“It’s Just Gravel”: The Logic of Elimination in Edmonton’s Downtown Revitalization

Abstract

Edmonton’s burgeoning “Ice District" has been a frosty source of contention in the city. But criticism of the Ice District — which has ranged from its name to its funding — has hardly addressed the project’s positioning in a larger event of settler colonialism. By analyzing recent news coverage and an interview with a stakeholder in Edmonton’s urban development, I argue that the city’s downtown revitalization disregards urban aboriginal sovereignty. I find that Edmonton’s downtown core is a uniquely aboriginal space, with nearly 50 per cent of Edmonton’s urban homeless population being aboriginal-identified, while aboriginal peoples only constitute less than 6 per cent of the greater Edmonton population. In conjunction with language seeking to “cleanse” the area of perceived danger and imprint capitalist productivity in an “empty” area, I conclude that Edmonton's downtown revitalization project operates as a settler colonialist function to eliminate urban indigenous populations. I position this argument within a greater conversation of indigenous sovereignties in Canada: how can the urban indigenous population in Edmonton be self-sustaining — let alone sovereign — when the very land they reside is under constant siege by a competing municipality?