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Headlines: Aug. 13, 2026

· The Pulse
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  • The Edmonton Transit Service is reviewing its park-and-ride performance after traffic bottlenecked during the Edmonton Heritage Festival at Hawrelak Park. The surge in demand was partly driven by visitors making up for two weather-related closures on the first two days of the festival. ETS branch manager Carrie Hotton-MacDonald said she would like to see bus priority in place for next year's festival.
  • Representatives of the Chinatown and Area Business Association told Edmonton city council's executive committee that its failed audit was due to unfinished projects and pledged to rectify its books by the end of the year. Mayor Andrew Knack said governance needs to improve before council makes its decisions on the annual budgets of the city's 13 Business Improvement Areas during budget deliberations this fall. "Realistically, if they don't fulfil that, council could choose to not approve their budget," Knack said. "At the end of the day we need to make sure the appropriate checks and balances are in place."
  • Elections Alberta says it has received 25,000 applications for the 60,000 positions it will need to fill for electoral workers during the Oct. 19 referendum. The ballot will contain 10 questions: one on whether Alberta should stay in Canada or start to process for a binding referendum on independence, five on immigration-related matters, and four on constitutional matters. Alberta's Voice is among the groups urging Albertans to vote to stay in Canada and say "no to the nine" other questions on the ballot. "Each question is written so badly that you don't actually know what it's trying to convey," organizer Stephen Carter told the St. Albert Gazette. "And when something like that is happening in a democracy, you know you're being manipulated."
  • The Royal Alexandra Hospital's CHARGE program is performing complex hernia surgeries that many patients were told could never be done. CHARGE, which stands for Complex Hernia and Abdominal Reconstruction Group of Edmonton, has become recognized nationally as a leader in the field under the leadership of Ram Anantha. "It impacted my life in more ways than you can imagine," hernia patient Corry Coyne told Postmedia. "It actually brings tears to my eyes because I went from somebody who had a very full life to somebody who did nothing."
  • Some international students who studied at career colleges in Alberta through a public-private partnership with Portage College are speaking out after their post-graduation work permits were denied. Lovepreet Singh, who studied at Campbell College in Edmonton, said the college assured him he was eligible for the permit, but he was denied because his course was not for credit. Students whose work permits are denied have 90 days after being notified to apply for a different visa or leave Canada.
  • The Algal Bloom Tracker launched on Aug. 13 with up-to-date information on the presence of algal blooms at six Alberta lakes, including Wabamun and Pigeon, using satellite imagery to detect the presence and severity of blooms.
  • Air North announced it will offer year-round flights between Yellowknife and Edmonton, as well as between Yellowknife and Whitehorse, beginning in December 2026. The expansion also includes seasonal flights to Victoria and Kelowna to facilitate trips north to see the aurora borealis.