EDMONTON - City council will not revive the City Centre Airport debate, despite the pleadings of Coun. Tony Caterina.
Council voted 7-4 Wednesday to reject a motion by the Ward 3 councillor calling for a new study of the possibility of increasing passenger traffic at the downtown airport.
The Alberta government has failed every year since 2001 to collect even the bottom range of its resource royalty target -- costing the provincial treasury billions of dollars, the auditor general noted Wednesday.
The Tory government`s "optimal" royalty take each year is between 20 to 25 per cent of the oil and gas industry`s net operating revenue, but the province hasn`t surpassed the bottom of that range since 2001, Auditor General Fred Dunn told the legislature`s public accounts committee.
With Alberta`s position as a "low-cost jurisdiction" threatened by high housing costs, the city should look at a number of initiatives, including allowing secondary suites in all residential neighbourhoods, says a Calgary Chamber of Commerce report to be released today.
The paper, which will be unveiled at the Gaining Ground Sustainable Urban Development Leadership Summit this afternoon, goes through the gamut of municipal policies and argues local governments can best influence affordability through changing their approaches to land supply, land-use and development policies, and permitting and approval processes.
The provincewide boom in housing prices gripping Alberta for the last several years has been replaced this spring with price variations tied to local economies. They now range from increases of 23 per cent to declines of 15 per cent, according to a national survey by Century 21 Canada brokers.
The report says prices of homes in Alberta communities this spring are determined by the strength of the local economy and the supply of new housing built during the boom.
Taiwan giant poised to pour $788M into oilsands deals
A new round of tire kicking by foreign oil companies looking for a way into Alberta`s oilsands appears to be at hand after Taiwan`s government-controlled refiner said it`s preparing to invest almost $800 million in oilsands exploration and development here over the next five years.
A statement on CPC Corp.`s website says the company plans to pour $788 million into the Alberta oilsands, without naming potential partners or a specific project.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. reiterated Wednesday that its Horizon oilsands project should start production in the third quarter of the year after delays.
The first phase of the project was 94 per cent complete at the end of the first quarter, Calgary-based Canadian Natural said in a statement.
Some of the world`s biggest hotel chains are looking at setting up shop near Calgary`s booming international airport.
Plans coming before the Calgary Planning Commission today call for a 270-room Hilton Hotel, a 126-room Hampton Inn and a 123-room Hampton Suites as part of a 3.5-hectare complex north of Airport Tr. between 19 St. and 22 St. N.E. The $80-million project would take two years to complete.
OTTAWA — Census data suggests the average family in Red Deer has more in its wallets than it did the last time Statistics Canada asked people about how much money they make.
Information from the 2006 census released Thursday indicates the median income for families in Red Deer was $74,566 — an increase from the 2001 census, when it was $67,770 when adjusted for inflation.
The Town of Canmore has created a new department and management position in order to pursue long-term P3 relationships with companies in the construction industry.
The position of general manager of community infrastructure has been designed to stop the trend of capital project tenders coming in millions of dollars over budget, with the most recent, a $5 million upgrade to the wastewater treatment plant, coming in $2.2 million over.
Banff council has backed an average increase of 5.04 per cent in overall municipal property taxes.
On Monday (April 28), council passed its $24.5 million tax rate bylaw for 2008.
They also amended the 2008 operating budget to increase municipal tax revenue to $11.6 million and increase the amount transferred to its dwindling capital reserves to $1.9 million. That`s because the province did not take as much in school taxes as estimated.
If Canmore were to stop developing right now, the municipal coffers could be as much as $130 million in the red within a few short years, according to a new study released this week.
The growth study report was put together by the Town of Canmore and the engineering firm UMA as part of the community`s rewrite of the municipal development plan, a process that has been dubbed Mining the Future II.
Canmore`s Planning Commission had a busy week hearing three separate applications over two days of meetings, including one that almost legalized two suites that have been operating outside the law for some time.
An application to convert an existing duplex into a four-unit townhouse in Teepee Town was proposed Monday (April 28) and tabled by the commission for further discussions on zoning part of the building for employee housing.
City council`s recent approval of the sale of up to 75 residential lots requiring a commitment to Built Green building standards and the mandatory installation of renewable energy technology, has Ald. Ted Clugston pretty pumped up.
"I`m just really excited about it," he told the News Tuesday.
"I love the fact that we`ll be able to net-meter and the city is allowing that now."
New street lights will soon brighten the long, dark drive from Edmonton to its international airport, Transportation Minister Luke Ouellette announced Thursday.
This summer, highway construction crews will install 230 light standards on the QEII Highway from Ellerslie Road to Airport Road, as part of the record $1.9 billion the province will spend on highway upgrades this year.
Coal bigger than underground economy, but definitely below the radar
Not all fossil fuels are created equal.
Up to 2,000 billion tonnes of coal carpet Alberta, government earth scientists estimate. The heating value of this astronomical endowment is more than double the total energy in all the province`s conventional liquid oil, oilsands ore and natural gas, Alberta Energy calculates.
Lacombe County has donated $300,000 to Red Deer College.
The contribution to the college`s Building Communities Through Learning Campaign will be split, with $250,000 donated over three years for new facilities and $50,000 for a new scholarship.
Ald. Jim Stevenson will continue his fight to get a tunnel built beneath the airport`s planned new runway by asking his council colleagues to approve a cost analysis of the project.
The alderman wants Airport Trail extended east, which would require running it under the runway at an estimated cost of $450 million.
The growing population of the northeast quadrant underscores the need for the tunnel, Stevenson said.
Provincial funding jump-starts careers of teen apprentices
Adrien Gosselin is still two months away from graduation, but the Bishop Grandin High School student is already an apprenticed welder.
Calgary teenagers such as Gosselin are getting a jump-start in their careers thanks to a $14 million provincial investment in career and technology labs across Alberta schools.
"This is an opportunity to create more and more opportunities for the students. It`s excellent," said Gosselin, who was introduced to welding at Bishop Grandin High and is taking the registered apprenticeship program.
Courts - A High River tax preparer who told clients to create fictitious businesses to claim against their employment income has been jailed and fined for tax evasion.
Provincial court Judge Sharon Van De Veen handed Donald Davis an 18-month sentence plus $90,000 in fines -- a sum equal to the amount of taxes he evaded.
