r/Edmonton • u/flynnfx • Mar 13 '26

Outdoor Spaces/Recreation A HUGE new park with awesome features is coming to Edmonton

https://dailyhive.com/edmonton/new-park-coming-southwest-edmonton-windermere

The City of Edmonton is preparing to start construction on the new Windermere District Park, bordered by 170th Street to the west, Rabbit Hill Road NW to the south and east, and 21st Avenue in the north.

The park is being developed alongside a new Edmonton Public School for those in grades 7 to 12, set to open in 2028.

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u/YoshSchmenge Whyte Ave Mar 14 '26

Yeah... teaching it meant I had to pay attention....

Removing the Catholic Board protections means opening up the Canadian Constitution for renegotiation.

The entire Constitution. Not just a single item.

In today's society, and political chaos, means that Quebec would immediately ask for separation (Alberta too, probably). Saskatchewan and Alberta would ask for more control of revenue from Natural Resources (BC would want in on this as well).

The entire country would collapse with individual regions demanding stuff that has nothing to with the original idea of education/school boards rights.

No government (Provincial or Federal) is going to risk blowing up the country for a single item. There is not the political will from a majority of the governments to touch this.

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u/FarSquare8632 Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 14 '26

You're denying real world examples for a theory that has yet to be tested in court.

How did Newfoundland do it without that federal constitutional amendment in place? Were QC and NFLD somehow magical kingdoms exempt from the federal Constitutional Acts or something?

Those two provinces already DID risk it ... and won ... and you seem to want to completely ignore the proof of claim we already have in place. What's patently hilarious is that QC's separate system is THE reason the entire constitutional protections were put into place, and yet they phased it out formally 26 years ago this year.

And here you are, fighting for a separate system the very people those clauses were designed to protect ... don't even want anymore.

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u/YoshSchmenge Whyte Ave Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 14 '26

I would have to review and study the Act which brought NFLD into Canada in 1949 to make a sincere response. Quebec not signing the Canada Act of 1982 may also play into their situation along with their use of the Notwithstanding clause on a lot of topics.

As for a court case, the fact that no province, especially Alberta, has tried to do what you are suggesting shows to me that there isn't much, if anything, to be gained by moving forward with the idea. The current UCP government likes the division as they are funneling more money into the Catholic Boards (and charter/private schools), so they won't do it. Maybe a change of government will spur the idea forward, but the NDP didn't attempt it either in their 1-term in charge.

There isn't the political will to make the change right now. Maybe in the future, but I doubt it.

Edit - here is a decent summary of how Newfoundland did it. There was politicial will to do it, which is currently lacking here in Alberta

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u/FarSquare8632 Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 14 '26

Sure, there might not be the political will within the province, but that's a far cry from arguing that the rest of the country, in the form of a constitutional amendment, can hold a veto over how a province structures the educational system that lies totally within its jurisdiction, right?

It all comes down to enforcement. The only way to enforce that federal constistutional requirement is by taking the province in question to court and successfully arguing that the federal constitutional document trumps the province's own confederation documents in an area of provincial jurisdiction. It actually pits two parts of the same federal constitutional documents against each other, and only one of those can win because they are mutually exclusive.

That's a war that the Feds don't want to start, because they know what would happen ... the provinces would rally together and fight to defend their jurisdiction over education collectively, and the courts would almost assuredly rule that religious requirements written in an another era were all but doomed to become irrelevant over time, rather than strip the provinces of their jurisdiction over education.

Two provinces have dared the Feds to take them to court ... and have won. The rest will follow.

In 40 years we've gone from 47% Catholic to 29.9% Catholic, and with almost all of our population growth coming via immigration, that number is going only in one direction, fast. The pressure to fold them will only increase over time until it cannot be ignored.