It`s the golden rule of Canadian politics: whoever has the gold, makes the rules.
Alberta is in the enviable position of having the gold as Premier Ed Stelmach jets off to Quebec City this week to meet with his provincial peers, says local political scientist Chaldeans Mensah. With a surplus likely to top $12 billion this year, soaring oil prices and an unparalleled economic boom, the province`s fortune is being mirrored by downturns in the manufacturing sectors in Quebec and Ontario.
Edmonton Trail shops fear ruin because of road work
It`s fitting that Suzanne Delaine`s business is named What`s in Store, because that`s exactly what she`s wondering as road construction has almost closed her northeast shop to foot and vehicle traffic.
"I`m very scared," Delaine said as heavy machines and dump trucks worked feverishly outside her small, black-and-white spotted store at the corner of 15th Avenue and Edmonton Trail N.E.
Business at her vintage clothing and costume store, and others nearby, came to a screeching halt Monday as construction began on the usually busy artery.
Mining behemoth Barrick Gold Corp. made a bid Monday to woo Calgary-based oil and gas producer Cadence Energy Inc. away from suitor Daylight Resources Trust.
But a rise in Daylight`s shares increased the value of its stock swap offer, leaving shareholders with a difficult decision to make before next Tuesday`s vote on the merger.
Barrick, the world`s largest gold producer, with market capitalization of $43 billion, is offering $354 million, or $6 per share in cash, for Cadence, a 10 per cent premium over the close last Friday.
Outgoing Stampede president and chairman George Brookman plans to leave his mark on the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth in the form of a waterfront park that will expand the grounds.
Construction of Gladstone Park is set to begin next year on the east side of the Elbow River below Scotsman`s Hill in Ramsay and could be completed as early as 2010, Brookman said yesterday.
The green space will bring the leafy feel of Prince`s Island Park to the Stampede grounds, he said. "My biggest legacy will be the park," said Brookman.
Lacombe Lake water test results relatively normal: Alberta Environment
Alberta Environment says a review of water tests done on Lacombe Lake and a nearby creek shows nothing unexpected.
"The data is fairly consistent with what we expect to see for a Central Alberta lake and a Prairie-fed creek," said department spokesman Chris Bourdeau.
A group of about 20 area residents commissioned the tests of water taken from four spots in the lake and one location on Whelp Creek, which is occasionally diverted into the lake.
Construction of new SPCA building expected to start in spring of 2009
Construction of the new, larger SPCA building is expected to start in August and be completed in 10 months.
On Monday, the city`s municipal planning committee approved Red Deer and District SPCA`s site development plans for a 13,815-square-foot animal shelter and pet crematorium.
The $3.7-million facility will be four times larger than the building the SPCA has operated in for 30 years on the corner of 77th Street and 45th Avenue Close. The organization will remain there until the new facility, located just northwest of the old building, is up and running.
Red Deer city council heard on Monday that rising construction costs and complexity were behind a $4.2-million increase in the cost of two major road improvement projects.
Councillors unanimously approved the addition of $3 million to what will now be the $13-million upgrade to 32nd Street and Gaetz Avenue, instead of $10 million.
An extra $1.2 million was also approved by the majority of councillors for improvements to 40th Avenue and 77th Street, near the entrance to Three Mile Bend and Olymel.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but Edmonton is in a death spiral.
A just-released study confirms the obvious -- that Edmonton is not only billions of dollars behind in overdue repair and rehabilitation projects, but badly cash-strapped to meet the demands of population growth.
Thus, neighbourhood sidewalks, curbs and roads crumble. Our iconic main street, Jasper Avenue, is an eyesore. Our scant or crumbling inventory of bridges, LRT lines and freeways causes traffic to congest, then gridlock.
EDMONTON - A travelling fraudster caught with credit card data, skimming equipment and $30,000 was sentenced Tuesday to 16 months in jail.
Eric Stephens, 49, of Surrey, B.C., pleaded guilty to six charges, including one count of fraud under $5,000, possessing the instruments of forgery and having bogus credit cards.
We`ve all heard construction costs in Edmonton have gone through the roof.
Now city officials have crunched some numbers that show just how out-of-control things have become.
Transportation department officials yesterday reported that the cost of roadwork in Edmonton soared by more than 40% between 2006 and 2008. That`s well above the 26.5% City Hall number crunchers had predicted.
"Each time we get information it`s frustrating," said Mayor Stephen Mandel. "We can`t count on it." He said budgets for individual construction projects have become nothing more than a "moving target."
A rural landowners group is attempting to stake claim to the province`s burgeoning coal bed methane resource, contending the Alberta government isn`t the rightful owner.
Bowden-area rancher Glenn Norman of the United Landowners of Alberta said Tuesday scientific evidence is building on the origins of Alberta`s coal bed methane, a type of natural gas found in underground coal seams.
For Norman, the studies show much of the methane is renewable, being constantly created by bacteria in a process dubbed biogenic. The provincial government should therefore treat the resource like solar or wind energy, and not collect royalties as if it were akin to conventional natural gas, suggests Norman, 52.
Calgarians are questioning a survey that says they`re less worried about litter, vandalism and unruly neighbours than residents of Canada`s other major cities.
The survey, published by Statistics Canada on Tuesday, is out of date with the new realities of this growing metropolis, say some Calgarians.
The report is based on a 2004 survey and found just 13 per cent of Calgarians felt they had concerns about "physical incivility," which includes problems with garbage and litter, vandalism, graffiti and other property damage in their neighbourhood.
With more industrial real estate projects reaching completion, the market has seen the vacancy rate ease upwards from the beginning of the year, says a report by Colliers International in Calgary.
The report for the second quarter of 2008 says the vacancy rate continued to increase to 2.32 per cent from 2.19 per cent in the first quarter of the year.
And the vacancy rate is expected to climb over the next three to nine months with the arrival of just over two million square feet of industrial real estate product on the market by the end of this year.
Residential MLS sales in Calgary for the first half of this year showed the largest decline in the country compared with a year ago, according to statistics released Tuesday by the Canadian Real Estate Association.
The number of MLS sales in the city during the first six months of 2008 fell by 32.3 per cent to 13,525 units and the total dollar volume also decreased by the biggest percentage in the country, by 31.6 per cent to $5.6 billion.
The average MLS sale price in Calgary increased by 1.1 per cent to $416,109 compared with the first half of 2007 while new listings rose by 14.7 per cent to 33,954 units.
The City of Calgary will move forward with a bylaw phasing out the use of pesticides, despite an afternoon of tangled council voting.
In a six-part vote, council approved removing set exemptions for some uses and the public engagement around the restriction of herbicides, insecticides and fungicides.
That left some onlookers -- and aldermen -- confused about what it all meant. It even led one aldermen who had spearheaded the pesticide bylaw in the first place to vote against it.
BOYLE, Alta. -- A rural politician is calling on the Alberta government to improve a busy secondary highway after a fuel spill damaged residential properties.
On Monday, a transport truck carrying aviation fuel blew a tire, the driver lost control and the truck rolled onto Marlene Diachyshyn`s front yard on Hwy. 831.
An environmental consultant and crews continued work on cleaning up the area yesterday. Thorhild councillor Wayne Croswell says he can recall at least four other accidents involving semi-trucks on the same highway.
Downtown Business Association trying to reduce crime, graffiti
Basic design principles could play a key role in reducing crime and nuisances for downtown businesses, says a graffiti abatement officer.
The Downtown Business Association, in partnership with Steve Woolrich, will conduct two audits of two downtown community blocks, said Natalie Turner, graffiti program co-ordinator with the association.
Woolrich, who has a long history of providing store security for businesses in Red Deer and Rocky Mountain House, is director of SeCure Consulting Solutions Inc.
Land owners preparing court case, arguing ownership of a new kind of natural gas
Land owners from across Alberta plan to sue the province over ownership of shallow gas.
United Landowners of Alberta disputes the province`s authority over coalbed methane found above the Lee Park shale formation, Bowden farmer Glenn Norman said on Tuesday.
The formation is an impermeable layer of rock that separates water aquifers, said Norman, a key member of the Pine Lake Surface Rights Action Group.
He has found information indicating that pockets of "biogenic" methane found above the Lee Park formation come from ongoing biological processes, not from coal.
SYLVAN LAKE — The shopping district here is about to expand south with the opening of the first store in the Ryders Square Shopping Centre.
Shoppers Drug Mart is expected to welcome its first customers this week, with a grand opening to be celebrated on Saturday. Sobeys, the Royal Bank and a half dozen other stores are scheduled to follow suit within a few months.
A news release issued by Shoppers Drug Mart on Tuesday said its 14,000-square-foot store will offer a full-service beauty department, a food and beverage section, digital photo processing services, a nutrition centre, and health and wellness seminars.
