EDMONTON More than 1,400 Edmontonians signed a petition calling for a freeze on transit fares as the cost is expected to rise. The planned bump would see fares go from $3.50 to $3.75. On Monday, Free Transit Edmonton an organization that believes in a fare free transit system, presented their petition to city council before they met with Edmonton Transit Service to discuss the change. Paige Gorsak an organizer with Free Transit Edmonton, said while the 25 cent increase doesn’t seem like much, it could mean the difference of some individuals finding other modes of transportation. “We’re seeing our bus fare go up to being one of the highest in the country,” Gorsak said. “Above Vancouver, above Toronto, above Montreal for a system that I don’t know would compare if we were looking at services offered.”
Edmonton’s fire chief is asking the province to allow firefighter’s access to the COVID-19 vaccine as a growing number of them contract COVID-19 and overtime costs soar to $1 million.
The O’Chiese First Nation is calling on the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) to investigate a police confrontation resulting in the death of a 24-year-old community member with “objectively” and “without favoritism.”
The provinces reproduction number, the average number of people someone with COVID-19 will infect, indicates daily case counts are unlikely to fall in the immediate future. The province s R-value remained above one across all four regions it s measured for a fourth straight week, including a 1.12 provincewide value. Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 grew to 390 on Monday, including 90 patients in intensive care units. Alberta registered a 9.05 per cent test positivity based on just over 12,000 tests. As of the end of Sunday, Alberta had administered 864,941 doses of vaccines, including 177,560 second doses.