Edmonton’s move to develop a potential strategy for supporting its nightlife scene has EVO Wonderlounge owner Rob Browatzke “really excited.” “I think Edmonton actually has a really wonderful arts and culture and nightlife scene. When people think of nightlife, they think of just dance clubs … That’s just not the case,” he told CTV News Edmonton on Thursday. “Some people want a more chill night out. They want something like trivia. They want something like karaoke night. They want something like game nights, or we do some weird craft nights.” The day prior, city council passed a motion directing staff to come up with a report on the staffing and operational costs of setting up a committee responsible for the Edmonton businesses that primarily come alive at night. Knack floated the idea of a “night mayor” responsible for answering nightlife questions after-hours in order to support the city’s businesses. Browatzke, who has operated a few iterations of his LGBTQS+ nightclub for more than a decade and now holds a location on Jasper Avenue, says he and other city entertainment players have been asking for traction since the COVID-19 pandemic. “Here we are, four years after that, and we’re finally starting to see some motion. I think people may underestimate the maze-like bureaucracy that is navigating the city and province for small businesses,” he added. Ward Ipiihkoohkanipiaohtsi Coun. Jon Morgan says Edmonton is following the lead of places like Ottawa, a government city that implements a nighttime office to attract businesses. Council started the process of developing a nighttime strategy a few years ago, he added, but it “stalled out towards the end.” “I was looking to bring it back. Just in my conversations with the businesses, especially downtown, but all throughout the city, what I heard was that they needed coordinated support for navigating the city, dealing with permitting, dealing with construction, dealing with all of the bureaucracy that the city has,” he said. Brent Oliver, producer of Edmonton’s winter music festival Winterruption, is cautiously optimistic about the plan. “The next thing (council) has to do is find the money for it,” he said of Wednesday’s motion. “I have gone down this road before in the previous administration, and it went to budget unfunded, and then just did not get funded and didn’t go anywhere,” he explained. “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Morgan told CTV News Edmonton he expects the plan to cost somewhere around $250,000. Oliver believes that a nighttime economy office would pay for itself, if implemented. “About 30 per cent of all businesses operate after 5 p.m, so that’s nearly a third of our economy in the city operating, and it doesn’t have an office dedicated to it at city hall,” he explained. He says even a trial program could “accomplish a lot” in the way of addressing safety after midnight and other nighttime business complaints. “I think it’s that third space. You have your home space, your work space, and your third space is what you do after 5 o’clock … Going out to a restaurant. Going out to an Oilers or an Elks or a Riverhawks game. Going to a show,” he said. “It’s all the things that make Edmonton really great … It feels like a no-brainer to me to have a position that is really advocating for all the fun things you want to do while you live in a city.” With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Miriam Valdes-Carletti
