellowhead County and Alberta.

The curtain was pulled back at the Galloway at the end of May, when the Holy Redeemer Highschool Drama department presented The Village of Idiots at the pavilion in RCMP Centennial Park, and used the museum as their green room. The play was fantastic and all were astonished at the enormous amount of work that goes into creating a show of that calibre.

In a lovely turn of events, the Galloway welcomed the Honourable Salma Lakhani, AOE B.Sc., LLD (hon) Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, and His Honour, Dr. Zaheer Lakhani in June and were pleased to be able to spend some time sharing local history with them both.

Six exhibits were showcased during 2022: 

• National Survival – the Civil Defense Exhibit
• Indigenous Display – Annual Display
• Natural World – New artifacts were added
• Remembrance Day – Annual display
• Wop May – display updated
• Coal Branch – display updated

Often, individuals and organizations from all over Canada (and even outside of Canada) request information from the Edson and District Historical Society regarding the history of Edson and area. Staff work with these individuals to help find the requested information. More than 35+ inquiries were successfully completed with approximately 40 hours spent fulfilling public research requests in 2022.

Thanks to the generosity of residents (and former residents) of the area, 58 artifacts that met with the EDHS collection mandate were accepted and accessioned into the Edson & District Historical Society’s permanent collection. There are also two large donations that were accepted but have still to be processed.  Some of the items not accepted became part of the working/educational collection. Hundreds of older artifacts from the collection dating from 1975 onward were also researched and updated.

The archives received 645 donations that were accessioned and hundreds of archival items from the collection, dating from 1975 on, were researched and updated.

Although busy with rentals, visitors, tours and events, staff was also able to complete the Galloway Museum’s self-guided tour – however, it won’t be found on paper; this tour is all online! Visitors can just scan the code seen here and they will have access to in depth stories about each exhibit as well as fun facts, external links to more information, and in-house reports.

In 2022 the library along with the community was finding itself after the crush of the pandemic. We were happy to be open fully once more and begin offering more services to the community. In the Fall we hired a permanent program facilitator to enable regular programming for our patrons. This position specifically addresses the after-school surge as youth come in while waiting for parents.

A testament to this recovery comes in multiple forms. Our in-person visits averaged 242 people per day coming through our doors. You, the community, came to us for programs (261 in-person), public access computers (3,311 users), room bookings, exam invigilation, and of course materials for reading, viewing, listening, and playing (60,000 physical items checked out).

Of course, the last year was more than just numbers. We have re-established relationships within the community and built connections with those newly arrived in Edson. We partnered with several groups throughout the year participating in events like the Edson SummerFest, the Teddy Bear Picnic, Amazin’ Race Edson, National Indigenous Peoples Day, and Art in the Park - Renaissance Day. We have also partnered on specific projects like the StoryWalk with Edson Community Services and the bag of books with Edson and District Community Learning Society. In an effort to make reading materials accessible we have provided materials to the little free libraries in the Green Shacks. With Edson FCSS and the Rural Mental Health Project we created a mental health collection in the library. No summary of the past year would be complete without mentioning our game and movie nights every Friday which have seen constant attendance (and viewers have enjoyed the popcorn provided by Servus Credit Union of Edson).