Alberta News Archives

“We should also have an investigation into how Lockheed Martin got this contract.”

The Federal Court of Appeal has ruled Public Works has no choice but to comply with an international trade ruling, which ordered the $180-million project restarted after two losing bidders complained the work ... via The Globe and Mail

The Federal Reserve cut interest rates on Wednesday, but said the risk of inflation was roughly equal to downside risks to growth, suggesting further rate reductions are far from a sure bet. via Globeinvestor.com

“Most Albertans in this age group received a first dose of the vaccine in early childhood”

Health officials are offering free mumps vaccines to students and staff at two Lethbridge post-secondary schools after five recent cases of the illness. via CBC

“If some of you considered that with this new additional tax you may move some of your dollars someplace else, come on down to Montana”

The governor of Montana is suggesting Alberta energy companies unhappy with increased royalties may want to take a closer look south of the border. via Edmonton Sun

“They didn't know him and they didn't know each other”

A 37-year-old man accused of slashing two people with a boxcutter in a series of apparently random attacks has been remanded in custody to undergo a 30-day psychiatric assessment. via Lethbridge Herald

Monday, October 29, 2007, 4:13 PM by Peter Shinn It appears a now-defunct Canadian company is actually the source of the e.coli 0157:H7 outbreak linked to New Jersey-based Topps Meat Company. via Brownfield Network

Meat recalled a month ago that could be contaminated with a potentially fatal bacteria was found in seven northern New Jersey stores, state consumer safety officials said Tuesday. via Newsday.com

“The magnitude of the potential impact will depend on the final form of the enacted legislation and the future prices of oil and gas and cannot be reasonably estimated at this time”

Imperial Oil Ltd., one of Canada's biggest oil producers and refiners, warned Tuesday that Alberta's plans to boost oil and gas royalties could limit its future spending on projects. via The Globe and Mail

Officers and paramedics in Okotoks were left scrambling after two crashes unfolded in quick succession Thursday. via Calgary Herald

“He has shown exemplary prison conduct, once he got the drugs and alcohol out of his system. He's become a normal guy - a bright, intelligent, compassionate man.”

The governor of Montana is poised for a new clash with Canada over the fate of an Alberta man who faces a lethal injection for killing two Americans during a drunken road trip south of the border in 1982. via Dose

VANCOUVER , British Columbia-A three-year-old girl was the sole survivor of a plane crash in Canada's Rocky Mountains, apparently because she was strapped in a child restraint seat, police said Monday. via The Epoch Times

“We had another good sale, with strong participation from all over North America”

Thousands of people from across Canada and around the world registered to bid in the CA$41 million unreserved public auction conducted by Ritchie Bros. via Construction Equip. Distribution

“This piece of information helped us to determine a likely source of contaminated product which led to the Sept. 29 Topps Meat Co. expanded recall.”

WASHINGTON Ranchers Beef Ltd., Balzac, Alberta, has been identified as a likely source of the multistate outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 infections linked to the Topps Meat Co., Elizabeth, N.J. The recall of 21 ... via MeatNews

“The hotel industry is trying to understand who their customers are. Gay people are saying they don't want to be treated differently, but they expect a very specific welcome. They want to be acknowledged for who they are.”

Have you heard the one about the hotel clerk and the gay tourists? Not funny. For gay and lesbian couples, checking in at the front desk can be the most uncomfortable part of a trip. via Hotels

- Canadian boxer Arash Usmanee finished with two strong rounds and edged Michal Chudecki of Poland 18-17 Wednesday in the preliminary round of the World Amateur Boxing Championships.

Usmanee trailed 12-6 after the opening two rounds, but the boxer from Red Deer, Alta., won the next two rounds 7-4 and 5-1 to take the 57-kilogram featherweight bout.

Usmanee's next fight is Saturday against Aybek Abdymomunov of Uzbekistan.

In other Canadian results, Francy Ntetu of Chicoutimi, Que., was stopped by Matvey Korobov of Russia in the third round of a 75-kg middleweight fight. The referee stopped the fight in the third round with Korobov leading 24-2. Read more

“It is absolutely vital that this government be held to account for what may well be the most expensive scandal in Canadian history - the loss of countless billions of Albertans' dollars.”

The Opposition Alberta Liberals are solidly supporting a review panel's recommendation that oil and natural gas royalties be increased by at least 20 per cent. via 102.9 CKDS-FM

“There have not been enough studies done, there has not been a proper assessment in my opinion, consultation has not occurred”

Aboriginal leaders in Alberta have told a company that's proposing to build a nuclear power plant in the northern part of the province they don't like the idea. via Calgary Sun

An Alberta woman is nursing an injured hand after a trap snapped shut while she tried to disable it at a provincial park. via Edmonton Sun

The agency says the meat, from Ranchers Beef Ltd. of Balzac, Alta., could be tainted with E.coli bacteria, which can cause serious illness or, in severe cases, even death. via The Globe and Mail

“Despite numerous enquiries, members of the Edmonton Police Service and the Project KARE Task Force have not been able to locate Maggie Burke or progress her case further”

Previously unknown details of the lives - and deaths - of more than a dozen Edmonton-area women have come to light in striking detail. via Edmonton Sun

“He's a good person to just bring people together.”

The Larimer County Republican Party chairman will resign next month to pursue missionary work. via ReporterHerald.com

“Ed Stelmach had an opportunity to inspire Albertans and he failed”

Stelmach told Albertans during a televised address, in what was the defining speech of his young premiership as he hopes to keep a 36-year Progressive Conservative dynasty alive. via Globe and Mail

“He basically takes a person who is vulnerable and then victimizes them further”

Many cops who put in hours catching a con later convicted for befriending then betraying elderly, disabled and ailing people are shocked and frustrated he is back on the streets and allegedly up to his old ... via Canoe

“Canadian manipulation to benefit foreign companies to the detriment of Colombians”

By Chris Arsenault OTTAWA, - These are prosperous times for Canadian mining and oil companies extracting resources from Colombia. via Inside Costa Rica

“They accepted my case but said they could not do anything about it until I had exhausted all other legal possibilities and avenues”

- A renowned Inuit artist says a Canada Revenue Agency auditor wrote racist comments about him in a memo in his tax file.

Jonas Faber went to a tax lawyer after he was audited and the lawyer filed a Freedom of Information request to get a copy of his tax file.

"To my total disbelief I found a lot of untrue remarks, fabrications, as well as some very nasty racial remarks about me where I was so bad I was likened to Latin and South Americans," Faber said Friday in an interview with The Canadian Press from his home in Summerland, B.C. Read more

“Lots or rockets, machine-gun fire and myself and one other tank were the only two tanks not hit that day. So you have a different reality of the whole thing”

FORWARD - War may be hell but for some Canadian troops serving in Afghanistan, getting a chance to do some actual soldiering in a war zone is a dream come true.

This is especially so for longtime career soldiers who felt they missed out on combat experience during the decades when the Canadian Forces were more involved in peacekeeping around the world.

Traditionally, it's often been young people, those just entering the first blush of adulthood, who have rushed out and enlisted for an opportunity to go to war. Read more

The parents of Const. Leo Johnston have lost a court bid to keep their son's body in a northern Alberta cemetery. via CBC

A now-defunct Canadian beef firm was the likely source of bacteria-contaminated meat used to make frozen hamburgers that later sickened 40 people in eight states, the Agriculture Department said Friday.

A joint U.S.-Canadian investigation matched the DNA fingerprint of E. coli O157:H7 bacteria isolated from beef trim that had remained in storage with Rancher's Beef Ltd. to samples taken both from victims of the food poisoning outbreak and packages, both intact and opened, of Topps Meat Co. frozen hamburgers. Rancher's Beef of Balzac, Alberta, had supplied Topps with beef trim used to make the patties, the USDA said. Read more

A substitute school bus driver faces a traffic charge after his bus and a semi-trailer collided near Camrose Friday morning. via CBC

A strong showing in financials took the Toronto stock market higher Thursday morning while oilpatch investors awaited details later in the day on what the Alberta government plans to do about royalties in the ... via CBC News

“She had a blanket over her, her face was white and you could only see the whites of her eyes ... I started to cry right away.”

Potential confusion about new road work designed to try to reduce collisions is being seen as a possible cause of a fatal crash on Hwy. via Slam Sports

“But what happens is when there's a very, very large amount of salt in food, people acquire a taste for that, so low-sodium foods taste bland to them”

Urgent action is needed by government and industry to reduce sodium in foods eaten by Canadians, to prevent death and disability from stroke and heart disease, a coalition of health organizations said Thursday. via CBC News

Canadian officials have been advocating Montana commute the death sentence of a Canadian national on death row, Gov. via Missoulian

“We remember him today with deep respect and admiration.”

David Adams, one of the founding dancers of the National Ballet of Canada who appeared on stage with some of the world's most famous ballerinas, has died following a long illness. via 102.9 CKDS-FM

“We responded by focusing our programs back into areas where we either have, or can establish a material presence with, economic projects.”

Petro-Canada CEO Ron Brenneman, whose company reported a 14.5 per cent increase in third-quarter profit Thursday, says the possibility of a large oil and gas royalty hike in Alberta has cast a "pall" over the ... via CANOE

“Our financial and operating performance is on track for 2007, which is evidence that our resource play model is working very well”

EnCana Corp., Canada's largest energy producer, is going ahead with the Deep Panuke natural gas project off the coast of Nova Scotia. via Globeinvestor.com

“I think that becomes more of a geopolitical question. It's not resource-driven”

Workers on the deck of a drill ship set up a well for the Devon Energy Corp. in Canada's Beaufort Sea in this 2005 handout photo. via Boston Globe

“We now have some funds to have training flights over the Arctic”

- The Canadian military shot down reports Wednesday suggesting several Canadian fighter jets were recently relocated to an air base in Labrador in response to recent interceptions of Russian bombers near domestic airspace.

Capt. Steve Neta of Norad confirmed that an unspecified number of CF-18 Hornets had been dispatched to the near-defunct base at Happy Valley-Goose Bay. But he insisted the move was prompted by construction work at their regular base at 3 Wing Bagotville, Que.

The Russian air force has stepped up activity since President Vladimir Putin's government boosted military funding and revived the nearly moribund training exercises. Read more

“There may be some changes. We just need to wait and see what they are. Imperial like the rest of industry will be watching the premier's news conference with considerable interest.”

Premier Ed Stelmach served up broad hints rather than hard numbers Wednesday in his first response to a report that calls for energy companies to pay $2 billion more annually to develop Alberta's non-renewable ... via CFRB

“Mr. Svekla's attack on the validity of the authorization fails”

Accused killer Thomas Svekla is escorted into the Fort Saskatchewan courthouse May, 2007. via Edmonton Sun

Closing more plants is going to cost Weyerhaeuser Co. The Federal Way-based forest products company said today that mothballing three of its North American plants will cost between $47 million and $63 million. via The News Tribune

“We're consulting with the Crown (prosecutor) ... pending the outcome of the autopsy the charge could be changed to second-degree murder”

Grieving relatives of a woman who died yesterday after being beaten into a coma were left reeling after hearing that police suspect her own 16-year-old son of the attack. via Edmonton Sun

“It's obviously a wretched case”

The dispute over a slain Mountie's final resting place is an "unusual" case that may be a difficult one for his parents to appeal, a University of Alberta law professor says. via Edmonton Sun

None of the children is seriously hurt. . Calgary, 2006: Seven children sustain minor injuries when a fully loaded school bus collides with a car in S.W. Calgary. via Calgary Herald

“We are appelaing to Canadians not to treat peaceful activists like common criminals”

Two American peace activists denied entry to Canada after arrests at anti-war protests landed them in an FBI crime database say they'll try again Thursday so they can talk to Canadian MPs. via CFRB

An Alberta man accused of killing two prostitutes lied to his family about a hockey bag that turned out to hold human remains, according to a new court document. via CBC

“I still am unnerved that nobody from the Third Academy ever got back to me”

Traffic investigators are studying a motorist's claim he saw the same school bus involved in last Thursday's fatal crash being driven erratically a day earlier. via Calgary Herald

“And most startups fail because they are undercapitalized.”

Four former WestJet bosses are drawing up plans to launch a Calgary-based carrier to fly travellers in smaller cities to larger centres. via Edmonton Sun

Building greener homes in highly populated urban areas is the key to reducing the housing sector's impact on the environment, according to a study by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. via The Globe and Mail

“For many young people, he (Young) is the godfather of grunge. To others, he is the hippie who never sold out”

For veteran CBC journalist and rock writer Bob Mersereau, the best way to come up with a list of Canada's best-ever 100 albums was to let the people decide. via 24 Hours Toronto

“It is the hardest pediatric neuropsychiatric disorder to live with as a sibling, parent, or foster parent. Nothing else even comes close. It is worse than any medical disorder in pediatrics.”

One of the disorders suffered by a 14-year-old Alberta girl who killed her parents and young brother is "the worst medical or psychiatric problem there is to bear as a parent or caregiver," says an ... via MyTELUS

LAC LA BICHE, Alta. Family and friends of a slain Mountie say they have blocked an attempt by his widow to have his body dug up and moved to the national RCMP cemetery in Regina. via The Toronto Star

The Board of Directors of Progress Energy Ltd. today announced that it has set the distribution policy for the fourth quarter of 2007, maintaining monthly distributions at $0.10 per trust unit for Progress ... via Customer Interaction Solutions

“In many respects, you could say this was a horrible lapse of judgment that led to these events occurring”

Canada's youngest convicted multiple murderer could qualify for a rarely used optional sentence when she learns her fate in southern Alberta this week, nearly three months after being found guilty of ... via The Globe and Mail

“Today I would say it's closer to $2 million and up. Prices in new condo developments in Toronto are up in the range of $1,000 to $1,500 per square foot, which is a relatively new price range in Toronto in the last few years.”

While the subprime problem south of the border continues to eat away at America's housing markets, homeowners across Canada are enjoying strong sales. via Sympatico Finance

“She was so sweet. She was always smiling and pretty generous”

Sombre parents, some tearful, emerged from an assembly Friday for students at a Calgary private school grieving the death of a classmate who was fatally injured in a school bus crash. via Edmonton Journal

“They should do the mistake here, better than doing it in real life and costing a life there”

Four Afghan villagers were shot at CFB Wainwright Tuesday. The villagers were role players, Afghan immigrants helping to train soldiers heading to Afghanistan in February. via Edmonton Journal

“Knowing my husband, I truly believe that he would have chosen the RCMP cemetery ... as his final resting place”

The body of slain Mountie Const. Leo Johnston will be disinterred from a cemetery in his hometown of Lac La Biche next week, a county official there said yesterday. via Edmonton Sun

“Major crimes detectives determined that despite association to individuals involved and the identification of Van Wijk at the crime scene, there were inconsistencies with other evidence gathered during the investigation”

An attempted murder charge against a 19-year-old Red Deer man - one of several people arrested after a bloody brawl last month that claimed the life of a reputed member of the Crazy Dragons gang - was withdrawn ... via Lethbridge Herald

“I realized something bad had happened.”

An RCMP officer struggled with his emotions in a Wetaskiwin courtroom Monday as he described the explosive collision that killed his colleague on the QE II Highway. via Edmonton Journal

VEGREVILLE/630 CHED - One pedestrian has been killed and another injured in a bizarre accident involving a train in Vegreville. via Rock 101

“You have to look back 25 years to see this level of exploration”

A decade after they toiled through the lean years, miners are the new rock stars of Canada's industrial workforce. via CBC News

“They have been trying to dig out from their shared name with the federal Liberals for that long. It is a longer-term thing.”

Like a young person embarrassed by his parents, Alberta Liberals are taking great pains to distance themselves from their namesakes in Ottawa. via 102.9 CKDS-FM

“Knowing my husband, I truly believe that he would have chosen the RCMP cemetery ... as his final resting place”

An Alberta judge has sided with a slain Mountie's widow who wants her husband's remains exhumed from northern Alberta and reburied at the national RCMP cemetery in Regina. via Edmonton Sun

“That I'll begin to look for my brother in the trees -- look for a sign of them all”

UPDATED: 2007-10-20 03:56:18 MST The grieving has gone on for four long years as the community of Summer Beaver seeks closure By THANE BURNETT , SUMMER BEAVER, ONT. via Calgary Sun

“It's not worth it to try to save a few bucks by not truthfully declaring the value of the vehicle”

Edmonton man fined after lying at the border about the cost of his car More Canadians are importing U.S. vehicles to save money, but officials say trying to evade taxes at the border can prove costly, something ... via Edmonton Sun

“He was northbound on 831 and failed to stop for a stop sign when he hit Mr. Blackmer in the driver's side door. Mr. Blackmer was traveling westbound on 45.”

Police have identified the two truck drivers killed near Lamont Tuesday evening. via Edmonton Sun

- The Canadian, Dutch and Australian navies are looking for something to shoot at - preferably something fast.

Canada's Defence Department has issued a sole-source contract to a Medicine Hat, Alta., company to study the risks associated with using obsolete U.S. missiles for target practice by warships.

The $1.05 million contract, which was fast-tracked in the name of national security, aims to see whether Canadian frigates and destroyers can safely use old U.S. Terrier surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles for training. Read more

“If I could tell you why I didn't see it, I'd tell you right now. ... I only got my foot on the brake. I didn't have time to press it down.”

A truck driver who hit a police cruiser, killing the RCMP officer inside, told court Thursday he only noticed the police lights flashing in front of him three seconds before slamming into the vehicle. via Edmonton Journal

“But these are not the government's resources or the industry's resources, they are the birthright of all Albertans ... and I must be guided by that.”

It's simply wrong to say that Alberta's current royalty regime has been a failure, says Premier Ed Stelmach. via CBC News

“At some point we might sell the plants. If market conditions dramatically improve, we might reopen them”

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. - Lumber and paper producer Weyerhaeuser Co. said Thursday it will indefinitely mothball three plants, two of them in Canada, before the end of 2007 because of weak customer demand amid a ... via Canadian Business Magazine

“At some point we might sell the plants. If market conditions dramatically improve, we might reopen them”

Lumber and paper producer Weyerhaeuser Co. said Thursday it will indefinitely mothball three plants, two of them in Canada, before the end of 2007 because of weak customer demand amid a sagging housing market. via 102.9 CKDS-FM

“The decline in North American housing starts has reduced demand for wood products, requiring us to rationalize our supply of OSB and engineered wood”

Weyerhaeuser Co. will close oriented strand board plants in Drayton Valley, Alberta, and Wawa, Ontario, and a laminated strand lumber plant in Deerwood, Minn., before the end of the year. via The News Tribune

“One of the patients we listed as critical was trapped and the Calgary fire department did an excellent job of extricating that patient”

The two were among 11 youngsters taken to Alberta Children's Hospital hospital after the crash, said Rick Lapointe of Calgary's emergency services. via The Globe and Mail

EDMONTON/ALBERTA - A man who killed a fellow inmate in a Quebec prison had three years added to his 34-year prison sentence after being found guilty of threatening to kill a female guard. via CHEDAM

“There is no information to show he incited or created the disturbance.”

One was trying to avoid a fight, another was trying to stop one and a third may have been a Good Samaritan who met a deadly end just for trying to help. via Canoe

“He loved his son more than anything”

RCMP are on the lookout for a small car travelling on Highway 44 Monday morning that might have witnessed a fatal accident near Westlock. via Edmonton Sun

MORE CALGARY HEADLINES >> Results stream in from Calgary municipal election Click here for unofficial, updated results. via CBC

“When two BQ-9000 Certified Marketers come together to build a biodiesel facility, manage a project, and market biodiesel it creates an amazing synergy”

Canadian Bionenergy Corporation, a leading supplier of premium biodiesel in Canada, has announced an agreement with Renewable Energy Group, Inc. via Market Wire