The city has planned a second information session on the 102nd street traffic study, as it relates to the area between 113th and 132nd avenues. The report will look at future development along that stretch of road, and the subsequent transportation, sidewalk, and bicycle needs in that area. The meeting, set for Sunday night from 4-6 pm at the Muskoseepi Park pavillion, is the final chance for city residents to have a say in what is included in the study. A final report is expected to be brought to city council for approval in the coming weeks.
Downtown wheelchair challenge to highlight the importance of a barrier free community
The Canadian Paraplegic Association is looking for policy and decision makers in the community to take part in their annual downtown wheelchair challenge. Mieka de Groot, a Client Services Coordinator with the organization, says local business owners, as well as representatives of municipal, provincial, and federal government have been invited to participate.
“The purpose is to help people become more aware of the importance of making changes. Many things are already good, and people need to know that those are good. The best way to find out the difference is to be in a chair.”
de Groot says they have already received a few verbal agreements for participation.
“We’re looking at Chris Warkentin joining us, we’re looking at people from the school board participating, we’re looking at somebody from the MD of Greenview, and people involved in the sporting world as well as from the Grande Prairie Regional College.”
The challenge is laid out like a scavenger hunt downtown, and starts at 9 am on May 2, wrapping up at 4 at Muskoseepi Park.
Recommendations to AER could prevent future issues with heavy oil operations
One of the affected landowners has had a chance to look over a report on odours and emissions from heavy oil operations in the Peace River area.
Overall, Brian Labrecque says he’s pleased with the 20 recommendations made to the Alberta Energy Regulator like prohibiting venting and particularly when it comes to reducing flaring.
“They’ve made it quite clear that flaring should not be viewed as a solution or a long-term solution, only as a temporary one. That one really resonates with us as well, because I know that was part of the solution that Baytex is proposing to us.”
Labrecque believes many of the proposed changes will also help close a gap in regulations.
If the recommendations are enforced, he also thinks issues like he and his neighbours have had could be avoided in the future.
“I can honestly say that we should not really see a repeat of this type of incident again, and it’ll prevent other families from having to go through what we’ve been going through over the last number of years.”
Seven families have left their homes due to health concerns, and there’s still a long road ahead for them.
A judge in Peace River is currently considering an injunction on Baytex Energy’s operations until mitigation measures can be implemented.
The AER’s response is expected by April 15th.
Province commits more money to battling and preventing wildfires
The province has announced plans to spend 115 million dollars over the next three years, including an additional 31 million alone this year, on efforts to prevent and fight wildfires in the province. Environment and Sustainable Resource Development minister Robin Campbell says the money will strengthen his department’s ability to both fight and reduce the risk of wildfires.
“Funding to strengthen our capacity to to fight wildfires means more firefighters, and supporting resources on the ground. Â It also allows us to increase training, building better systems to manage wildfire emergencies, and improve communications.”
Over one third of that money will be committed to FireSmart projects, such as tree thinning and removal work around communities. The money is part of the government’s commitment to address the 21 recommendations in the Flat Top Complex Wildfire review, which took place after the Slave Lake wildfire in 2011.
Tax increase for city homeowners to stay at 2.4 percent this year
City council will be asked to approve the 2014 property tax rate at their next meeting on Monday. A slight decrease in the education mill rate means the city could have collected an additional 1.2 million dollars in taxes than what was budgeted for last fall. Senior Financial Analyst Dawn Sauve says they presented four options to the city’s corporate services committee as to how to deal with that.
“Administration really did not have any technical reason why they would choose one over the other. Â It is purely a political type of discussion, and so we did not want to push that political discussion one way or the other.”
In the end, the committee decided to go with the option that would see both low density residential and other residential mill rates set at the same level, with the projected tax increase of 2.4 percent staying in place. That would result in only an additional 284 thousand dollars in overall tax dollars being collected.
Argo helps teach public about RCMP service dogs
Would you do your job with only meals and the love of your partner as payment?
That’s what the police dogs on the Grande Prairie RCMP force do every day.
Dog handler Corporal Troy Raddatz and his service dog Argo were at Petland today to let the public in on what he does for the community.
“Argo’s been involved in thousands of dollars of drug seizures, he’s found missing people, he’s apprehended numerous dangerous criminals in Grande Prairie, and he’s just happy to go to work every day for the cost of a couple bowls of dog food.”
Donations to the Canadian Police Canine Association are being collected at the pet store throughout the month of April, which is National Service Dog Month.
Diaper Drive brings in 45,390 donated diapers
The third annual diaper drive wrapped up over the weekend, and Weyerhaeuser couldn’t be happier with the results.
In total, 45,390 were donated by employees and members of the community.
Public Affairs Manager Wayne Roznowsky says they far surpassed their initial goal of 30,500.
“We’re very, very excited, really happy to get those kind of results, and of course it’s all going to a good cause, and there’s going to be four organizations in the community that are going to get some disposable diapers to provide to people who need them.”
The diapers will be headed to the Salvation Army Food Bank, Odyssey House, The Society for Support to Pregnant and Parenting Teens, and to the Red Cross.
Along with Weyerhaeuser’s employees, major donations came from local fire fighters, Flint, and Costco.
Dream Home on pace for another sell-out year
Organizers of this year’s Dream Home Raffle are thrilled with how well ticket sales are going so far.
Around 70 per cent of the tickets have already been sold, putting sales about three weeks ahead of last year’s pace.
Lottery manager Kevin Hilgers feels the success of last year’s draw has had an impact on this year’s sales.
“Last year sold out for the first time in over a decade, and that gets everybody pretty excited, because lots of people missed out last year, and just the fact we sold out last year motivates people to get their tickets earlier this year.”
Hilgers thinks they could be sold out by Mother’s Day, if they continue on the pace that they are currently on.
Tickets are available online at www.winadreamhome.ca, and at the dream home itself in Carriage Lane Estates every weekend.
City looking at donating old fire truck to smaller community
The City is looking at donating one of its older fire trucks to a small community.
Deputy Fire Chief Kelly Gilday says the 1990 Pierce Telesquirt is no longer useful to the department.
“It’s reached its years of usefulness; it’s now over 20 years old. For us to use it, we would have to get it re-certified, and that is a huge cost undertaken, and then we still have a 20-some year old piece of apparatus, and so right now there still are some issues with it, and that’s why we’re taking it out of service.”
Gildray adds that the fire department likely wouldn’t get anything for it at an auction.
If the donation is approved by city council, they’ll look at finding it a new home in Alberta or Western Canada, or give it to the local Rotary Club to take to Mexico.
Grain shipping requirements extended for rail companies
The grain shipping requirements imposed by the federal government have only been in place for less than a month, but Peace River MP Chris Warkentin says he’s already hearing that grain is being moved out of the Peace Country.
He admits the rail companies aren’t happy with having to move a minimum amount, but his government believes it’s the best fix to the grain backlog.
“Grain companies and the rail companies believe that they’re doing what they should be doing. Obviously we, as government, don’t believe that that’s the case; we believe strongly that we need to defend the producers and farm family first and foremost and that is what we’re doing.”
Warkentin adds his government wants to see grain producers compensated for storage costs if their contracts with rail companies aren’t met.
The federal government has extended its requirement for rail companies to move a minimum of 500-thousand metric tonnes of grain a week by April 7th.
The original order meant increasing their capacity until June 7th, and has now been pushed to August 3rd.
If not, they face significant penalties.
Toastmasters public speak off tonight
A few area toastmaster’s will be looking to wow some judges tonight. The Kakwa toastmaster’s club is hosting an area competition, part of a qualifier for the organization’s International Contest. Club Treasurer Arlene McDowell says this is just the second round of competition.
“The contestant that wins tonight’s contest goes on to Division A. That contest is April 12 in St. Albert. The winner there goes on to compete with nine other contestants in Edmonton in May.”
McDonnell says in the past there have been two Grande Prairie toastmasters who made it all the way to the international level of competition.
Police dog presentation set for tomorrow afternoon in GP
Grande Prairie police dog Argo will be making a special presentation tomorrow with K-9 Officer Corporal Troy Raddatz. April is National Service Dog month. Argo will be demonstrating some of his skills and abilities that he uses with the RCMP in Grande Prairie on a daily basis. Petland is hosting the special presentation tomorrow afternoon at 2 pm. For the rest of the month, Petland will also be accepting donations to support service dog organizations across the country.
Photo courtesy of the Canadian Police Canine Association.
Community Foundation wants to know what our region thinks their role is
The Community Foundation of Northwestern Alberta is asking local residents to let them know throughout the month of April what the Foundation means to them. The responses can be either emailed, phoned in, or put on the Foundation’s Facebook page. Foundation CEO Tracey Vavrek says they have something special planned for every response they receive.
“For each response that we get, our community foundation is donating five dollars to the Smart and Caring Communities Fund. Â As well, in matching of that, our board of directors personally are also donating five dollars. Â And as well we have the corporation Nine-Ten come on board and they are also donating five dollars.”
The Smart and Caring Communities Fund supports youth and children initiatives in the region. April is Community Foundation month.
Panel releases recommendations for Peace River oil operations
A panel examining odours and emissions from heavy oil operations in the Peace River area has released it’s final report, which includes a total of 20 recommendations. Among them are calls to have venting prohibited at all operations in the region, and that all produced gas in the region be captured instead. Other recommendations include the development of a regional air quality monitoring program, and that the Alberta Energy Regulator enhance its operational and enforcement presence in the Peace River area. Oral proceedings took place back in January, with the panel handed over it’s report today to the AER. They will now review it and respond to the recommendations by April 15th.
GPRC signs bee diagnostic info-sharing agreement
The National Bee Diagnostic Centre in Beaverlodge will soon begin sharing expertise in honey bee pest and parasite diagnostics with a similar facility in the United States. The agreement between GPRC, who operates the NBDC, and the U-S-D-A’s Beltsville Agricultural Research Centre includes a short term exchange of personnel for training purposes. The National Bee Diagnostic Centre opened on the grounds of the Agriculture Canada Research Farm back in 2012. In that short time, it has received international attention as one of a handful of facilities worldwide that are working to solve health related issues in the honeybee population.
Menno Simons teacher nominated for award
Peace River School District is the latest school division in the province to announce its nominee for the Edwin Parr teacher award.
Kristen Tjostheim has had a busy first year as a teacher at Menno Simons school in Cleardale, instructing elementary music and grades 7-9 math and science.
She is also chair of the school’s creative writing club and co-chair of the science fair club, while serving as teacher rep on the school council.
The Edwin Parr award recognizes outstanding first year teachers.
Tjostheim received her education through both King’s University college and the University of Alberta.
Last day to submit community mobility survey
Today is the final day for Grande Prairie residents to fill out a community mobility survey.
The city is looking for feedback about how you get around, whether it be walking, driving, or cycling.
The results of the survey the city form a strategy for the future of active transportation in Grande Prairie.
Anyone who has yet to take part can do so by visiting the City’s website.
Wildrose wants clarification from MLA Drysdale on penthouse plans
MLA Wayne Drysdale’s role in planning a penthouse suite in the federal building is being called into question by the official opposition.
Drysdale was infrastructure minister when Alison Redford ordered the eleventh floor premier’s suite.
When the news broke, he was quoted as saying plans for living quarters were scrapped last November.
After remarks made today called media reports on the matter “overblown”, the Wildrose Party argues he’s contradicting himself by claiming to have stopped the project and defending it at the same time.
Correctional officer accused of trying to smuggle drugs into Peace River jail
An officer at Peace River Correctional Centre is facing drug trafficking charges.
An investigation by the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team found marijuana, oxycodone, and methamphetamine that was meant to be smuggled into the facility.
The drugs were in a vehicle belonging to 30 year old Thomas Black.
Two other people have been charged, but do not work at the corrections centre.
Peace Wapiti students to benefit from new education planning website
A new online program being offered to Peace Wapiti School Division Students will allow them to plan courses, track graduation requirements, and single out post-secondary opportunities. Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Bob Stewart, says students are not the only ones who will benefit from myBlueprint.
“Parents also have access to this, so all those questions of ‘will my child have enough credits to graduate?’ they can go online this tool, this website, and look it up and see exactly where their child is and how close they are to graduation requirements.”
Counselors and Teachers will be able to keep track of student education plans, and help them with things like resume building and career planning.
