EPS’s replacement AIR-2 helicopter set to launch into Edmonton skies

Todayville Edmonton

Published

5 years ago

3 minute read

from the Edmonton Police Service:

The EPS’s replacement AIR-2 helicopter, approved in the 2019 budget, is about to launch into Edmonton skies.

The new EPS AIR-2 helicopter

The new Airbus H125 helicopter is the same make and model as AIR-1, the EPS’s other helicopter, and will replace an EC120 model that is no longer being manufactured. A fleet consisting of the same aircraft type allows for efficiencies in training and maintenance, as the aircrew do not need to be trained on two different helicopters. The H125 is also able to carry more fuel, allowing for increased flight time, which allows the aircrew to respond and assist when they are needed the most, and work calls to their conclusion. The H125 model is expected to last a minimum of 20 years in a policing environment.

“AIR-1 and AIR-2, our two helicopters, play an integral role in ensuring citizen and officer safety,” says S/Sgt Paul Shafer, with the EPS Canine and Flight Operations Section. “They allow us to monitor fleeing vehicles from a safe distance, locate missing persons, find suspects who may be trying to evade police, and assist officers on the ground with scene surveillance.”

The EPS helicopters attend over 3,000 calls per year and have a 98% driver apprehension rate with respect to fleeing vehicles (known as criminal flights) in cases where they have managed the event to conclusion. Since the inception of the EPS Flight Operations program in 2001, the helicopters have safely managed over 1,500 criminal flights, which would have otherwise posed significant risk to public safety. When airborne, AIR-1 and 2 have an average response time of 60 seconds.

The originally projected $6.2 million cost of AIR-2 was approved in 2019 as part of a planned fleet replacement to address operational inefficiencies with the existing aircraft. The new AIR-2 was paid for with a loan from the City of Edmonton to the EPS that will be repaid through efficiencies in the EPS operating budget. The final purchase price is projected to come in approximately $250,000 under budget for a total of $5.95 million.

The EPS received the helicopter from the manufacturer Airbus Helicopters earlier in 2020. Eagle Copters Ltd., based in Calgary, has just completed the installation of the mission-specific equipment, including a high definition infrared camera, search light, mapping system, microwave downlink and police radios. The new AIR-2 is expected to be in service before the end of November.

Anyone with any information about this or any other crime is asked to contact the EPS at 780-423-4567 or #377 from a mobile phone. Anonymous information can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www.p3tips.com/250.

Todayville Edmonton

www.todayville.com/edmonton/

Todayville is an independently-owned digital media company. We specialize in helping community groups, local businesses and organizations tell their story. Our team has years of media and video production experience. Talk to us about advertising, brand journalism stories, opinion pieces, event promotion, or other ideas you have to make our product better. We also own and operate Todayville Red Deer and Todayville Calgary.

Follow Author

New Documentary “Cooking with Hot Stones” Explores History of Fort Assiniboine, Alberta

Alberta / 3 years ago

Alberta’s environmental leaders recognized

Community / 3 years ago

Family Day fun in City Hall & Churchill Square

Alberta

Master agreement approved for event park and Village at ICE District

Published on August 27, 2025

Todayville Edmonton

News release from the City of Edmonton

City Council has approved the Master Agreement between the City of Edmonton and the Oilers Entertainment Group (OEG) to develop the Public Event Park and the Village at ICE District. Along with the Government of Alberta and the OEG, the City is working to accelerate the development of more housing, new public infrastructure and economic opportunities in the city’s downtown area. In addition to creating new development in the ICE District, the signing of the agreement enables the City to access provincial funding to demolish the Coliseum and continue to progress work on Exhibition Lands.

The total cost of all projects is $408.2 million, which will be shared among all three partners and will deliver:

A new indoor/outdoor Public Event Park in the ICE District
A 2,500 unit community in the Village at ICE District
Demolition of the Coliseum and work to advance the early stages of the Exhibition Lands development

“This type of investment in downtown helps answer the call of downtown vibrancy and could have a cascade effect to stimulate further investment,” said Edmonton City Manager Eddie Robar. “We thank all our team members that had a part in getting this agreement negotiated and in place, as it was a lot of work and represents a huge step forward.”

The event park, estimated at $250 million, will increase downtown vibrancy with events that bring people downtown including low-to-no-cost events for the community as part of the Public Benefits Agreement. It will also generate positive publicity and enhance Edmonton’s reputation as a world-renowned destination, while adding to the local economy.

The preliminary work for the Village at ICE District, estimated at $68.2 million, will expedite the development of 2,500 new housing units and stimulate an estimated $1 billion in private sector investment. It will also lead to the creation of a new downtown park and enhance public streetscaping, including wider sidewalks and pedestrian crossings.

The Coliseum Demolition and Improvement Project, estimated at $90 million, includes $55 million from the provincial government and $35 million from the City of Edmonton. This project will fund the demolition of the Coliseum and the construction of public infrastructure in Exhibition Lands to help create a unique, centrally-located infill urban community that is well-connected to downtown and other areas of the city in the coming decades.

“These catalytic investments are going to set off the next round of transformational growth and development in our downtown, and these projects demonstrate the impact of real partnership for economic development,” said Puneeta McBryan, CEO of the Downtown Business Association. “It is encouraging for the Edmonton business community to see the Government of Alberta and City of Edmonton working together to take our downtown economy to the next level, coupled with the proven success and significant investment from their partners at Oilers Entertainment Group. We’re so excited to see all of this come to life.”

The City will use revenues from the Capital City Downtown Community Revitalization Levy (CRL) to fund its portion of the Event Park and site servicing for ICE District projects. It will also leverage land development revenues already earmarked in the capital budget for the Coliseum demolition to fund other important early work in the Exhibition Lands development.

Council’s approval of the master agreement and associated capital profiles allows the City to execute the agreement with the OEG, which paves the way for all three projects to progress. The master agreement also ensures that grant agreements between the City and the Province must be executed, confirming the provincial funding contributions for all projects.

For more information:

edmonton.ca/eventparkagreement

Alberta

Edmonton Murder Shows Trudeau Has Lost Control Of Crime

Published on December 8, 2024

Todayville

Harshanedeep Singh from rozanaspokesman.com

News release from the Conservative Party of Canada

After nine years, the NDP-Liberal government has lost control of crime. Violent crime has skyrocketed by 50 percent since Trudeau became Prime Minister and 256 people were killed by a criminal who was out on bail or another form of release in 2022, the latest year available with full data.

On Saturday, Canadians witnessed the shocking, heinous murder of Harshandeep Singh, a 20-year-old security guard in Edmonton, Alberta. Singh was shot in the back while thanklessly doing his job as a nighttime security guard at a central Edmonton apartment building. A promising young life was snuffed out by a cold-blooded monster.

“One cannot imagine how Harshandeep’s family and friends feel,” said Tim Uppal, Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family at this incredibly difficult time.”

Edmonton Police have since arrested two individuals and charged them with first degree murder: “Evan Rain, 30, and Judith Saulteaux, 30, were arrested and charged with 1st degree murder in relation to Singh’s death.”

Early indications suggest that Rain has a known prior violent history, with media reports aligning with Rain’s current age. In 2018, an “Evan Chase Francis Rain”, then age 24, was charged for a violent kidnapping in Wetaskiwin, one hour south of Edmonton. A woman was forced into the trunk of a car at gunpoint. It is not clear from media reports how this case was concluded.

In 2022, “Evan Rain, 28, of Paul First Nation” (45 minutes west of Edmonton) faced twenty-nine charges for a violent robbery in northern Saskatchewan involving firearms.

This is from the 2022 RCMP news release at the time:

Evan Rain, 28, of Paul First Nation, is charged with:

-one count, robbery, Section 344, Criminal Code;
-one count, have face masked with intent to commit an indictable offence, Section 351(2), Criminal Code;
-eight counts, possess a firearm knowing it was obtained by the commission of an offence, Section 96(2), Criminal Code;
-one count, possession of property obtained by the commission of an offence, Section 354(1)(a), Criminal Code;
-one count, mischief under $5,000, Section 430(4), Criminal Code;
-sixteen counts, possess a firearm while prohibited, Section 117-01(3), Criminal Code; and
-one count, point a firearm, Section 87(2), Criminal Code.

The status of these charges is not readily apparent. The RCMP’s 2022 news release does make clear that Rain was already prohibited from possessing firearms: “sixteen counts, possess a firearm while prohibited, Section 117-01(3).”

“It appears that our so-called ‘justice’ system terribly failed Harshandeep Singh – just as it has outrageously failed so many others,” said Uppal. “Harshandeep Singh’s murder cannot be accepted as just an unfortunate, unavoidable reality in our society. Authorities should answer to Rain’s prior police interactions and potential criminal history, including whether he was out on bail or some other form of release order.”

Life wasn’t like this before Justin Trudeau. Since the NDP-Liberal government passed Bill C-75 and Bill C-5, which gave high priority to releasing repeat violent offenders and took away mandatory jail time for certain violent crimes, a crime wave has been unleashed across the country. This was evident in a report from the Fraser Institute which showed that Canada’s violent crime rate is 14 percent higher than that of the United States’.

Trudeau’s only response to this has been to crack down on law-abiding firearms owners and Indigenous hunters which has done nothing to improve Canada’s public safety. Instead, violent gun crime is up by a staggering 116 percent since the Liberals formed government.

Enough is Enough. Canadians deserve to feel safe in their communities. Only Common Sense Conservatives will bring home safe streets by ending Justin Trudeau’s catch-and-release justice system and bringing jail, not bail, for repeat violent offenders.