investigative & enterprise journalist,
cbc edmonton
treaty six, canada
send tips securely and in confidence,
see website for contact info
| website | https://taylorlambert.ca |
| bsky | https://bsky.app/profile/tlambert.bsky.social |
| https://twitter.com/ts_lambert | |
| pronouns | he/him |
According to Alberta OHS, TransEd's own workers had a higher rate of injury than average. TransEd says those workers are only 25% of the project workforce — but did not answer questions about those injuries.
From me and Natasha Riebe, here's Part Two.
Statistics show that TransEd’s direct employees had a higher rate of injuries than both industry and provincial averages. In addition, the Occupational Health and Safety database lists more than 25 orders against TransEd between 2017 and 2022, including some related to confined spaces, emergency preparedness, and investigating incidents of violence and harassment.
We got thousands of pages of internal reports for the Valley LIne that describe problems the public never heard — including things that had to be demolished and rebuilt due to quality issues.
From me, Natasha Riebe and Madeleine Cummings, here's Part One.
https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/construction-problems-edmonton-valley-line-LRT
Personally, I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday morning than by settling in with a cup of coffee and a magazine-length investigation of what went wrong with a $1.8B public transit project.
For months, my colleagues and I have been looking into what went wrong with the Valley Line Southeast LRT.
We found lots that has never been reported before, from worker injuries to construction errors.
This week we published our investigation, in two parts... 🧵
An interesting detail I found doing this story was how rail trip times changed in the 20th century in Western Canada.
For example, according to schedules, here are trip times for Edmonton to Jasper.
1928: 9 h, 10 m
1950: 6 h
1960: 5 h, 10 min
1970: 4 h, 45 m
2023: 6 h, 30 m
Since Edm-Cgy passenger rail service ended in 1985, bringing it back in some form has been debated, studied, but never built.
With concerns about decarbonization, rail advocacy has taken on new urgency, and raised a question: should it be left to the private sector?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/should-critical-infrastructure-like-high-speed-rail-be-left-to-the-private-sector-1.6917639 #alberta #rail
New from me: #yeg has the second-highest number of police-involved deaths since 2000 among municipal police forces after Toronto, according to a new database.
And AB has the highest number per-capita among provinces, second-highest total overall.
EPS disputes the number of deaths attributed to them. They say it's 27, not 39 — but when provided with a list of cases and asked which they disputed, EPS declined to elaborate, saying they were still reviewing the data.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-has-2nd-most-police-involved-deaths-1.6828204
A new project that aims to shed light on the number of police-involved deaths across Canada was created because police forces across the country do not routinely provide this type of information to the public.
For the first time in decades, #Alberta's 2023 budget seemed to show hints of concern for #housing.
But a recent amendment to Alberta’s Affordable Housing Act points at a more sinister driver: publicly funded privatization.
Read more on my latest for @thetyee
https://thetyee.ca/News/2023/04/05/Why-Alberta-Funds-Public-Housing-Privatization/
Alberta has one of the worst rates of opioid poisoning deaths in Canada, with ~7,000 dead since 2016.
Yet AB fiercely resists harm reduction, preferring to focus on addiction treatment.
In my latest piece, I dug into what this really means. 🧵
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-approach-opioid-crisis-1.6750422 #ableg
AB is paying millions for addiction treatment beds and spaces, many run by private operators.
But, critics say, that approach is flawed, particuarly because people will continue dying in the meantime, and recovery looks different for everyone. Should a relapse risk death?
It's also worth noting, as @duncankinney reported earlier this week, that BC actually has far more recovery beds than AB — yet BC is also the only province with a higher rate of death from opioids than AB. /7
Ximena González
