Article content A full accounting of the names of Edmonton’s parks, streets, neighbourhoods and civic buildings is underway and the city will review how new names for old infrastructure are chosen. City staff are busy fleshing out a public database of all the municipal entities named in Edmonton in the past two decades. Monikers are being added to the already lengthy list compiled using research from the 2004 book Naming Edmonton: From Ada to Zoie .
There were 1,455 entries for roads, bridges, recreation centres, ravines, cemeteries and other civic infrastructure dating back to the late 1700s by mid-May. Councillors at Wednesday’s urban planning committee meeting had questions on how the work on the database and policy is proceeding, and potential costs, in light of some recent high-profile shifts — such as rebranding the Oliver neighbourhood as Wîhkwêntôwin . While Ward O-day’min Coun.
Anne Stevenson was supportive of the plan overall, she offered some “caution or consideration” to city administration as they proceed. “I worry that there could be a perception of — for lack of a better word — a bit of a witch hunt in terms of going out, and that erasure of community history,” she said, but adding the plan seems like a sensible approach. The city’s naming committee last fall recommended the database be updated and checked for both “accuracy and appropriateness.
” But according to a staff report, the city doesn’t have the resources for this fact.