Fire crews are working hard this morning to bring a wildfire in Saddle Hills County under control.
They were able to hold the 35 hectare blaze with retardant and helicopters dropping buckets over water over night.
27 firefighters from Alberta Environment and Sustainable Development have responded, along with an aircraft group and two helicopters.
The blaze is located in the northwest quarter of section 19, just east of range road 90.
The first 50 members of the ACAC Hall of Fame were inducted Saturday in Edmonton.
Included were three people with connections to Grande Prairie Regional College.
Bob Waldenberger launched the Phys Ed department at the college in the 60s and Jason Haldane played volleyball in the early 90s, before playing for the Canadian National team and for Great Britain at the 2012 London Olympics.
Doug Morris was a four time ACAC badminton Coach of the Year and CCAA Coach of the Year in 1987.
Also from the Peace region, hockey player Ken Lovsin of Peace River was inducted.
Seven awards have been handed out to local and international filmmakers at the 8th Reel Shorts Film Festival.
Dotty was named the Best Live Action Short, while Grandpa and Me and a Helicopter to Heaven won Best Documentary Short and Oh Sheep! took home Best Animated Short.
Fool’s Day was the Audience Choice winner.
In the Frantic 48 Hour Film Contest, The C Word took home the top prize, while Learning to Ride was the Audience Choice.
Julian by Devon Burbank also won the Youth Screenplay Competition.
Road work begins today on a portion of 100th avenue between 84th street and Landing drive.
The upgrade and realignment work means that portion of roadway will be closed for close to three weeks.
A detour will be set up that will take drivers down 84th Street to the Countryside South area on 68th Avenue, and then back up 92nd Street.
Only local traffic will be allowed into the Swan City and Meadowview mobile home communities.
The work is expected to wrap up on June 1st.
It was a Mother’s Day that Joan Kuss will never forget.
The Grande Prairie native had her ticket drawn as the winner of this Year’s Rotary Dream home Lottery, meaning she is the new owner of a $1.1 million home in Carriage Lane Estates.
It was also a good day for Charles and Dania Vivash of Wembley, as they won the $150,000 cash prize in the 50/50 cash jackpot.
The day also saw Johanna Lanada of Grande Prairie win the final early bird prize of a GMC Terrain.
The final draws were moved up to yesterday after the lottery sold out for the second year in a row.
Lottery organizers also announced yesterday that High Mark Homes would build the dream home for a third straight year in 2015.
Before it even began, Ken Hughes has dropped out of the Progressive Conservative Party leadership race.
Hughes says he feels the consensus is that former federal cabinet minister Jim Prentice is the leader that Alberta currently needs.
The former Municipal Affairs minister’s decision follows Justice Minister Jonathan Denis’ announcement Sunday that he too would not be running, and would support Prentice as well.
Former Infrastructure minister Ric McIver is left as the only candidate, with Prentice expected to announce his run soon.
The first case of measles in the North Zone has been reported. Dr Albert deVilliers, the medical officer of health for the North Zone of Alberta Health Services, says the case involves an adult female from the Fort McMurray region, and is a travel related occurrence.
“This person traveled internationally and came back and developed the disease. Â So it is not part of the current outbreak that is happening in the province. Â And also, at this stage, the region is not in an outbreak because we have just one imported case.”
Dr deVilliers reminds everyone to make sure they have received both doses of the measles vaccine. Clinics are being held across the north zone to get everyone caught up with their vaccinations. More info on the clinics is available through both Health Link Alberta, and online at www.albertahealthservices.ca
One lucky ticket buyer will become the new owner of a home in Carriage Lane Estates on Sunday afternoon. The grand prize draw in the Rotary Dream Home Lottery will take place at 4:30 on Sunday, as well as draws for all remaining prizes, including the final early bird prize and the 50/50 cash jackpot. This year’s lottery sold out over the Easter weekend, marking the earliest sell out in it’s history.
Many Grande Prairie business owners and residents turned out this morning to hear Alberta’s labour minister Thomas Lukaszuk talk about the current state of the Temporary Foreign Worker program. Two weeks ago the Federal Government imposed a moratorium on the food service sector’s access to TFWs while they review the entire program. Lukaszuk says a review should have happened years ago.
“This program was a flawed program to begin with but it was the only program we had so we worked with it, but you don’t have to freeze an industry and develop a better program, you can actually bring better enforcement to the flawed program while you develop something better.”
There have been a number of allegations in recent months about an array of employers abusing the program. Lukaszuk says those cases are not indicitive of the majority of employers. He says he wants to work with Ottawa to get the moratorium lifted and perhaps even find a way for the province’s to handle those that are abusing the program.
“We can definitely help them with enforcement, so we can catch those bad apples and prosecute them. That’s something that a province can do, not under the current employment standards legislation because the feds haven’t given us that responsibility, but if they were to do so, we can do the enforcement for them”
Many in the community and across the province are concerned about their businesses staying afloat the longer the hiring freeze continues. Lukaszuk says there are over 80,000 Temporary Foreign Workers working in the Grande Prairie area, 15% of those are in the restaurant industry.
“You will start seeing the impact of it within a very short period of time, and at the end of the day, it will impact Canadians. If a restaurant has to shift from 24/7 to only 12 hour operation, there are Canadians on that midnight shift that will be losing their jobs alongside TFWs.”
Lukaszuk says it’s a humanitarian issue as much as a business issue. Any Temporary Foreign Workers who were in the process of renewing permits when the moratorium was suddenly imposed are now in limbo. If they are unable to renew those existing permits, they will be forced to leave the country when they expire, and many their families as well.
Any document with your personal information on it shouldn’t be tossed in your garbage, as it can be used for identity fraud.
That’s why the RCMP, Alberta Motor Association and Shed-It have partnered for a free document shredding event in Grande Prairie Saturday.
AMA Crime Prevention Coordinator Wendy Mah says it can be incredibly difficult to get your life on track if your identity is stolen.
“It can be as simple as taking out a credit card or bank account in your name, it can go even further into mortgages or investment accounts, and at some point you could have a complete identity takeover where all your accounts are compromised.
Anything with your name, address, phone number, financial information, SIN, or birth date can be used, like on bank or credit card statements, utility bills, and store receipts.
Mah adds that identity crime is on the rise.
“Everyone knows someone who’s had their credit card compromised or had to go to the bank and had their debit card replaced just because someone has skimmed their account. Those are the very basic types of identity fraud.”
From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. tomorrow, residents can bring up to six boxes of personal documents to the parking lot at City Hall to be properly shredded.
The service is free as the kickoff to Crime Prevention Week in Grande Prairie, but is not available to businesses.
In exchange, donations are being accepted for the local food bank.
The Community Foundation of Northwestern Alberta welcomed three new board of directors this week, while saying goodbye to four outgoing members.
Joining the board were Jenn Dodd, Serge Martin, and Rob Neil, while among those leaving were board chair Leonard Scharbach, vice chair Brent Oilund, Treasurer Pat Cyr, as well as Perry Sorensen.
Their departures meant a whole new executive was selected, with Aquatera CEO Bernd Manz taking over as the Foundation’s new board chair.
Kim Gravengard is the new vice chair, while Devon Wardley was named treasurer.
Over the last 18 years, the Community Foundation has dispersed just under $4 million in grants to local charitable programs and projects.
Cleanup is underway after a train derailment in Slave Lake yesterday afternoon.
The incident occurred around 4:15 Thursday, when nine cars carrying pulp derailed.
No injuries have been reported and no dangerous goods spilled.
Slave Lake Mayor Tyler Warman says many of the cars have been removed and much of the track replaced already.
“There are three cars still on the south side of the line that will be removed. It’s anticipated they’ll be moved by the end of the day. 240 feet of track have been replaced; they’ve got machinery working throughout the night.”
A train is scheduled to pass through the town today, even though the crossing is still closed, with manpower to ensure safety.
The nearby families that were evacuated are expected to return home tonight.
“Six residences were evacuated – a total of nine people and five families – last night, who were put up in temporary accommodation, hotels and meals in town, assisted by the Red Cross.”
Warman adds he’s been assured by CN those costs will be covered.
The railway continues to investigate.
Photo by @lrisebrough on Twitter
The unemployment rate in northwest Alberta held steady last month at 3.9 per cent.
The Athabasca-Grande Prairie was the same as in March, and 0.1Â per cent less than in April last year.
Province-wide the rate dropped 0.2Â per cent from last month to 4.7, but that’s still 0.3Â per cent more than last April.
Alberta lost 2,900 jobs last month, but compared to last year at this time, there are more than 72,000 more people working.
The country’s rate stayed the same at 6.9 per cent, despite losing 29,000 jobs, due to a drop in people looking for work.
A trial date has been set for a man who turned himself in to police following a shooting in March.
RCMP says a man was found injured at a home in the Patterson neighborhood after police responded to reports of shots fired.
23 year old Justin Lizotte later turned himself into police, and was charged with possession of a dangerous weapon, intent to endanger with a firearm, two counts of pointing a firearm, and failing to comply with conditions.
Lizotte will go to trial on July 8 in Grande Prairie.
More details have come out about the death of a Suncor employee killed by a black bear.
36 year old Lorna Weafer had just returned from the washroom when she was attacked at the oilsands plant north of Fort McMurray.
Other workers in the area tried unsuccessfully to scare the animal away.
They were reportedly not carrying bear spray.
A union rep is calling for a full review of her death.
Alberta Health Services has confirmed a case of measles in its North Zone.
The located of the affected has not yet been released.
The case is travel related, involving multiple public exposure settings, and the patient was not immunized.
More details will be released tomorrow.
A train has derailed in Slave Lake.
The Town says nine cars have derailed at the Main Street crossing.
Six mobile homes on the south side of the tracks have been evacuated as a precaution, but no dangerous goods have been spilled.
Residents are asked to stay away from the area while emergency crews respond.
No injuries have been reported.
Photo by @lrisebrough on Twitter
The Northern Anarchy women’s football team opens their Western Women’s Canadian Football League season this Saturday in Lethbridge. It’s the second year of operations for the Anarchy, and coach Aaron Hodges is expecting growth from the squad that went 1-3 in their inaugural season last year.
“We played in a jamboree last weekend and we got some good feedback from some of the other coaches, saying that we are a totally different team this year that what we were last year.”
Hodges says they will be missing a few players this weekend due to high school graduations. The team is mostly made up of women from Grande Prairie and Sexsmith. Â He adds they are still looking for more girls to join the team. Â The Anarchy practice every Monday and Wednesday night at 8pm at Alexander Forbes school.
Competitors from across North America will converge on Nitehawk Recreation Area this Saturday for the 1st annual Zulu challenge. Nitehawk assistant general manager Johnathan Clarkson explains what Zulu is.
“It is an obstacle race featuring about 35 obstacles including walls, and different strength challenges from carrying logs above your head to having to wade through water almost waist deep.  It is over 11 kilometres of hill terrain at the ski hill.”
Around 200 competitors will take off every half hour from the start line, starting at 9 am Saturday morning, with the final group leaving at 1:30. Clarkson says they will have their cafeteria and lounge open for spectators, as well as a barbecue and beer gardens on site.
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Grande Prairie, AB
T8V 7W5
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Studio Phone: 780-357-1047
Newsroom Phone: 780-357-6397
