The Grande Prairie Oilmen’s bonspiel wrapped up this weekend, and it’s Total Enerflex who now has the bragging rights.
They beat Gerry’s Well Services seven-six to win the A event.
The 36th annual event saw 52 teams take part, with 204 curlers.
Shell took the B event, while Nalco Champion won the C.
The D, E, and F event winners were URS Flint, Bonnetts, and Tervita #2 respectively.
The driver in the crash that killed four Grande Prairie teens in 2011 has applied for full parole.
The Edmonton Journal reports Brenden Holubowich will continue to live in a halfway house for the next two months, and the National Parole Board will schedule a full parole hearing.
The 24 year old is working full time, and uses weekend passes to visit with his family and fiancé.
On October 22, 2011, Holubowich’s pickup hit a car carrying five members of the Grande Prairie Composite High School Warriors football team, of which only one survived.
It was later revealed Holubowich had been driving as fast as 150 kilometres an hour, and drinking previously.
He now volunteers for a program that teaches young people about the perils of speeding and drinking and driving.
There is still an ongoing civil lawsuit by the victims’ families.
The Grande Prairie Panthers finished fourth in the B Division of the Western Shield championships in Red Deer.
After a 1-1-2 record in the round robin, the Panthers fell 3-1 to South Fraser TNT in the bronze medal game.
The Panthers scored first, thanks to a goal by Katie Spencer, but it was all TNT after that.
They went up 2-1 by the end of the first and netted one in the empty net with 22 seconds left in the game.
The Kamloops Vibe won the B division gold medal, while the Saskatchewan Wheat Queens took first in the A.
RCMP in Fort St. John are looking for the men responsible for pepper spraying a group of teens at the local gravel pit earlier Saturday morning.
Corporal Jodi Shelkie says there were around 20 youth at the site at 2 a.m. when four or five males with their faces covered sprayed them and damaged two vehicles.
Most of the victims went to hospital on their own, and there were no serious injuries.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police.
As the fifth and final stop on a quick tour of the province to announce his candidacy for the Alberta PC Party leadership, Ken Hughes was in Grande Prairie this weekend.
The Calgary-West MLA said it was important to come this far north.
“I wanted to come to Grande Prairie to demonstrate my commitment to the fact that I want to be premier of all of Alberta. The Peace country, and Grande Prairie in particular, are really important aspects of the future of this province; there is a lot going on here.”
Hughes points to the new hospital and high school as showing the explosive growth our community is experiencing.
As the youngest of six children from a small rural town, the Calgary-West MLA believes that will be key in his hopes of eventually becoming premier.
“Being part of that kind of a background, I think, enables me to be able to work with and relate to and roll up the sleeves and work with anybody in Alberta to get the job done.”
He adds he’ll be travelling the province in a Ford F-150, showing he’s still in touch with the people who are building Alberta.
He met with local constituency boards as the first person to throw their name into the hat to replace interim leader Dave Hancock.
The Tories will select their new leader in September.
Kitimat residents have rejected the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline through a non-binding plebiscite vote.
What the city will do with those results will be up for discussion at a council meeting tonight.
58 per cent of voters cast ballots against plans to link the Alberta oilsands with a tanker port in Kitimat.
The city had previously remained neutral on the matter.
A federal decision on the pipeline is expected by June.
Now in its ninth year, Project Peace will continue coaching Peace River students on positive mental health for at least three more years.
Coordinator Susan Gillespie says the program initially dealt with issues on more of an intervention basis in its early years, but has seen more success since moving to larger groups.
“When you’re working at a prevention level, the cost is much lower than it is when you’re working at a crisis level, so I think it’s excellent value for the money because of what it can keep from having happening in a person’s life.”
Success coaches are stationed in each local school to help students and families learn the tools to better cope with challenges.
In the past, funding from Alberta Health Services has been more than $300,000 a year and it was recently announced three more years will be supported.
Students of the Peace Wapiti School Division will have a couple of special visitors this week.
Students at eight schools in the district will hear from retired CFL linebacker Jed Roberts and B.C. Lions free safety J.R. LaRose.
The presentations are part of the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit school tours that aim to provide positive cultural role models to students.
FNMI Coordinator Darrell Willier hopes staff and students will be inspired after hearing from the two athletes.
“It helps to encourage FNMI students to pursue their goals and dreams through hard work. It also helps to dispell some
Roberts, who is metis, played for the Edmonton Eskimos for thirteen seasons. LaRose, whose mother is full cree, has been with the lions since 2010.
Tonight is the third and final meeting to update parents in Grimshaw on progress being made regarding the new schools project in that community.
Back in December, it was announced that Grimshaw would be getting replacement schools for Kennedy Elementary, Grimshaw Junior and Senior high school, and Holy Family school.
The new schools will all be attached to the Mile Zero regional complex, with representatives from the schools, the town and the school districts spending the last few months touring schools in the province with similar design concepts.
Parents from Holy Family school will be updated on the project during a meeting tonight at 6:30 at the school.
Construction is slated to start next year, with schools all scheduled to open by the fall of 2017.
Students at Teepee Creek School will play host to an artist-in-residence today.
Gordon Mackey will spend the day working on a painting in the school’s front hallway.
It will later be raffled off as a fundraiser for the school.
Mackey hails from Sexsmith and specializes in painting people and nature in oil and acrylic.
Local families who have left their homes due to health concerns from nearby oilsands operations have been invited to testify in the U.S. senate hearings on the controversial Keystone X-L pipeline.
According to the Canadian Press, the Peace River area landowners haven’t decided whether to take part yet, as they don’t want their experience to reflect poorly on the oil and gas industry.
They say they simply want better regulations to ensure the industry’s neighbours are kept safe.
Closer to home, the Alberta Energy Regulator will releasing its response to recommendations stemming from a public inquiry in Peace River earlier this year on Tuesday.
UPDATE. from theTown of Fairview:
“Public Works has successfully isolated the broken pipe which was the source of the leak. Water valves have been re-opened, and pressure will be increased gradually. Water coming from taps and toilets may appear discolored. Run water until it runs clear.  The treated water reservoir has been depleted by approximately 1/2. Given this sudden loss of treated water, we ask that residents  conserve water as much as possible.  It will take some time to replace the treated water lost.  The Town thanks residents for their cooperation during this time.”
There has been a water main break in Fairview.
The town’s utilities department has shut Easter of throughout the town in order to locate the break.
It will stay off until the issue is found and repaired.
We will update when we learn more.
RCMP believes alcohol was a factor in single vehicle rollover in Fox Creek at just after midnight last night.
The driver was ejected from the vehicle and sustained serious life threatening injuries.
They were treated at the local hospital and later transported to the University Hospital of Alberta in Edmonton.
Their name has not been released pending police investigation.
Fox Creek RCMP are looking for a pair of men after an incident at a home in that community. At around 10:30 last Sunday night, police were called to a report of an break, enter and assault at a residence. When they arrived, they found several victims, but not the alleged culprits. Arrest warrants have been issued for both 22 year old Norman John Macaskill, and 27 year old Michael Shawn Ivany. Both are wanted on several counts, including robbery with a firearm, theft under 5 grand, break and enter, assault causing bodily harm, and two counts each of assault with a weapon, as well as other charges. Mounties say both men are believed to be armed and dangerous. They say if you know of their whereabouts, do not approach them, instead call the Fox Creek detachment.
Tonight is the final night of tarp auctions for Stompede, as the Western Chuckwagon Association holds it’s auction at the Pomeroy Inn. Tarp sales for Stompede have so far been behind last year’s pace, with the All Pro circuit bringing in about two thousand dollars less than 2013, and the WPCA tarp auctions being around 65 thousand behind last year’s record numbers. Doors open at 5:30 with the auction beginning at 6:30.
Two groups in the Peace River area are receiving funding from the federal government to perform upgrades to their facilities. The Peace River Seniors Apartment Association is getting 18,300 dollars to use towards purchasing outdoor items such as storage sheds, tables, patio furniture and planter boxes and gardening items. And the Peace River branch of the Royal Canadian Legion will be able to replace the roof and chimney of their building, as well as give the hallways a fresh coat of paint, thanks to 24 thousand dollars in funding. The money comes from the New Horizons for Seniors Program offered by the Harper Government.
Over the past two days, Ritchie Bros. held a large agricultural auction in Grande Prairie, selling more than $40 million worth of equipment, land, and trucks.
$18 million of that alone came from online bids online, with a total of more than 5,000 bidders.
The auctioneers have called it a “fantastic” start to the auction season, with strong pricing across the board even though there were no minimum bids.
Dozens of agricultural auctions are being held across the prairies over the next month.
Last night’s Lights and Sirens Food bank drive in Wembley was another overwhelming success. Even though the 3,260 food items was down slightly from last year, Wembley Fire Department administrator Jamie Querin says the shelves at the Food Bank will still be overflowing for some time.
“The ladies that are volunteering to help with the food bank said it will probably take them another 2 or 3 days to get everything organized and dated and put back on the shelf and see where they are at. Â But when we left the United Church, the pews were overflowing.”
Querin thanks everyone in Wembley for their donations, as well as the volunteers from both the fire department and Encana for going door to door to collect the food.
It was a wild weekend for one Dawson Creek resident who was arrested after assaulting people at two different bars last Saturday night.
Both attacks sent people to hospital, after he punched one man for no apparent reason at the first bar, and knocked another unconscious at the second.
Again, police believe that was an unprovoked attack, which caused a scuffle with other patrons of the drinking establishment as well.
The 29 year old male has been arrested, and others may be facing charges.
If you’re interested in checking out the free 15-week Becoming a Community Builder program, you have another chance today to sit in on one of the live learning sessions.
At noon, participants can view and interact with the initiative’s founder Ian Hill at one of the viewing stations at the Lion’s Learning Centre, Community Social Development Office or City Hall.
They can ask questions directly through email, text, Skype, YouTube, or in the chat box on the live learning portal.
The session will also be available on-demand online after 4 p.m.
Although it all started at the end of March, you can sign up at any time online.
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Location
#105-11002 104 Avenue
Grande Prairie, AB
T8V 7W5
Phone numbers
Studio Phone: 780-357-1047
Newsroom Phone: 780-357-6397
