St. Albert news

• Notes from the Dome: Elections commissioner officially official and taking a stand against intolerance

  17-05-2018 23:44 via edmontonjournal.com
  The sometimes controversial appointment of Alberta’s first election commissioner is officially official.
  Minister Responsible for Democratic Renewal Christina Gray signed off on an order in council this week that installs Lorne Gibson in the position until May 14, 2023. 
  Gibson was entangled in controversy with the former Progressive Conservative government nearly a decade ago.
  His appointment caused heated debate in the legislature recently with the opposition insisting he wasn&
  
  Read more

• Donate A Ride program raises funds for 93,330 transit tickets

  17-05-2018 23:24 via edmontonjournal.com
  Edmontonians have raised $238,412 in this year’s Donate A Ride program to provide 93,330 transit tickets for people in need.
  The tickets will be dispersed through 71 social agencies across the city to Edmontonians who require financial support for public transportation to get to school, work, social services and appointments, a Thursday news release said.
  The program, created in 1996, is a city-initiated charity led by city council and co-chaired by Ward 1 Coun. Andrew Knack and Ward 4 Cou
  
  Read more

• Edmonton police spending new money on devices for roadside marijuana intoxication testing

  17-05-2018 23:22 via edmontonjournal.com
  Cannabis is set to become legal in Canada this summer and with it comes higher policing costs, the Edmonton Police Commission heard Thursday.
  Police officials at Thursday’s commission meeting outlined a laundry list of new technology and training needed to enforce legal weed laws. Last month, the city approved $1.4 million in one-time and ongoing funding to help the police service transition to policing the impacts of legal weed.
  There are still many questions looming over legalization, ch
  
  Read more

• ATB Financial names next chief executive and president

  17-05-2018 23:00 via edmontonjournal.com
  ATB Financial’s current chief customer officer, Curtis Stange, has been named the company’s next president and CEO.
  Stange has more than 30 years of experience in banking including nine spent with ATB. He succeeds current president and CEO Dave Mowat, who intends to retire from the Edmonton-based financial institution at the end of June. 
  “The foundation has been set at ATB and we have a very clear direction for the future. That foundation creates the best opportunities fo
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Original Redhead launches crowdfunding campaign for hot sauce business

  17-05-2018 21:13 via edmontonjournal.com
  Chef Stuart Whyte of Original Redhead Condiments is looking to punch up his hot sauce deliverables with a cash infusion from the public.
  Whyte, who sells his wares from a booth Thursday evenings at the 124 Grand Market (124 Street and 108 Avenue), launched his own line of condiments (including mustards, salsas and lots of pepper-based hot stuff) a couple of years back. Now he wants to expand his operation with a focus on the creation of more original products, including fermented products, and m
  
  Read more

• Police cannabis committee says force needs $1.4 million to prepare for legal weed

  17-05-2018 20:39 via edmontonjournal.com
  Edmonton police will need about $1.4 million in ongoing and one-time funding to prepare for marijuana legalization this summer, an upcoming report to the police commission states.
  Police say the service needs funding for oral fluid testing devices to check for cannabis intoxication, as well as training for specialized field sobriety tests and drug recognition experts, IT upgrades for the department’s informatics division and funding for two full-time equivalent employees in the lead-up to
  
  Read more

• #HappyWall art installation makes first visit to Canada at Sir Winston Churchill Square

  17-05-2018 20:39 via edmontonjournal.com
  Happy Wall, a pixel art installation created by Copenhagen, Denmark, artist Thomas Dambo, was unveiled at Sir Winston Churchill Square on Wednesday, May 16, 2018.According to a media release, Edmonton is the first city in Canada to host a Happy Wall. Dambo’s Happy Wall, which was crafted in 2014 to revitalize construction sites, has been installed in Denmark, Chile, Brazil and the United States.
  The installation in Edmonton is designed to be a hub of activity for people while the squa
  
  Read more

• Dry, hot conditions and lack of rain lead to fire ban in Edmonton, Strathcona County

  17-05-2018 20:36 via edmontonjournal.com
  A fire ban has been put in place for Edmonton effective 10 a.m. Thursday.The ban, which will remain in effect until further notice, prohibits open burning, fireworks, backyard fire pits, cooking stoves and BBQs​ that use fuels such as wood and briquettes.
  Due to dry, hot & windy conditions, EFRS has issued a fire ban in #yeg which prohibits open burning, fireworks, backyard fire pits, cooking stoves and BBQs that use fuels such as wood & briquettes. Ban in effect until later notice
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• 'Get this project built:' BC pro-pipeline delegates in Edmonton

  17-05-2018 20:23 via edmontonjournal.com
  A hundred British Columbia business, community and Indigenous leaders are in Alberta Thursday to try to remedy what they call a “crisis in confidence” caused by protests and B.C. government delay tactics in the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. 
  The B.C. group calls the visit the Federation Flight. 
  Standing on the marble staircase inside the Alberta legislature building, Canada scarves draped around their necks, the group burst into a rendition of the national anthem
  
  Read more

• Police search for driver, vehicle in south Edmonton hit-and-run

  17-05-2018 19:56 via edmontonjournal.com
  Police are calling on the public to help them locate the driver of a black SUV involved in a serious hit-and-run collision with a pedestrian over the weekend.
  On Saturday, a 23-year-old woman was attempting to cross 48 Street and 12 Avenue around 9:30 p.m. when she was stuck by the vehicle travelling northbound on 48 Street.
  The woman was taken to hospital with serious, non-life threatening injuries. The driver fled the area. 
  Police are now looking for a black Acura MDX SUV, with a roof ra
  
  Read more

• Homicide takes over case after man found injured in west Edmonton dies

  17-05-2018 17:23 via edmontonjournal.com
  Edmonton homicide detectives are investigating after a man found injured in a west Edmonton school ground died Wednesday night.
  Police found the injured man near 172 Street and 64 Avenue in the Callingwood neighbourhood around 11 p.m. Paramedics treated the man on scene and took him to hospital where he later died.
  The death is being treated as suspicious.
  Police had taped off an entire block, including Talmud Torah School, as they investigated. Education officials said the school would open on
  
  Read more

• Edmonton Oilers have spent almost all their money so don't expect big moves this summer

  17-05-2018 16:40 via edmontonjournal.com
  Team insiders push notion that “less will have to be more” with cap-strapped Oilers
  This in, several Oilers insiders suggesting that Edmonton will likely NOT be big game hunting this summer in the trade market.
  First, here’s Bob Stauffer of the Oilers organization: “Rumours of the Oilers closing in on a blockbuster deal at this time would be greatly exaggerated IMO…this might be an off-season where less is more.”
  Rumours of the Oilers closing in on a blockbus
  
  Read more

• Jason Kenney under fire after describing Justin Trudeau as “an empty trust-fund millionaire"

  17-05-2018 15:56 via edmontonjournal.com
  Opposition leader Jason Kenney — who has repeatedly lauded the importance of civility and decorum in the house — came under fire for insulting remarks he made about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. 
  In a Calgary Sun column published Wednesday, Kenney described Trudeau as “an empty trust-fund millionaire who has the political depth of a finger bowl.
  “He can’t read a briefing note longer than a cocktail napkin,” the United Conservative Party le
  
  Read more

• Edmonton weather: That fresh air smell after rain is called, petrichor. The more you know.

  17-05-2018 14:49 via edmontonjournal.com
  A look at today’s Edmonton weather by Environment Canada.
  Thursday morning temperatures at the Edmonton Blatchford station measure 9.2 C with a 8 km/h wind coming from the northeast. There’s nothing better than the smell of rain after a long period without, but it’s not expected to last long — not even for the entire day. The rest of the week-long forecast calls for nothing but sunshine and heat, including 24 C on Sunday, 27 C on Monday, 29 C on Tuesday and a blistering 3
  
  Read more

• Homicide detectives probe suspicious death in west Edmonton

  17-05-2018 14:25 via edmontonjournal.com
  Edmonton homicide detectives are investigating after a man who was found injured in west Edmonton died Wednesday night.
  Police say they found the injured man in the area of 172 Street and 64 Avenue in the Callingwood neighbourhood at around 11 p.m.. Paramedics treated the man on scene and took him to hospital where he later died.
  The death is being treated as suspicious.
  More to come.
   
  
  Read more

• Thursday's letters: Why do we care more about some tragedies?

  17-05-2018 14:00 via edmontonjournal.com
  The GoFundMe for the Humboldt Broncos officially closed at $15 million. The TorontoStrong fund has raised more than $1.5 million as of Friday evening. 
  A tragic accident involving a select group of young men and women off to play in a hockey game
  A group of random people from all walks of life, just walking down a street, are deliberately run down by one person.
  But a violent act that could have been on any street in any town and affect any one of us does not generate anywhere near the outp
  
  Read more

• Opinion: Fertility preservation gives cancer survivors hope for starting a family

  17-05-2018 14:00 via edmontonjournal.com
  Young people diagnosed with cancer usually have one goal: survival. But after the tribulations of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation are behind them, cancer survivors want to live a full life. For many, this includes having children. Unfortunately, most young cancer patients are not aware of the devastating effect chemotherapy and radiation can have on their ability to reproduce, until it is too late.
  According to the Canadian Cancer Society, 10 per cent of all new cancer diagnoses occur in peo
  
  Read more

• Editorial: New parks the product of co-operation

  17-05-2018 14:00 via edmontonjournal.com
  Alberta has just created the largest protected area of boreal forest in the world by setting aside four new provincial parks and expanding another along its northeastern borders.
  For a province frequently, and often unfairly, cast by some critics as an environmental villain for the work of its resource industries, that’s a job well done by all concerned.
  Tuesday’s announcement of the Kazan, Richardson, Dillon River, Birch River and Birch Mountains parks adds more than 13,600 square k
  
  Read more

• Wildlife: Wayne Gretzky's aura summoned to Nuit Blanche outdoor art night Sept. 29

  17-05-2018 11:00 via edmontonjournal.com
  Nuit Blanche Sept. 29 is off to a “Great” start — its first announced artist will be summoning the aura of onetime bedrock Edmontonian Wayne Gretzky.
  The interactive art exhibition, which is free all over downtown at numerous locations through the fall night, first came to Edmonton in 2015, and saw some 50,000 participants enjoy large-scale installations from locals such as Gary James-Joynes inside City Hall to a forest to make wishes designed by Yoko Ono.
  Regarding the Gr
  
  Read more

• Cancer Bats playing deep cuts from classic album along with new material on latest tour

  17-05-2018 11:00 via edmontonjournal.com
  For Liam Cormier, it’s all about the relationship between band and fan.
  “It’s amazing when something I write that has such personal meaning to me can mean something completely different to someone else,” the lead vocalist for Cancer Bats muses over the phone from Brighton, England, where the four-piece punk-metal unit are preparing for another packed show on their current tour. “It’s a connection, and that’s something that we always keep in mind when we&
  
  Read more

• Blues harp star goes back to Bollywood for blues inspiration

  17-05-2018 11:00 via edmontonjournal.com
  How does a software engineer from Mumbai end up becoming a rising star of blues harmonica?
  Aki Kumar had to come full circle to discover his music identity, but if you wanted to sum up the story, just check the title of his last recording, Aki Goes to Bollywood.
  “A lot of things came together in a great way at the same time,” Kumar explains, reminiscing over his start in the music scene of San Francisco’s Bay Area. “These songs were around when I was a kid — some of
  
  Read more

• Bent River Records takes Nature Of under its wing to make studio magic

  17-05-2018 11:00 via edmontonjournal.com
  Nature Of is feeling extremely lucky. Not only is the Edmonton four-piece having their album recorded, mixed and manufactured for free — it’s being co-produced by Marcus Paquin, engineer on Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs, with an even greater role on the National’s Trouble Will Find Me, where he was engineer, associate producer and mixer.
  “The National’s, like, hands down my favourite band,” says Nature Of’s singer/guitarist Steve Schneider, 26. “
  
  Read more

• 10 things to do in Edmonton this week: Muttart plant sale, Shooting Guns and Russ

  17-05-2018 11:00 via edmontonjournal.com
  Exit the King
  The University of Alberta Department of Drama’s Studio Theatre season closes out this week with a production of Eugene Ionesco’s absurdist drama Exit the King. The deluded King Berenger, who believes himself to be immortal, rules over a crumbling empire. When he finds out that he’s heading towards his demise, he stubbornly holds on to the delusion as his wife and court attempt to prepare him for the inevitable. Directed by Kevin Sutley; starring Ian Leung, Beth Gr
  
  Read more

• PHOTOS: Police engage with youth during Crime Prevention Week

  17-05-2018 04:39 via edmontonjournal.com
  As part of Crime Prevention Week in Alberta, Edmonton Police Service constables from Northeast Division played basketball with students at Clairview Community Recreation Centre, after meeting with the junior high school students at John D. Bracco School on Wednesday May 16, 2018 to discuss personal safety in a casual setting. The purpose of the event was to promote youth safety in public spaces, to provide a positive engagement opportunity for youth and EPS members, and to help connect yout
  
  Read more

• Video: Wildfire insurance claim deadline extended

  17-05-2018 02:32 via edmontonjournal.com
  Of 900 outstanding insurance claims from the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire, 85 per cent have received extensions from their insurance companies.
  As of May 10, 2018, 97 per cent of residential insurance claims have been settled, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada. The fire resulted in 25,499 residential, 4,151 commercial and 14,444 automobile insurance claims.
  
  Read more

• Bulk of Fort McMurray fire claims settled, but not everyone is happy

  17-05-2018 02:19 via edmontonjournal.com
  Around 97 per cent of insurance claims resulting from the Fort McMurray wildfire have been settled, with 900 yet to be resolved. 
  Alberta’s Insurance Act sets out a two-year deadline for property claims to be settled, but Finance Minister Joe Ceci said Wednesday insurance companies have agreed to extend that deadline on a case-by-case basis.
  “This is a significant result that will help the residents of Wood Buffalo to recover. We won’t let up in our efforts to support the
  
  Read more

• Alberta premier 'prepared to turn off the taps' now that legislation approved

  17-05-2018 02:12 via edmontonjournal.com
  The Alberta government is poised to turn off the taps to British Columbia after approving landmark legislation that could throttle energy exports in defence of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. 
  “If the path forward for the pipeline through B.C. is not settled soon, I am ready and prepared to turn off the taps,” Premier Rachel Notley told a Wednesday news conference, stopping short of outlining how long that would take. “It could happen in 24 hours, it could happen ov
  
  Read more

• Graham Thomson: News conferences shed no new light on fate of Trans Mountain expansion

  17-05-2018 02:10 via edmontonjournal.com
  Well, that was clear as mud.
  Wednesday morning, both the federal and Alberta governments held news conferences to update us on the Kinder Morgan pipeline situation — but we still don’t know if the company will pull the plug in two weeks on the $7.4-billion Trans Mountain expansion; and we still don’t know when or if Alberta will invoke retaliatory measures to turn off the oil taps to British Columbia.
  In the first news conference, federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau anno
  
  Read more

• #HappyWall art installation comes to Sir Winston Churchill Square

  17-05-2018 01:47 via edmontonjournal.com
  Happy Wall, a pixel art installation created by Copenhagen, Denmark, artist Thomas Dambo, was unveiled at Sir Winston Churchill Square on Wednesday, May 16, 2018.The installation is designed to be a hub of activity for people while the square is impacted by Valley Line LRT development and other rehabilitation projects. 
  The installation will be in place until May 2019.
  
  Read more

• Graham Thomson: No new light shed on the future of Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline

  17-05-2018 01:28 via edmontonjournal.com
  After two news conferences, one in Edmonton and one in Ottawa, the future of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion isn’t any clearer, says Edmonton Journal political affairs columnist Graham Thomson. The company has placed a deadline of May 31 to work out a deal between the company, Alberta and Ottawa or the pipeline project to Canada’s West Coast will be sunk.
  
  Read more

• Aggressive species of mosquitoes takes Edmonton by swarm

  17-05-2018 01:27 via edmontonjournal.com
  A particularly aggressive species of mosquito has taken to Edmonton’s skies just before the Victoria Day long weekend.
  Known to biologists as Ochlerotatus spencerii, the mosquitoes that emerged this week tolerate the dry heat of the day and are very active in seeking prey.Their aggression might make them more noticeable to Edmontonians, said Peter Daly, a biological technologist with the City of Edmonton.
  “It’s not that the numbers (of mosquitoes) are particularly high,”
  
  Read more

• Edmontonians make early-morning plans to take in royal wedding

  17-05-2018 01:12 via edmontonjournal.com
  For the second time in less than a decade, Edmontonians will experience the bliss of waking before dawn to view hours of ceremonial pomp broadcast from across the Atlantic Ocean.
  Yes, it’s another royal wedding. And despite a 5 a.m. start Saturday, locals will be watching.
  Joe Zasada, 36, is “planning on it, anyway.” He’s the chairman of the Royal Commonwealth Society of Canada, which has many members who will watch the festivities.
  “I think the royal family holds a
  
  Read more

• Man who allegedly stole City of Edmonton work truck facing 10 charges

  17-05-2018 00:46 via edmontonjournal.com
  Charges have been laid against a man who allegedly stole a City of Edmonton truck from the O’Keefe Service Yard compound Tuesday night, police said Wednesday.
  The 35-year-old was arrested just after 8 p.m. Tuesday when police pinned the truck at the intersection of 103A Avenue and 97 Street.
  Staff at the compound at 10542 Fort Hill Rd. reported hearing a disturbance at around 7:45 p.m. and called police. 
  The Ford F-350 truck was later seen being driven “erratically and dan
  
  Read more

• Paula Simons: Downtown Edmonton quiet as Winnipeg throws our playoff party

  17-05-2018 00:37 via edmontonjournal.com
  You know that feeling, when your neighbours down the street are having a fantastic spring party, and you’re not invited?
  And worse — you really wanted to have your own party that same day, but everyone else went to the neighbour’s party instead of yours, so you’re sitting in your backyard, alone with the mosquitos and dandelions, listening to the big party a few blocks away, feeling jealous and sulky and left-out, because those people are having what was supposed to be yo
  
  Read more

• United Conservative Party leader under fire for 'colourful' comments about prime minister

  17-05-2018 00:32 via edmontonjournal.com
  Opposition leader Jason Kenney — who has repeatedly lauded the importance of civility and decorum in the house — came under fire for insulting remarks he made about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. 
  In a Calgary Sun column published Wednesday, Kenney described Trudeau as “an empty trust-fund millionaire who has the political depth of a finger bowl.
  “He can’t read a briefing note longer than a cocktail napkin,” the United Conservative Party le
  
  Read more

• Edmonton students explore careers in veterinary medicine

  17-05-2018 00:20 via edmontonjournal.com
  Students from J. Percy Page School spent Wednesday morning seeing what it’s like to work at VCA Canada VetEmerg Animal Hospital in Edmonton.
  For one day students from the school had the opportunity to explore careers in health care, social services, journalism, education, law enforcement, technology, the arts, trades and emergency response with 39 different buses taking students to various sites in the city.
  
  Read more

• Oilers Entertainment Group lays off 30 people to focus on core business

  17-05-2018 00:17 via edmontonjournal.com
  The Oilers Entertainment Group (OEG) has laid off about 30 workers under a “new vision” focused on its sports and entertainment operations that stops work on global expansion.
  “Two years was an appropriate time to look at the structure of the company and make sure we had it right moving forward,” OEG spokesman Tim Shipton said Wednesday.
  “We wanted to make sure we had the business model right for the operation of Rogers Place and, looking ahead, make sure we ha
  
  Read more

• Notes from the Dome: Divisions inside NDP and environmental orders issued

  17-05-2018 00:14 via edmontonjournal.com
  A tale of three parties
  Premier Rachel Notley on Wednesday slammed an anti-pipeline tweet from her federal NDP counterpart. 
  “Liberals are giving Texas oil company Kinder Morgan a blank cheque while dumping all the risks on Canadians,” tweeted federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh Wednesday. “It’s clear this pipeline should not be built.”
  Notley told a news conference Singh was “absolutely, fundamentally, incontrovertibly incorrect in every element of that twe
  
  Read more

• City police constable suspended for 30 hours over domestic violence

  17-05-2018 00:13 via edmontonjournal.com
  An Edmonton police constable will be suspended the equivalent of 30 hours without pay after he pleaded guilty under the Police Act to discreditable conduct following a domestic violence case involving his former spouse.
  Const. Jeffrey Hay pleaded guilty to one count of discreditable conduct under the Police Act, according to a May 7 police disciplinary decision. A second count was withdrawn. 
  On March 12, 2017, Hay visited the home of his ex-spouse, identified in an agreed statement of fact
  
  Read more

• Blood and food donations needed ahead of long weekend

  17-05-2018 00:02 via edmontonjournal.com
  The Edmonton Food Bank and Canadian Blood Services are asking for donations to make sure those in need can enjoy their summer, too. 
  Both organizations are keeping donation locations open over the Victoria Day long weekend. The food bank is holding a food drive at all Real Canadian Superstore locations in Edmonton. Canadian Blood Services will be keeping its university clinic open on Friday, Saturday and holiday Monday. Its mobile clinic in Northmount Community Centre will be open on Saturd
  
  Read more

Follow @StAlbertNews on Twitter!