Annexations of Edmonton

"Annexations of Edmonton" refers to the process whereby the The City of Edmonton annexed several surrounding communities and tracts of farmland between its founding and the late 1960s. Since that time however, the city has been blocked from annexing any other communities because of strong opposition in the surrounding area and unsympathetic provincial governments.

The first private buildings outside the walls of Fort Edmonton date from around 1871 when Reverend George McDougall bought a plot from the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) to found the first Methodist church. Edmonton was created as a separate settlement from Fort Edmonton by the HBC on October 29th, 1881 [http://www.rewedmonton.ca/content_view2?CONTENT_ID=100 Real Estate Weekly ] ] . Edmonton was incorporated as a town in 1892 and became a city in 1904.

On May 13th, 1912 the HBC put the convert|1600|acre|km2|0 Hudson's Bay Company Reserve on the market, prompting a massive land rush. The Reserve occupied the land between what is today 101st Street on the east and 121st Street on the west, the North Saskatchewan River on the south and 122nd Avenue on the north..

Also in 1912 Edmonton annexed the City of Strathcona, formerly called South Edmonton. Today it corresponds to the Old Strathcona district and the surrounding nieghbourhoods.

In 1917 Edmonton annexed the hamlet of Calder, formerly known as West Edmonton, which had formerly sat on the northwest edge of the HBC reserve. This corresponds to the present day Calder nighbourhood.

The Town of Beverly and the surrounding coal mines were annexed by Edmonton in 1961. This includes much of the northeastern part of the current city.

Jasper Place was merged into Edmonton in 1964. The former town occupies much of the west-central part of the city.

In the 1960s Edmonton expanded south onto farmland that had once been part of the Papaschase Cree Indian Reserve to create what is now Mill Woods. The descendants of the inhabitants of this reserve believe their ancestors were cheated out of the land. [http://www.csse.ca/CACS/JCACS/V2N1/PDF%20Content/essay_donald.pdf]

On March 22, 1979 the City of Edmonton applied to the Local Authorities Board for permission to annex all of the City of St. Albert and Strathcona County as well as parts of Parkland County and the M.D. of Sturgeon. If approved, the would have increased the City's area from convert|79962|acre to convert|547155|acre. The proposal was eventually rejected in 1980 after 106 days of testimony 299 exhibits and 12,235 pages of transcripts. [ [http://www.jstor.org/sici?sici=0317-0861(198221)8%3A2%3C207%3ATPATPI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-B&cookieSet=1] ]

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