EDMONTON — Members of Edmonton’s hospitality community can hold their heads a little higher this week after one of their own took home the World Class Bartender of the Year title for 2021.

James Grant represented Canada in the Diageo World Class Global Finals, topping fellow bartenders from 50 other countries.

“It’s very much still sinking in,” the mixologist told CTV News Edmonton from Toronto, where he competed remotely. “Overwhelmingly happy and proud. Very, very grateful to be able to represent our hospitality community.”

The competition was originally supposed to take place in Madrid, Spain, but was moved to a virtual format due to concerns over COVID-19.

During the four-day competition from July 4 to July 8, bartenders were judged on their hosting and bartending techniques through a wide range of challenges.

The 36-year-old is no stranger to winning. Earlier this year, the cocktail specialist won his way to the international competition when he was named bartender of the year in the World Class Canada Finals.

‘I NEVER SET OUT TO HAVE A CAREER IN BARTENDING’

Grant was born in Melbourne, Australia, but growing up in a military family, he moved around a lot. At the age of 13, he settled in Edmonton which he still calls home. Despite being considered the world’s best, Grant said he fell into bartending by accident. 

“I never set out to have a career in bartending,” he said. “I was living in London in the U.K. at the time. I was still doing communications work back then and couldn’t get a job in my field out there, so I took a bartending job to pay my rent.” 

“It brought me here. I feel very blessed.”

REPRESENTING EDMONTON

Throughout the competition, the international bartenders were tasked with preparing 40 different cocktails with varying parameters.

“That’s the kind of amazing thing about World Class,” Grant said. “At the end of the day you don’t have just one cocktail that represents you, you have made 40.”

Grant said one of the most pleasant cocktails he created for the competition was for the Johnnie Walker Highball challenge. 

For that leg of the competition, bartenders were tasked with creating a highball using Johnnie Walker Black Label paired with flavours representative of their hometowns.    

“I got lucky that I was given that challenge right as Edmonton was starting to come out of winter,” said Grant. “You walk down Jasper Avenue and you can sort of feel it in the air: everyone knows that summer’s on the way.”

The Edmonton bartender said he tried to use ingredients that were reflective of that sentiment.

“I harvested lilac from the river valley, and fresh spruce tips, pine boughs, the smells that I get out of Edmonton in the spring and use those to create something surprising and very beautiful.”

‘IN TEARS FOR ABOUT FIVE MINUTES’

Once the dust settled on the grueling series of challenges, Grant said being named World Class Bartender of the Year was an emotional experience.

“I was basically in tears for about five minutes when they were announcing.”

The champion bartender is taking his success in stride. With the world title now under his belt, he says it’s time to return home and ply his trade at Little Hong Kong, where he bartends in Edmonton.

“I’ve already been told in my work group chat I have to go back to work,” said Grant. “Just because I’m the champ doesn’t mean I don’t have to fill my ice and get the drinks up.”

Over 400,000 bartenders from 60 countries have taken part in the World Class program since 2009.

EDMONTON — Alberta reported 52 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday as the province’s active case count continued to fall.  

There are now 675 active cases of COVID-19 in Alberta, about where the count was in mid-July of 2020. The province had more than 1,000 active cases at the start of this month.

Fourteen of the active cases are linked to a Sherwood Park graduation ceremony, according to Alberta Health. 

More than 39,000 second doses of vaccine were given out Thursday, bringing the proportion of eligible Albertans to be fully immunized up to 53.1 per cent. 

About 4,000 first doses were also administered, with 73.9 per cent of Albertans now having had a first dose.

There are 126 coronavirus patients in hospital including 35 in intensive care units. 

The province reported a 0.78 per cent test positivity based on about 7,300 tests.

There were no new COVID-19 deaths reported on Friday.

The next data update is scheduled for Monday.

EDMONTON — Alberta’s police watchdog says a man who died in a police confrontation fired at officers first, and the bullet that killed him didn’t come from either of their guns.

The man was found with a reciprocating saw early in the morning of July 3 beneath a vehicle in west Edmonton.

After he died in hospital that day, Edmonton Police Service only said a confrontation had happened during which one officer used a non-lethal force weapon and that it was believed neither EPS member there had shot the man.

In an investigation update Friday, the agency responsible for investigating all death or serious injuries involving police said the 50-year-old suspect “fired several shots” at police.

“An EPS member deployed a Conducted Energy Weapon (CEW). At some point, the man sustained a single gunshot wound,” the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team reported.

In a statement, ASIRT reiterated neither officer fired their gun, but noted an autopsy connected the man’s wound to the gun recovered from the scene.

Neither officer fired a gun, ASIRT reiterated.

No more details were expected from ASIRT before the end of the investigation.

The victim was 50 years old. His identity has not been released.

According to ASIRT, the firearm found at the scene is “potentially relevant to other open criminal investigations and, as such, is being withheld.”

EDMONTON — A former elementary school teacher has been charged with sexual assault and exploitation after allegedly committing incidents on three students at a west Edmonton school.

According to Edmonton police, the incidents took place between 2016 and 2019. Two girls were nine years old, while the third girl was 11. All of the offences included fondling over and under the clothing of the students.

Gilbert Lavigne, 55, of Edmonton faces four counts of sexual assault and sexual exploitation. He remains in police custody until his scheduled court appearance on Aug. 30.                        

Each of the incidents occurred during school hours and inside the charged 55-year-old’s classroom, police said in a media release.

Police say Lavigne, who recently retired, taught in numerous public schools across Edmonton over his 30-year career and believe there could be additional incidents that occurred.

The Edmonton Public School District told CTV News Edmonton it is aware of the charges laid against Lavigne and confirmed he was a former staff member of the district.

“We will continue to cooperate with the Edmonton Police Service as they carry out their investigation,” the school board said in a statement. “Ensuring our students are safe while they are in our care is a responsibility we take very seriously.”

The division said it would not provide further information due to the ongoing investigation. 

Anyone who may have been victimized or has information is asked to contact police at 780-423-4567.

EDMONTON — Riverside, Victoria and Rundle Park golf courses could be under new management after council decided to “reimagine” some city services.

City council voted on the fate of 17 proposals for cost-savings or revenue generation opportunities through the Reimagine Services project on Wednesday.

One of those included the city assessing private sector interest for operating the three golf courses. The land and capital assets of the courses would remain fully public while private operators would manage the facilities and pay a rental fee to the city, under the proposal put to councillors.

The city estimated it can generate $300,000 to $500,000 per year in rent payments by doing so.

Privatization would impact six full-time permanent positions with the city and 20 temporary or seasonal employees, and could raise golfing rates and food prices at the courses.

The city will now accept requests for proposals before deciding whether to advance new management arrangements for the city-owned golf courses.

MAJORITY OF COST-CUTTING PROPOSALS GIVEN GREEN LIGHT 

Of the original 18 proposals under the Reimagine Services portfolio, councillors only moved ahead with 15, including reducing the number of cultural and recreation programs offered, bringing in more self-service payment kiosks at recreation centres, and potentially reducing the number of leases for non-for-profit groups.

A recommendation from the Reimagine Services project was halted Monday when council voted unanimously to pause implementation of paid parking at five sites in Edmonton, including city attractions and public parks.

More than 100 jobs could be lost as the city moves forward on privatizing maintenance and cleaning of transit buses, after council approved that recommendation.

‘MORE WORK NEEDED’: COUNC. CATERINA

Council voted unanimously for city administration to pause efforts to change Edmonton Fire Rescue Services’ (EFRS) response to medical calls and complete further analysis.

Counc. Tony Caterina said three of the recommendations needed further discussion and data-sharing with city administration, EFRS and the Edmonton Fire Fighter’s Union before he could vote on changing pumper truck composition or guiding principles for future capital investment for fire stations or equipment.

“We want to make sure that we do this right,” Caterina said.

The councillor was surprised to see such significant changes to firefighter service, and and suggested in a project that was about finding efficiencies for the city alongside changes to parks, golf courses, fleet management, or recreation centres.

“Fire is not in that category because of their designation as an essential service,” he said. “They affect every single person in the city.”

One recommendation was for EFRS to replace pumper trucks with three-person medical response units at two downtown stations that see higher amounts of medical calls.

Edmonton Fire Chief Joe Zatylny told council Wednesday that the pilot project was useful to help ensure that no frontline firefighter positions were lost but that EFRS assets could be deployed more efficiently across the city.

Counc. Scott McKeen spoke in favour of the recommendation as it would help preserve EFRS firefighting capacity in places of the city hit hardest by the opioid epidemic.

Mayor Don Iveson echoed the sentiments by reminding councillors the proposals to EFRS were never about making cuts to fire service.

“This is about asking is there a more efficient and effective way to deploy scarce resources, in light of fiscal pressures that we have and in light of the changing demand profile and demographic form of our city.

“We have to be unafraid to try some different things,” he said.

Changes to EFRS as proposed in the Reimagine Services project will be brought back for council consideration during their 2022 budget adjustment meetings in the fall.