ALBERTA LABOUR NEWS ARCHIVE 1998
MUNICIPAL ELECTION NEWS --- OCTOBER 20,
Former Trade Union President Elected To Edmoton Public School Board
Alberta Municipal Election Sites
Carol Anne Dean, Former Prsident of AUPE wins School Board seat,
CBC RADIO EDMONTON ELECTION 98 PAGE
GO HERE FOR ON LINE RESULTS OF TONIGHTS ELECTIONS AFTER 8 PM
(R)EDMONTON: Radical Edmonton Network Links to Progressive and Labour Candidates and Hot Issues
Calgary Herald Special Report: The VLT Question
Calgary Votes: Herald Special Election Page
GO HERE FOR CALGARY ELECTION RESULTS AFTER 8 PM
Edmonton Journal Civic Election Features Web Page
GO HERE FOR EDMONTON ELECTION RESULTS AFTER 8 PM
Trustees trounced
The union representing the
public school board's custodial
workers has slammed 13
trustee candidates for
supporting corporate
sponsorships in schools.
The union, representing 600
custodial workers, has
endorsed seven candidates
for their willingness to fight
against the underfunding of
education, said local president
Doug Luellman Luellman.
They are Bill Bonko, Janice
Melnychuk, Mel Huizinga, Karl
Kuss, Carol Anne Dean,
Donna Fong and George
Nicholson.
Bonko, Melnychuk, Dean and
Fong were also endorsed by
the Edmonton District Labour
Council.
Mystery man gives money for VOTE
ads
Both sides of VLT issue push voting
Anti-VLT campaigners are heading into the final
days before Monday's vote buoyed by a mystery donation for
radio ads and positive response to its phone volunteers.
Hospitality Alberta meanwhile, is continuing its newspaper and
radio ad campaign and bar and lounge operators are urging staff
and customers to tell everyone they know to get out and vote.
Prison voting draws angry letters
But Liberal MLA challenges study on how Albertans feel
about it
Calgary Poll shows VLT ballot will be close
With the Great Calgary VLT Battle heading into its final,
emotional week, a new Herald poll suggests the race may be
closer than it appears.
That prospect has both the anti- and pro-sides in the debate
over video lottery terminals gearing up for one final push to
the plebiscite on Oct. 19.
At stake not only is the fate of VLTs but the future of 261
bars and lounges in the city which have machines and the political outlook for
Calgary churches. They have involved themselves with an eye to future
activism on issues ranging from poverty to abortion.
There's also the money. Last year, the machines generated $150 million
Campaign funds hard to find for
Edmonton's VLT opponents
Anti-VLT forces in Edmonton are struggling to
raise the money needed to get their message out.
With less than three weeks to go until civic elections across the
province decide whether the gambling machines stay or go, the
VLT debate is front and centre in Calgary but has yet to catch
fire here.
Public school students miss the mark
Despite being "on the right path" and "working
hard," Edmonton public grade school kids failed to meet the
academic targets set by the board in achievement test results
released Wednesday.
The students also fell below the provincial average in many
subjects.
"We have lots of room to grow," said board superintendent
Emery Dosdall while making the test results public. "We know
that there are no silver bullets, there are no simple answers to
any of this. If there was ... you could be assured all of the
educators not only in Edmonton public but across the globe
would be introducing it." But not everyone is convinced, including Denis Lapierre, a
candidate in the upcoming school board election.
As owner of the educational consulting firm, Schoolworks!,
Lapierre has made a career of digging into test scores and
criticizing school boards.
Judge refuses injunction sought by
anti-fluoride camp
Calgary health officials have got the green light by the
courts to continue an advertising blitz on the benefits of fluoride in the city's
drinking water.
An anti-fluoridation group was seeking an injunction to prevent the
$250,000 campaign by the Calgary regional health authority.
However, the court threw out the request for the injunction Tuesday and
awarded legal costs to the health authority.
Voters park their wrath on the nearest targets
City election is a catch basin for issues that are part of provincial or federal
jurisdictions
Robert Bragg, Calgary Herald
Candidate takes out mortgage to finance campaign
Ray Clark says he had to take out a $30,000 mortgage on his home to finance
his mayoralty campaign after being abandoned by those who urged him to run.In 90 minutes at the Herald, Clark reserved his bluntest language for the issue
of tax increases facing Calgarians. Ironically for someone who has just taken
out a loan to pay his own political future, Clark warned civic politicians who
refuse to support tax hikes now are mortgaging the city's future.
"There's no doubt there will be tax increases," he said. "I'm not going to run
for public office and tell you I'm not going to increases taxes. . . . I couldn't do
that. Zero tax increases are a mortgage on the future."
Political slate raises eyebrows in Calgary
Calgary is a city that's supposed to detest so-called slate politics, which
makes it fascinating to see not one but two co-ordinated campaigns in the
current civic competition.
Granted, the group comprising certain incumbent councillors and Mayor Duerr
hasn't openly declared itself a political machine. But anyone watching the
campaign with eyes open can't help but notice the sort of drive-by
endorsements taking place between the mayor and aldermen determined to
keep their seats on council.
Shortfall puts school upgrade in
jeopardy
Edmonton - Just days after kicking off their re-election
campaigns, trustees with the Edmonton Catholic school board
are being called back to deal with a major financial dilemma.
At the urging of administrators, the trustees will hold a special
public meeting Monday to figure out what to do about a
$5-million shortfall for a major renovation program well under
way at St. Joseph high school.
The $20-million project, scheduled for completion in August
1999, is receiving only $15 million in provincial money, a fact
reinforced recently by Education Minister Gary Mar. Trustee Brian Mitchell is upset that the administrators are
pressing for a potentially divisive public debate less than a week
after candidates filed their nomination papers.
EDMONTON: Snorefest '98 is officially under way
Homeless welcome to vote
While many elections require a fixed address to cast a ballot,
Calgary's upcoming civic election has no such rule.
And as the focus of one of the election's major issues, the chance
to vote is good news for the city's estimated 3,000 homeless
people.
According to provincial election standards, a voter has to live in
Alberta for six months and provide an address before a ballot
can be cast.
But Chief Returning Officer Barbara Clifford said the address
doesn't have to be a house or apartment.
Business tax should go, says group
City aldermen are being asked to scrap the business tax and put a freeze on
property taxes. The proposal -- to be outlined today at a Calgary Downtown
Association news conference -- has the support of the Calgary Chamber of
Commerce and is expected to be an issue in the municipal election campaign.
The city expects to collect $128.2 million in business taxes this year -- up
from $118 million in 1997, and $378.6 million in property taxes -- up from
$360 million last year.
Candidate says school board needs to be more open
A telecommunications specialist, Koeppen took neither side in the dispute.
But he was frustrated when he couldn't get solid information he wanted from
the public board.
"I think there's something wrong when the public can't get information from
people whose job is to inform the public," he says.
"I began to see that what the present trustees do is communicate with people
in only one direction. If it doesn't suit them, they won't communicate."
As a counterpoint, he met with groups as diverse as the ATA, the Calgary and
District Labour Council and the Alberta Federation of Women United for
Families to hear their concerns about education.
The gloves are off
Civic campaigns hit stride
The ballot is set and the race for Calgary's political future is off
to a flying start.
What looks like the liveliest election campaign in years officially
left the starting gate yesterday, with dozens of hopefuls filing
nomination papers and firing up their political engines.
And the growing pains of a booming city was the platform of
choice as the men-who-would-be-mayor practiced their
campaign slogans alongside those hoping to become aldermen.
Pedal-power candidate steps on the gas
Tooker Gomberg ventured Monday to where he hasn't been for
a decade -- behind the wheel of a car.
The mayoral candidate and former councillor hasn't had a
driver's licence for 10 years, but on Monday he traded his
bicycle for a three-cylinder Innocenti and cruised around the city.
Gomberg said he decided to get a learner's permit because the
next five weeks of his campaign require him to travel all over the
city and he doesn't think he'll be able to get everywhere he needs
to go by bike or by transit.
Candidates pose no threat to Smith --
professor
Edmonton - One week before the municipal
election race officially kicks off, Edmontonians have to ask
themselves if eight is enough.
That's how many candidates have so far announced they're in the
running for the mayor's chair.
But University of Alberta political science professor Jim
Lightbody says he doesn't see a serious challenge to Mayor Bill
Smith from any of them when voters go to the polls Oct. 19.
"In Edmonton's history, since the Second World War, a mayor
seeking his or her first re-election has not been seriously
challenged," said Lightbody.
User fees will top election
agenda
Some Calgary aldermen say hikes are just
'hidden tax'
Mayor Gomberg would ditch Smith's
Jeep
Mayoral candidate Tooker Gomberg says if
elected he'll sell the $40,000 Jeep used by Mayor Bill Smith and
hire a bicycle transportation planner.
The city should do more to encourage people to travel by bus
and LRT, rather than build more freeways, he said Tuesday at a
press conference in a downtown parking lot.
THE MEN WHO WOULD BE
MAYOR OF EDMONTON
The top job in city government is up for grabs in
October. Let's look at the contenders
Rating the mayor and council
Edmonton - Mayor Bill Smith and city council are enjoying high
approval ratings two months before voters head to the polls in a
civic election.
Rating the mayor and council
Edmonton - Mayor Bill Smith and city council are enjoying high
approval ratings two months before voters head to the polls in a
civic election.
OCTOBER 19 SENATE ELECTION
LET'S ABOLISH THE SENATE
Since the Klein government has forced this phony election on Albertans we must demand that the
ballot include the choice of Abolishing The Senate. Real constituional reform can only begin by abolishing
the senate not by reforming it. Since the Government has not included this choice: Don't Vote It Only Encourages Them.
This page includes:All the latest news stories and backgound information on the Alberta Senate Election, a poll and discussion forum.
- Student launches spoiler Web site
Instructions are given on how and why one can protest
the province's Senate vote
If you want to protest Alberta's Senate vote by
spoiling your ballot, there's a Web site for you.
Doug Bailie, a doctoral student in history at the University of
Alberta, launched the Web site to encourage Albertans who
object to the Oct. 19 election to say so with their ballots -- by
spoiling them. The Web site address is
www.ualberta.ca/~dbailie/senate/senate.htm. It includes an
appeal to voters to spoil their Senate ballot, a list of 10 reasons
for doing so, some graphs showing the recent history of spoiled
ballots and some general thoughts on the need for real reform of
the Senate.
- Callers want to know how to spoil
Senate part of ballot
Edmonton voters who decide to spoil their ballot to
protest Alberta's Senate race can still vote for municipal
candidates on the same ballot, city clerk David Edey said
Thursday.
The finer points of ballot-spoiling don't usually come up in
municipal elections, but the clerk's office was fielding calls from
voters who want to protest the Senate race that has been
piggy-backed on to the Oct. 19 municipal elections.
Callers to the city, newsrooms and political parties say they don't
want to spoil their municipal votes at the same time as they spoil
their Senate vote.
Edmonton's electronic ballot will allow them to register a protest,
if they choose, and still vote for local candidates, Edey said in an
interview. The ballot includes five votes on a single page -- for
mayor, councillors, school board, a VLT plebiscite and Senate
nominees -- but the spoiling of one vote won't disqualify the
others, he said. Edey said election officials would prefer it if voters registered
their protest by "under-voting" -- that is, by not making any
marks.
- Dear-constituent letters will be from
Calgary MPs
About 60,000 Edmonton households will be pushed
onto the Senate reform battlefield later this month when the
Reform party launches a personal attack against the only two
Liberal MPs in Alberta.
Calgary MP Rob Anders expects several Reform MPs will join
him in a mail campaign to reach into the homes of 200,000
Edmontonians to influence the Edmonton West and Edmonton
Southeast constituents of Justice Minister Anne McLellan and
Secretary of State David Kilgour.
- MPs step up crusade to abolish
Senate
They want Alberta Premier Ralph Klein to put the question of Senate abolition
on the ballot when the province holds a non-binding election in October to
choose would-be senators.
- Lobbying by top-level Liberals intense
Unelected senator. It's supposed to be the most
unpopular job in Alberta.
The successful candidate faces public scorn and political attack.
But top-level Alberta Liberals have been working the phones in
an intense lobbying effort aimed at securing themselves an
appointment to Parliament's upper chamber.
Senator Nick Taylor said he's received about a dozen calls from
prospective senators who hope he'll put in a good word for them
with Prime Minster Jean Chretien.
- Reform loses Senate skirmish in
Federal Court
The Reform party lost a legal skirmish Tuesday after a judge
ruled the battle over Senate reform should be fought in the political arena and not
in a courtroom.
Reform had sought an injunction in Federal Court to prevent Prime Minister Jean
Chretien from filling a Senate vacancy in Alberta prior to Senate elections in the
western province Oct. 19.
- PM can ignore Alberta vote on senators, court rules
Judge rejects Reform Party's bid
to remove appointment power from government
The Reform Party has failed in a court bid to force Prime
Minister Jean Chrétien to abide by the results of the coming Senate
election in Alberta. In dismissing the party's request for an injunction
yesterday, Madam Justice Donna McGillis of the Federal Court said
that the power to make Senate appointments is constitutionally the
government's, and that the Prime Minister has every right to disregard
the results of the Oct. 19 ballot.
See ABOLISH THE SENTATE Page
NOVEMBER 1998
The International Human Rights Conference
kicks off today in Edmonton,
Complete coverage here.and there's no
question the main attraction to the event is one
of the world's leaders in human rights, Rev.
Desmond Tutu whose speech tonight will be on the Internet, click here.
TV anchor suing to get job back
CFRN-TV news anchor Susan Amerongen is
fighting a precedent-setting case that will help decide when a
woman who takes maternity leave can get her old job back.
Amerongen was replaced as co-host of the noon news in early
1997 during changes made while she was on maternity leave
with her third child Daniel.
The station offered her three other spots, but she didn't think any
of them was as good as the part-time noon shift and so she filed
a grievance through her union.
An arbitrator ruled in her favour last November. On Thursday,
CFRN appealed. "This is a decision of some national
importance," company lawyer Grant Stapon told Court of
Queen's Bench Justice Myra Bielby.
"Frankly, this is an issue that's faced by virtually every employer
across the country." But lawyer Dan Rogers, representing the Communication,
Energy and Paperworkers Union, said the arbitrator didn't order
that Amerongen go back to her old job.
He just wanted her given something with the same conditions,
status and benefits, Rogers said.
She saw the choices she was offered -- nights, weekends or
early mornings -- as "very much a demotion," he said.
Cowboy hat flap belies importance
of global human rights
In a moment both comic and deadly serious, exiled
Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng stood proudly in his new black cowboy hat
Saturday and warned that human rights abuses abroad can affect the rights of
Canadians.
The ill-fitting cowboy hat, a gift from Edmonton’s mayor, may seem little more
than a petty jab at Calgary, the capital’s southern Alberta rival.
But Jingsheng - a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee who spent 18 years in
Chinese jails as a political prisoner - was deeply offended by Calgary mayor Al
Duerr earlier in the week.
Duerr refused to present the famous human rights activist with a white cowboy
hat, the city’s symbol of friendship and hospitality, even though Duerr bestowed
the honor on Chinese President Jiang Zemin last year.
Farm income declines as prices
weaken
Farm cash receipts are dwindling this year under pressure
from a global grain glut and generally weak prices, Statistics Canada reported
this week.
Even as the federal government is reported to be working on a
multi-billion-dollar bailout for hog farmers, StatsCan said all farmers have seen
their income slip this year.
Between January and September, farmers earned $10.2 billion for their crops,
down 2.6 per cent from the same period last year. Livestock farmers saw their
receipts slip 1.3 per cent, to $10.7 billion.
Various government payments to farmers remained virtually unchanged at $727
million.
Deregulation's cracks get papered over
After the recent power blackout brouhaha in Alberta last
month, Energy Minister Steve West read the riot act to the various
players in the province's semi-deregulated power industry, and presto:
A quickie task force came out with a report last week showing Alberta
has plenty of power to get it through the winter. Everyone can rest easy
now -- or can they?
Dr. West, a tough-talking veterinarian from Vermilion known variously
as "The Terminator" or "Dr. Doom," knows how to kick a little butt
when necessary, and industry insiders say the power outages that
swept the province last month -- in the middle of Sunday dinner, no
less -- got him steamed. Why? Because they cast a harsh light (or
rather, no light at all) on the province's attempts at deregulating its
electricity industry.
The Energy Minister would like the province to be held up as a shining
example of how deregulation can be handled successfully, a beacon
that would draw foreign investors to Alberta to "come and dance in the
free-market system," as Dr. West put it in one of his more lyrical
moments. He certainly doesn't want Alberta used as an example of
what not to do.
Pipeline could go through Special Places
nvironment Minister Ty Lund is leaving open the
door on the possible location of a pipeline and utility corridor in
east-central Alberta.
The hypothetical corridor would be on the edge of the Lakeland
recreation area. That is about 15 km east of Lakeland provincial
park, but still skirting the area designated as a Special Place.
That corridor, part of a route from Fort McMurray to Hardisty,
was designated after pressure from Energy Minister Steve West,
who believes that it will be needed to transport the billions of
barrels of oil coming out of the northern Alberta oilsands.
Deliveries plan catches midwives off
guard
The Alberta Association of Midwives isn't sure
what to make of a surprise announcement from Capital Health
indicating some midwives will soon be admitting pregnant women
to hospital and delivering their babies.
"We haven't heard anything about this," association president
Joanna Greenhalgh told The Journal Wednesday.
She was pleased by the announcement, calling it an important
step forward for midwives and their clients, but added: "We
could be better informed. A lot of the planning seems to be going
on without us."
Stress taking its toll on farm women at
conference
A weekend away from the mounting stresses of her farm operation near Nampa was exactly the
prescription Phyllis Petluk says she needed to help cope.
"It was a very dry year, a year of farming without profit," says Petluk during at coffee break at this
year's Farm Womens' Conference in Grande Prairie on the weekend.
Organizers says the low attendance compared with other years, about 80 women, partly reflects this
year's depressed farm income.
Vanclief proposing $2-billion farm
aid package: report
Federal Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief will present
cabinet Thursday with a $2-billion plan to rescue Canada’s struggling hog
farmers, CBC-TV’s The National reported Wednesday.
The plan would propose $300 million to $400 million of federal money for this
crop year and a further $500 million the following year.
Grande Prairie Spanish community comes to the aid
of Hurricane Mitch victims
Parents, CBE clash on secrecy
School guidance counsellors are under no legal obligation to divulge
confidential student information to parents, Calgary's public school board
heard Tuesday.
"In our opinion, there is no general duty on a guidance counsellor to disclose
personal information provided to them by a student," said John Carleton, a
lawyer with Calgary law firm MacKimmie Matthews.
The parents' rights issue prompted fierce debate among trustees and parents
at theCalgary Board of Educationmeeting.
Edmonton City Council talks of 6% increase
City council picked a six-per-cent revenue increase
as a starting point for budget discussions Wednesday, ignoring
warnings it had set the talking-bar too high.
If it becomes reality, a six-per-cent increase would maintain most
existing service levels and raise taxes for about 65 per cent of
single-family residents, according to city staff.
Departments that began trooping before council Wednesday said
that even with a six-per-cent increase in overall spending, they
will have to make cuts.
The public works department says it would have to close nine
recycling stations and delay work on a regional waste
management eco-station in north Edmonton.
Community services said it would close one indoor pool and two
outdoor pools and lose 19 full-time employees.
The six-per-cent increase is one of five scenarios, ranging from
no increase to an eight-per-cent rise, requested from the
administration by council as part of its 1999 budget planning.
Municipality urged to take over airport
Wood Buffalo should move to obtain
ownership of the Fort McMurray Airport, a
task force will recommend to council tonight.
"We hope it doesn't cost too much. Our goal
is to have a balanced budget," said Coun.
Winnie Sommer, chairperson of the group.
"Maybe we should do what Edmonton does,
charge airport improvement fees. Everyone
does it, why can't we?"
Fostering discontent
A proposed Edmonton bylaw to license foster
homes appears to be dead after Alberta Social Services Lyle
Oberg condemned it as "regressive'' and called for heads to roll
at city hall.
Oberg told the legislature Tuesday that Mayor Bill Smith assured
him weeks ago that nothing would come of the proposed bylaw.
"Bill, if it was your administration that brought this bill forward,
fire them," Oberg said in the legislature only hours after 270
foster parents demonstrated against the proposal in front of city
hall.
Oberg said the bylaw is "an impediment" to foster parent
recruitment. And he warned it could be challenged in court.
Americans create more full-time
jobs, Canadians grow their own
The American economy left Canada in the dust in terms of
job creation during the 1990s, says a new federal survey that cites relative
setbacks in almost every Canadian age group, educational level, job type and
geographic region.
The study by Statistics Canada also puts to rest long-standing political claims that
different methods of calculating unemployment account for much of the lower
U.S. rate.
"While measurement differences play a role, other factors account for the
majority of the gap and its growth over the last two decades," said the autumn
labour force update released Tuesday.
The federal agency said general tax levels and pay-roll taxes are one oft-cited
factor but "a definitive explanation has yet to emerge."
Regardless, the employment gap is real and almost doubled between 1989 and
1997.
Feds lose request for stay order of
environmental ruling
The federal government has lost its request to stay a ruling
on environmental reviews that could affect developments from Voisey’s Bay to
diamond mines in the North.
The Federal Court of Appeal ruled late Monday that the so-called Sunpine
decision, which environmentalists call one of their biggest legal victories, will
stand until it is appealed in the new year.
Industry officials have said that decision creates uncertainty for billions of dollars
in development from coast to coast. Ottawa and the provinces say it threatens
hard-won intergovernmental agreements.
Lund, West quibble over pipeline
corridor
Energy Minister Steve West and Environment
Minister Ty Lund can't agree on the best location for a possible
pipeline and utility corridor through east-central Alberta.
While Lund earlier this year went against his own officials'
recommendations and bowed to Energy Department pressure to
allow for a corridor through Lakeland Provincial Park, he told
the legislature Tuesday he would prefer to see it go through CFB
Cold Lake.
Tax breaks on hold, Day says
Tax breaks for Albertans in next year's budget
seemed a little less likely Tuesday as Treasurer Stockwell Day
released financial figures showing low oil prices have blown a
$30 million hole in his budgetary surplus projections.
The treasurer acknowledged it will be more difficult to cut taxes
with this year's surplus now projected at $667 million -- $30
million below predictions three months ago.
Christmas Bureau launches drive
Midwives to deliver in hospitals
Midwives will soon be delivering babies in
Edmonton hospitals.
It's an Alberta first with midwives admitting their own patients to
the hospital where they'll do the delivery, Capital Health
president Sheila Weatherill said Tuesday.
Unchartered territory
Some parents and children like charter schools but the Alberta
government has lost enthusiasm, putting the schools' future in
question, says an independent report released today.
More harassment complaints
An investigation is needed into harassment issues
festering at the Edmonton Remand Centre, says Liberal justice
critic Sue Olsen.
She's calling for a broad review similar to one that revealed
long-standing problems at another Justice Department work site.
The Journal revealed Saturday that a two-person board of
inquiry concluded in March that a culture of workplace
harassment infected the Edmonton Court and Prisoner Security
(CAPS) unit. It found that female officers were the targets of
crude comments and pranks.
Two female CAPS officers have launched suits saying they were
harassed by male supervisors and co-workers.
Della Simpson, a Red Deer CAPS officer, recently received an
out-of- court settlement, after filing a suit alleging she endured
five years of taunts, pranks and threats.
Festive season adds pressure for food
bank
The Edmonton Food Bank is "stressed out" as it
prepares to launch its annual Christmas campaign for donations
of food and money, says executive director Marjorie Bencz.
Bencz says the food bank will be appealing to the public over the
next few weeks to provide donations so those in need can be
provided with festive meals over the Christmas season.
"There's a lot of pressure on the organization," said Bencz, noting
food bank demand grows during winter, usually peaking around
March.
Bencz said government cutbacks to social programs have helped
increase food bank demand across the province since 1993.
Approve Shell plant without review: gov't
The Alberta government wants a proposed
oilsands project approved without a review
recommended by Environment Canada.
Alberta's environment and health
departments said Thursday Shell's proposed
$1.4 billion Muskeg River project should
proceed without the provincial energy and
utilities board studying the cumulative effects
the mine would have on the area.
In a joint submission Thursday, during the
last day of provincial energy and utilities
board hearing Shell's mine application,
Alberta Environmental Protection (AEP) and
Alberta Health said the megaproject "in the
public's interest."
Doctors have right to strike
- say Catholic Shurch panelists
In Catholic social teaching, the right to strike is a fundamental
right of all workers, including physicians, says Bob McKeon, a
professor at St. Joseph's University College.
A strike is a legitimate means for workers to better their own
situation and to advance the common good but it must not be
abused, McKeon told about 120 doctors and clergy at the annual dinner of St. Luke's Catholic
Physicians Guild at Providence Centre Nov. 1.
The Guild is an association of about 50 Catholic physicians formed 44 years ago.
Canada's creeping flat tax
The Alberta Tax Review Committee's call for a flat rate for income tax in the province ought to be
rejected. The cleverly marketed proposal shows this "tax reform" reducing income tax for all
Albertans - because it is combined with an overall tax cut of $500 million and with higher personal
and spousal exemptions. The reality is, however, that a flat tax will shift the burden of taxation from
the wealthy to middle-income earners.
Fort McMurray Employers make helping staff a priority
Work hard and play hard.
Whether that's a motto to live by or not,
Fort McMurray has in the past been
branded as a place where alcohol and drug
abuse is prevalent.
To prevent the problem from spilling
across the hazy line of life at home and the
workplace, some business owners are
mirroring the policies at the oilsands plants
for prevention and detection of substance
abuse.
The main motivation is safety.
Impairment on an industrial worksite with
heavy equipment and high-powered tools
is a mix that causes accidents.
Contractors also need to keep pace with
the industry's safety initiatives.
Supreme Court to hear case on school board powers
Calgary's public school board moved a step closer Thursday to regaining its
right to collect taxes and the millions of dollars now leaving the city under a
new pooling system.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge from Alberta public boards to
the province's move three years ago to take over the doling out of local
education tax revenues. The Ontario Public School Boards' Association is involved in a similar court
fight with that province's education ministry over the pooling of tax dollars,
said association president Liz Sandals.
Rancher feels vindicated after sour gas
study
An Alberta rancher says she feels vindicated after a
major study found her cattle were harmed by the leak of a sour gas pipeline
in 1994.
Ila Johnston said she and her husband may revive a lawsuit against pipeline
owner Shell Canada after watching her 160-head herd suffer from the leak.
Pipeline leak tied to cattle illnesses
A government study shows new evidence of a
relationship between a pipeline leak and illness in cattle.
The study by the Alberta Research Council and the Agriculture
Department involved two herds of cattle and looked at the
effects of a serious sour gas leak and condensate from a pipeline
under the frozen Red Deer River in the Sundre-Caroline area.
Family doctors send busy signals
Thirty per cent of Edmonton family physicians are
so busy they've stopped accepting new patients, according to a
November report by the Capital Region Medical Staff
Association.
This is a sharp jump from 17 per cent a year earlier.
"The average wait to see a family physician for a non-urgent
problem has increased from two days in 1997 to six days in
1998," says the report, based on surveys last summer and
submitted to the Capital Health board just last week.
Think-tank to ponder Banff's future
There has been plenty of talk about animals and their place in Banff National
Park. Now it's time to discuss where humans fit in -- particularly Calgarians.
Sometime within the next six to 18 months, people will meet to talk about how
we can best use Canada's oldest and most famous national park.
"If development is going to be capped . . . and if tourism is going to be
encouraged through a heritage tourism strategy, then there needs to be some
discussion on how a quality experience can be achieved for everybody who is
going to come -- without compromising the ecological integrity of the park,"
said Harry Ulmer, a member of the Calgary Area Outdoor Council.
He proposed the forum at last week's Banff National Park Annual Planning
Forum, and park superintendent Charlie Zinkan said Parks Canada will
organize it.
A vote of no confidence
The Medical Advisory Committee of the
Crossroads health region, just south of Edmonton, has passed a
motion of non-confidence in its president Peter Langelle.
The committee's motion says Langelle misrepresented in a memo
what took place at an Oct. 20 meeting, a claim denied by
Langelle.
The Wetaskiwin-based administrator's memo tells members of
the board's finance committee that he attended an Oct. 20
Medical Advisory Committee meeting and "was informed by the
chairman Dr. Thompson that this meeting would be his last
function as chairman of the MAC."
Edmonton City Council urged to borrow, not cut
City council should stop punishing Edmonton
residents with "pay-as-you-go" budgets and consider long-term
borrowing to meet city needs.
That's the message several speakers gave a public hearing
Thursday on the 1999 budget.
Long-term capital loans are a legitimate way of ensuring that
future generations aren't saddled with a "dilapidated" city,
seniors' spokesperson Doug Tomlinson told the hearing.
Tax consultant Bill Martenson said council should drop its
"posture of pessimism" and consider long-term financing,
including borrowing, so residents aren't confronted with a single
choice of tax hikes or service cuts.
Ex-CKUA staffer will call shots
CKUA has recruited a longtime former employee
to take over as general manager of the provincial radio network.
Ken Regan, a career public broadcaster with CKUA and the
CBC, will take the job March 1.
When international trade blocs threaten, people devise
alternative systems
The impact of globalized economics, driven by a no-holds-barred laissez-faire
ideology, has hit Alberta like a giant meteor. Should people work for the economy or should the economy work for
people? That question has gained greater currency in Canada in the 1990s.
Obstetricians halt protest over fees
The obstetricians' fee protest is over.
Six months ago they stopped taking new patients but late Monday night in
Red Deer almost 40 obstetricians from across Alberta met privately and voted
unanimously to abandon plans to escalate their protest.
Starting today pregnant Calgary women can phone an obstetrician's office and
become a patient, Dr. Paul Martyn, president of the Alberta Society of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said after a closed-door meeting of almost
three hours.
Company gets OK to build school in Calgary
After a four-year struggle, work is to begin on Alberta's
first developer-built school, to be built in Calgary's
northwest and ready for students next September.
The school, located in The Hamptons, will accommodate
175 students from kindergarten to Grade 3.
Catholics set to close churches
Edmonton - More than half the Roman Catholic Churches in the
Edmonton Archdiocese are targeted for closure in the next five
years.
Many churches, particularly in rural areas, will stay open but
offer reduced services and share priests, says a report, titled
Faithful Into The Future, which was released Tuesday.
Eight or nine churches in Edmonton will be shut down and sold
as the changes are phased in.
Albertans disagree with prisoners voting
Justice Minister Jon Havelock says the government
will respect the views of a majority of Albertans who disagree
with giving most prisoners the right to vote.
Havelock expects to introduce legislation today that will prevent
most of the 2,000 inmates in provincial jails from voting. New Democrat Leader Pam Barrett called the issue "a waste of
government time and effort when there are so many more
constructive things they could be doing."
Technology moves too fast for some Alberta
legislators
High tech may be just a tad too high for some
Alberta legislators.
Science and Technology Minister Lorne Taylor tried to table a report
Tuesday published on CD-ROM, a compact disc capable of holding
millions of bits of information in a format similar to a music CD.Speaker Ken Kowalski said he appreciated the emergence of high
technology into the legislature, but asked Taylor to also submit the report in
written form.
Chamber harming the city -- Smith
Edmonton - Mayor Bill Smith accused the Chamber of
Commerce Monday of damaging the city with its high-profile
campaign for lower taxes.
He challenged the chamber to bring concrete proposals to
council's public hearings on the budget.
Work Site Fatality near Fort McMurray Results in
Charges
Charges, under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, have been laid against L. Robert
Enterprises Ltd. of Fort McMurray and Sydney Matthew McKay.
The prosecution results from an Alberta Labour investigation into a workplace fatality that occurred
on January 15, 1998. L. Robert Enterprises Ltd. was dismantling an oil sands pilot plant located
north of Fort McMurray. During the dismantling, the boom on a crane collapsed, resulting in fatal
injuries to a 32 year old employee of L. Robert Enterprises Ltd.
L. Robert Enterprises Ltd. is charged with five counts of violating the Act and regulations. Sydney
McKay, an employee of L. Robert Enterprises Ltd. at the time of the incident, has been charged
with one count of violating the Act.
Health care rally cries
Alberta's proposed Bill 37 will water down health
care like private and charter schools are weakening
the public school system, say two members of the
Alberta Medicare Coalition (AMC).
"That's exactly it," said Wendy Armstrong,
spokeswoman for the Alberta branch of
Consumer's Association of Canada.
"McMurrayites will find themselves paying more
under private health care and getting less service."
The AMC is travelling the province rallying
residents to call the premier, health minister and
their MLAs to protest Bill 37.
"We're calling on people in Fort McMurray and
surrounding area to call ... and engage in public
debate," said Armstrong.
Minimum age restriction put in place on
Wapiti buses
Little tykes who ride Peace Wapiti School Board buses to playschool are now subject to some new
age restrictions.
Peace Wapiti trustees voted Thursday to impose minimum age limits for the 25 or so passengers
who tag along on district buses during the school year.
The youngest a student can be is four years old by Sept. 1 of the school year.
Before, there were no age limits on riders.
Philippine women lured to Calgary as cheap
labour
woman has been accused of luring young Filipinos
to Calgary to work as nannies and then forcing them to clean toilets for
$100 a week, say RCMP.
Luningning Yue has been charged with 42 offences under the Immigration
Act and one criminal count of uttering forged documents in connection with
the alleged nanny scam.
Police say Yue recruited the young women under the federal Live-in
Caregiver Program and charged them fees of up to $3,500 US, said Cpl.
Mo Gudzowaty.
Hospital past-president pleads guilty to
theft
The past president of a Calgary-area hospital pleaded
guilty Thursday to stealing nearly $77,000 from the facility.
In an agreed statement of facts submitted to Calgary Court of Queen's
Bench, Lorence Thor Myggland, 60, admitted to four illegal transactions
totalling $76,775.
Myggland, head of the High River general auxiliary hospital about 40
kilometres south of Calgary, was earning $111,957 per year, plus incentive
allowances and other perks, when he resigned in April 1993.
UFCW announces end of Maple
Leaf Foods boycott
The National Office of the United Food and Commercial
Workers International Unon (UFCW) has requested the Canadian
Labour Congress to lift the boycott against Maple Leaf Foods, after all
outstanding labour issues were resolved last Sunday.
In the November 8 meeting, members of UFCW Local 312A voted to
accept a memorandum of agreement dealing with the outstanding issues
arising from the closure of the Edmonton Maple Leaf Foods pork plant
approximately one year ago.
UFCW and Maple Leaf Meats
resolve outstanding labour
issues
The United Food and Commercial Workers and
Maple Leaf Meats announced today that they have resolved all
outstanding issues in relation to the closure of the Edmonton plant.
The union and the company have reached an agreement that former
hourly employees will receive either an enhanced pension benefit or a
lump sum cash payment. In addition, all outstanding grievances have been
resolved. The total value of this package is in excess of $4.2-million.
Gov't mailout criticized
The provincial government's latest exercise in
consultation with the people is raising the hackles of those who
took part in last year's Alberta Growth Summit.
Earlier this week, Treasurer Stockwell Day announced a
provincewide mailout, Talk It Up, Talk It Out, which will ask
Albertans for their opinions on what the government should do
once the net debt is paid down next year.
While other options are considered, the questionnaire
concentrates on tax cuts, including a flattening of the tax system,
elimination of "bracket creep" and new breaks for low-income
Albertans.
About a year ago, the Growth Summit, which was co-chaired by
Premier Ralph Klein and involved thousands of hours of work by
107 selected Albertans from all walks of life, put a low priority
on a proposal to cut taxes by $900 million.
The summit's top recommendations included beefing up the
health and education systems, as well as putting more money into
roads and pipes to support Alberta's economic activity.
Consumer advocate Sally Hall said she spent much of the
summer of '97 preparing for the summit, and now she wonders
why.
"What did we waste our time for? We thought we were doing
something important," Hall said Tuesday.
"Tax cuts were not seen as important -- health, education and
infrastructure were much more important to people."
If the Klein government really wants tax cuts as part of its
agenda, it should just do it and face the people at the next
election rather than pretend to consult with the public, she said
Baby defects high in northwest Alberta, says
study
An infant birth defect is twice as common in
northwest Alberta as in other parts of the province, a new provincial
government report reveals.
A heart problem for babies, called septal defects, occurs twice as often in
the Grande Prairie region as in other Alberta areas, said Dr. Stephan
Gabos.
But the study, which examines data from 1985 to 1996, doesn't address
why so many babies in the region are born with holes in their hearts.
Norm Dick, a farmer from the Debolt area, said the study should have
examined if there is a link between the heart defects and air pollution.
"I thought (the study) was so damn general that they could go on forever
and come up with no significant correlation between air pollution and health
problems," he said.
Hi-tech sector to triple by the year 2010
Alberta has the ability to more than triple high-tech income and
employment over the next 12 years, says John Brick,
vice-president, Nortel Networks. Special Feature Edmonton Journal
Hurricane Mitch hurls grief onto
Edmonton
An Edmonton family is grieving the loss of 20
relatives in the disaster in Nicaragua -- all of their kin who were
still living in their home country.
"That was in Cinco Pinos, near the Honduran border. All those
villages, they disappeared, you know. They were wiped out,"
said Humberto Somarriba, a director of the Nicaraguan Cultural
Association.
Another 15 or so of an estimated 100 Nicaraguan families in
Edmonton have also been told that some of their family members
were killed.
No resolution in Alberta obstetricians' strike
Pregnant women must wait until Monday Nov. 16
to see if Alberta birthing centres will be closed by an
obstetricians' walkout.
Leaders of the obstetricians' job action met behind closed doors
with the Alberta Medical Association Tuesday, emerging with
little news despite earlier hopes they'd lift the month-long media
blackout once the meeting was over.
Obstetricians hope walkout will be
averted
Edmonton - Alberta obstetricians are optimistic their fees'
dispute will be resolved before they make good on a threat to
walk off their jobs Nov. 16.
"We are hopeful," Dr. Paul Martyn, president of the Alberta
Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said Monday.
He said the media blackout in force for almost a month will likely
be lifted about 6 p.m. today after executives of the obstetricians
society meet in Calgary with top officials from the Alberta
Medical Association. "I think the AMA is being a lot more
positive," Martyn said. "We have taken heart from that."
Meat packers mull over payout
Edmonton - Former Maple Leaf Meats workers were trying to
decide Monday what form of a payout to take after 89 per cent
voted Sunday in favour of a reduced severance package.
It was almost a year ago -- on Nov. 17, 1997 -- that the 850
workers went on strike despite repeated warnings from
company president Michael McCain that the plant would be
closed for good if they walked out.
Leaders of the United Food and Commercial Workers local
312A assured the workers that McCain was only bluffing.
But he did close the plant, relocating the hog slaughter operations
to Manitoba.
The workers gathered for one last meeting Sunday to hear local
312A president Jack Westgeest say a reduced severance
package had been negotiated. It's worth about $4 million or 60
per cent of what their lapsed contract called for.
Edmonton eyes tax hikes
City council is mulling over six different tax
scenarios, ranging from no tax increase in 1999
to an eight-per-cent hike. Most likely, council
will go with a 4.7-per-cent increase and a
variety of higher user fees. SPECIAL WEB FEATURE PAGE FROM THE EDMONTON JOURNAL
Calgary Property taxes to increase by
average of $25
Artwork seized by tax collectors
An Edmonton artist wonders if the city tax
collectors will have better luck than he's had in selling the
Neurotronic Egg they scooped from his southside studio last
week.
Daniel Hrishkewich's egg was one of the featured items in his
Citadel Theatre display during last summer's Works arts festival.
The egg, a half-dozen other sculptures and Hrishkewich's tools
were seized by bailiffs last week because he didn't pay business
taxes on his south Edmonton studio.
Alberta gov't paid for tests on shakes
Alberta taxpayers paid $30,000 to test untreated
pine shakes for the U.S. building-materials market, according to
documents released Monday by Liberal labour critic Hugh
MacDonald.
Despite the tests, the International Conference of Building
Officials rejected the shakes that have rotted on the roofs on at
least 5,000 Alberta homes and possibly as many as 20,000
during the past 10 years.
Hospital staff back to work after illegal
strike
An illegal strike by hospital workers in three
northern Alberta towns has ended just hours after it began.
Workers were expected to return to their jobs today after
negotiators for the Aspen Health Authority and the Alberta
Union of Provincial Employees tentatively accepted a mediator's
report following several hours of talks Thursday.
The two-year deal must be ratified by both sides. Union
members will vote tonight.
"The union is very pleased with the report," said Brent Gawne,
the lawyer representing about 69 striking clerical, housekeeping,
food, laundry and maintenance workers.
Feds favor privatization of
health care: McDonough
The federal government has secretly given the
green light to increased private-sector involvement in the Alberta
health system, New Democrat Leader Alexa McDonough charged
Thursday.
McDonough based her charges on a leaked memo to Health
Minister Allan Rock last year about a proposal by Calgary-based
Health Resource Group to open a private hospital.
The memo written by deputy health minister Michele S. Jean on
June 23, 1997, seems to indicate Ottawa accepted an Alberta
proposal for increased private involvement in health care.
Alberta: Health union ordered not to strike
Aspen Health Authority and the Alberta Union of
Provincial Employees resumed talks Wednesday after the union
was ordered not to threaten or call a strike.
About 60 support staff at hospitals in Mayerthorpe, Boyle and
Swan Hills want back the five-per-cent pay cut they took in
September 1993 and another 2.25-per-cent cut they took a year
later.
Union members talked openly about strike action after mediation
talks ended Friday. The workers asked for a three-per-cent
raise and a five-per-cent signing bonus but said Aspen made no
movement.
The union's lawyer admitted at an Alberta Labour Relations
Board hearing Tuesday that AUPE had been threatening illegal
strike action.
Provincial labour law holds that hospital employees perform
essential services and are forbidden to strike or even to threaten
strike action.
Free-spending days over - Klein
Premier Ralph Klein will tell rank-and-file
Conservatives this weekend he will not return the party to its
former free-spending ways.
Faced with a number of resolutions calling for more government
spending, Klein said he'll use the party's annual convention to
dampen expectations.
In his keynote address tonight the premier is expected to
emphasize the need to continue to balance the books and pay off
the province's debt.
Edmonton Chamber of Commerce miffed at city council's
criticisms
Edmonton - Chamber of Commerce president Doug Cox says
he is upset by city council's attempts to discredit the chamber's
claim the city is the highest spending municipality in Alberta and
needs to cut spending.
New Democrat Opposition Release Inaccurate
Claims made by the New Democrat Opposition in a
news release earlier today, that ``Columbia Health Care has been
systematically over-billing the Workers' Compensation Board'' and were then
not held responsible to repay the Board, are inaccurate.
Alberta Health Care Workers Plan Wildcat Strike
Seventy support staff at three rural Alberta
hospitals are preparing to walk out on a illegal strike later this week.
The Aspen Health Authority is trying to force the workers in Swan Hills,
Mayerthorpe and Boyle into arbitration.
OCTOBER 1998
- Railway workers desperate for news of
job cuts --- plan job action
A long conference call with union officials in
Toronto Tuesday night did little to ease the minds of CN
workers in Edmonton.
The 700 members of the Canadian Auto Workers Local 100 still
don't know how they fit into CN's plan to cut 3,020 jobs by the
end of next year.
"It sounds like the company doesn't have it figured out yet," said
John Fix, local vice-president for the mountain region.CAW spokesperson Bob Chernecki said union leaders
anticipate some kind of job action by workers. "I think this is a labour-relations disaster for him (Tellier),"
Chernecki said from Toronto. "He's lost enormous credibility
with our members, who are livid. And we don't blame them."
- Black Out special feature on Alberta Power Problems from the Edmonton Journal
- Flat tax proposed for Alberta
Albertans would get $500 million in tax breaks
under proposed changes to the provincial income tax system.
A new flat-rate provincial tax of 11 per cent and higher personal
exemptions would reduce tax bills for most Albertans and see
78,000 low-income earners escape provincial tax altogether,
says the government-appointed Alberta Tax Review Committee.
Under the proposal, a two-income family of four earning
$30,000 a year would save $463 on its annual tax bill. A family
of four earning $55,000 a year would save $171.
- Husky plans new projects to extract heavy oil in
Alberta
Husky Oil Ltd. plans to launch major projects in northern
Alberta's oil sands to extract tar-like bitumen buried deep beneath the
surface, according to newly released documents.
The Calgary-based company, controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li
Ka-shing, is focusing its attention on 33,600 hectares of undeveloped
land leases in the Cold Lake and Athabasca regions.
"Husky believes that these areas contain extensive bitumen deposits,"
said a 167-page prospectus sent to investors who bought Husky's
recent offering of debt securities totalling $225-million (U.S.).
- Maple Leaf Pork hires, spends
millions after strike
Maple Leaf Pork will add 69 jobs at its hog
processing plant here and spend nearly $12 million to speed up production, just
months after a bitter strike that ended with major wage cuts.
The expansion sets the stage to add a second shift with 600 more jobs and
another $28 million investment.
"Our objective is to build world-class capacity in Ontario," Pat Jones, president
of Maple Leaf Pork, said Tuesday.
The announcement comes seven months after unionized workers ended a
4½-month strike.
- New councillors voice concerns for
social issues
Edmonton's voters want council to give a higher
priority to social issues, the city's two new councillors said
Tuesday.
The council didn't change much in the Oct. 19 election -- 11 of
the 13 members of the old council were re-elected. But
newcomers Dave Thiele and Bryan Anderson said in interviews
their election was a message from voters that social issues can't
be ignored.
- Prospect of more air pollution worries
residents
Residents northeast of Edmonton are increasingly
furious about how 17 petrochemical plants in their midst have
disrupted life and increased health fears.
Their anger was clear Tuesday at an Alberta Energy and Utilities
Board hearing on Shell's proposed $1.9-billion Scotford
upgrader, which will process heavy oil from Fort McMurray.
Attention focused on the combined impact of new and expanding
plants, including Dow Chemical, Shell Chemicals, Geon,
Novagas, Viridian (formerly Sherritt) and others.
The anxiety centres on the plants' emissions, including sulphur,
nitrogen dioxide, carbon dioxide and benzene.
- Belt-tightening hits the
oilpatch
Uncertainty forces companies to live
within their cash flow
Calgary - Tough times
are yielding creative
budget approaches in
Canada's energy
patch, where
producers are
hunkering down to
finalize 1999 spending
plans in one of the
most difficult oil price
environments in two
decades.
Industry analysts said
yesterday the
companies are
pledging to live within
cash flow, cut costs,
sell assets and hedge future gas production as the the direction of oil
prices remains uncertain and the severe downturn that started last
fall stretches into a second year.
- Doctor group doing survey on hospital waits
Alberta doctors are sending out surveys to almost
every resident in the province to gather ammunition in their fight to reduce
waiting times for medical treatment.
"At times we have to make the case that the average Albertan does not
have timely access to quality care," Dr. Rowland Nichol, president of the
Alberta Medical Association, said Friday at a news conference.
"The information from the surveys will help us to do that."
- Doctors seek public help in funding
pitch
he future of medicare is hanging in the balance, the
Alberta Medical Association argues in a toughly worded flyer
arriving at households across the province.
More money is the key to reducing long patient waits as well as
controlling privatization, the AMA says, asking a million
households to get behind the campaign and fill out a survey form.
"Alberta doctors are worried," AMA president Dr. Rowland
Nichol said in a letter on the back of the health-care survey
which asks families how long waits have affected them.
- Alberta's power deregulation woes
Let the finger-pointing begin. A power blackout in Calgary
on the weekend (during Sunday dinner, no less) marks the start of the
"who's to blame" race, in which everyone tries to pin the lack of
power in Alberta on someone else. Everyone from Energy Minister
Steve West to Alberta Power chairman Ron Southern will no doubt
get into the act.
Depending on who you talk to, what Alberta is going through is either
a normal period of turbulence on the way to a more efficient
deregulated power market, or the result of a half-baked and poorly
implemented provincial strategy. It's also ironic, given Alberta's threat
to let the East "freeze in the dark" during the days of the National
Energy Program.
- Ceremony mourns victim of gay killing
It could happen here, crowd told
About 200 people gathered Sunday in the shadows
of the Alberta legislature to mourn the death of a man they likely
never met, a man who was murdered hundreds of kilometres
away.
With songs, speeches and written messages, they paid tribute to
Matthew Shepard, 21, a homosexual University of Wyoming
student who died last week. The young man was pistol-whipped
and lashed to a fence post for 18 hours in near-freezing
temperatures outside Laramie, Wyo.
He died in hospital last Monday.
Speaker after speaker from Edmonton's gay, religious and
political communities condemned the attack.
- Hate crimes not isolated incidents---Robert Bragg, Calgary Herald
- In the tolerant 1990s, attacks on gays persist Savage murder in Wyoming puts the focus on a crime
committed by many -- even the nice kids down the street
- Alta. hunter, trappers file suit
against toxic waste treatment plant
A hunter and three trappers who were near a toxic waste
treatment plant when it leaked hazardous chemicals two years ago are suing the
owner and operator of the northwestern Alberta plant. Samuel John Sawka, his
wife Cindy, Charles Henry Chalifoux and Kenneth Stuart Logie filed the suits last
week week in Edmonton’s Court of Queen’s Bench against Bovar Inc., plant
operator Chem-Security Ltd., and several affiliated companies.
- Statements targeting oil executives
denounced
HYTHE, Alta. (CP) -- Police and others denounced a suggestion by an
eco-activist that oil executives will be the next targets in the campaign of
violence against resource companies in Alberta.
- Biotechnology and Agriculture a Special Report From Western Producer
In the first of two reports on the
potential and limits of science,
special reports editor Barry Wilson
offers a glimpse at some of the
products in the research pipeline
and the science and politics which
help set research priorities.
- Peace Country powderkeg
Rural Albertans fear for their safety as bomber targets
another gas well
- Eco-terrorism costs Alberta Energy $2M
Alberta Energy Co. says vandalism, including gas well bombings, have caused more than $2 million
in damage and related expenses
Residents and environmental groups say frustration over pollution caused by sour gas flaring have
led to the incidents
Ed McGillivray, AEC's director of environment, health and safety, said there have been more than
160 instances of vandalism in the Grand Prairie area, about 500 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.
More than half have been directed at AEC and they have escalated in frequency over the past 20
months.
- Education -- or entertainment
Science centres fear the growing competition from
for-profit facilities
- Alberta to press for voluntary emission
targets
Alberta will press Ottawa and other provinces next
week to drop mandatory greenhouse gas reduction levels in
favour of voluntary targets.
On the eve of a meeting on the Kyoto accord on global
warming, the province released a position paper Thursday saying
the oil industry should be given a chance to use "best efforts" to
cut carbon dioxide emissions rather than being saddled with
compulsory targets.
- Catholics to share control of hospital
Catholics will share control of Banff's Mineral Springs Hospital under a
management setup that will allow doctors to perform vasectomies and
hand out contraceptives.
The scheme, approved Thursday by Health Minister Halvar Jonson,
aims to defuse a clash between the hospitals physicians and its owners,
the Alberta Catholic Hospital Corp., over church rules that prohibit such
procedures.
"It just allows us to do what we've been doing, but allows us to do that
with a clear conscience," said Dr. Lynne Marriott, president of the
hospital's medical staff association.
- Quick action needed to save historic Catholic school
More of Calgary's heritage will be blown to bits unless Calgarians act
fast to save a historic inner-city school.
At their final board meeting on Oct. 7, outgoing separate school trustees
voted to knock down the 89-year-old brick and sandstone structure at
2nd Street and 19th Avenue S.W.
The decision came just as the General Hospital fell prey to this city's
obsessive-compulsive demolition disorder.
- Fluoride forum gives eerie look at election
There was a moment while moderating a forum on fluoridation this week that I
began to think I was looking into a magic mirror at the whole civic election.
The parallels were quite eerie.
- From druid to Dinger: It's Calgary at the polls
The race is wild with the far right keen to run
council and the schools. A would-be mayor
traces Klein's footsteps.
The forum, like the mayoralty race that mercifully ends Monday, was entirely
one-sided.
The turnout for Thursday's so-called face-off over fluoride at the Cliff
Bungalow-Mission Community Centre was small, reflecting the general lack of
interest Calgarians take in political life these days.
Yet those who did attend the fluoride gathering, like those engaged in debates
over VLTs and the Senate, had their minds firmly made up before they
entered the room.
- Baby docs back down, drop plans
for wildcat strike
Mother-to-be Joanne Booth breathed a sigh of relief
Wednesday after hearing Alberta’s baby doctors have decided not to stage a
wildcat strike.
Alberta’s obstetricians decided Wednesday to put their job action on hold for 30
days after the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons threatened disciplinary
action.
- Expectant mothers angry at being pawns
in dispute
Heather McMullin says she's relieved obstetricians
are delaying their planned job action, but she's worried the move
will just prolong the agony for pregnant women.
The 21-year-old is due to give birth for the first time Dec. 13.
And the legal assistant is scared the doctors will still be feuding
with the government on the big day.
"I'm trying not to worry," McMullin said after learning the
obstetricians are delaying their job action for 30 days. "But I
don't think it will be resolved in time."
- $61M infusion for health not enough --
MDs
Minister says it addresses deficits
The province's health authorities are getting an
extra $61.3 million but doctors and Capital Health differ on
whether it's enough.
Health Minister Halvar Jonson announced the funding
Wednesday -- including $22.8 million for Edmonton -- to
address the regional authorities' deficits "in a very major way."
While Jonson termed the amount fair he acknowledged
pressures for funding will remain.
- http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/alberta/101598ab5.html
Two lesbian couples are launching a
ground-breaking challenge to Alberta's adoption law that's likely
to create a new political storm over gay rights.
The Calgary couples, whose names are protected by Alberta's
Child Welfare Act, are contesting a section of the act that deals
with step-parent adoptions.
In each case, one woman is the natural parent of a child raised
by the lesbian couple since birth.
- Calgary Herald newsroom to vote
on joining union
CALGARY (CP) - Canada’s largest media union has applied to become the
bargaining agent for about 150 newsroom employees at the Calgary Herald.
A majority have signed cards requesting a vote to unionize, said Gail Lem, media
vice-president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of
Canada.
- College threatens obstetricians with
fines
Job action unethical, it says
Edmonton - Obstetricians will face disciplinary hearings if they
force the closure of half the hospital birthing centres in Edmonton
and Calgary, warns the registrar of the Alberta College of
Physicians and Surgeons.
"The job action planned will adversely affect the welfare of
women," Dr. Larry Ohlhauser said Tuesday in a letter to Alberta
obstetricians. "I urge you to immediately abandon this planned
job action."
He said the college will investigate obstetricians who fail to heed
his warning.
- All provinces must help curb emissions
-- Klein
Alberta wants to reduce pollution but will head into
environmental talks next week insisting all provinces share the
load, says Premier Ralph Klein.
- Privatization looms for Alberta Treaury Branches (ATB)
After 60 years of government ownership and a sizable
market share in Alberta, the bank is positioned
to go public as a regional bank.
- Three of five birth centres set to close
Edmonton - The Capital Health region is ready to close three of
its five hospital birthing centres if most city obstetricians
withdraw services after Thursday.
If the job action goes ahead, the region may consolidate baby
deliveries at the Royal Alexandra and Misericordia sites, Dr.
Robert Bear, Capital Health's executive vice-president and chief
clinical officer, said Monday.
Twenty-three of 30 active obstetricians will stop delivering
babies except in emergencies, said Dr. Tom Corbett,
secretary-treasurer of the Alberta Society of Obstetricians.
- Banff calls for forum, inquiry into
housing
Business and community leaders in the mountain resort
are calling for their own investigation and a community-wide
forum to address the housing crisis for Banff's impoverished
low-income workers.
- Students dish up Thanksgiving dinner
More than 700 people made their way on a wintry
night Monday to the Boyle Street Co-op for a free Thanksgiving
meal served up by students from a unique charter school.
"We were a little more prepared this year," said Shirley Minard,
principal of the inner-city school that operates out of the co-op.
Last year, organizers planned for 300 to 400 people and wound
up struggling to feed about 650.
This year, Minard said, students in the school's foods class
trimmed 50 turkeys and were in good shape when about 730
people came through the doors.
The dinner is an annual event which the charter school, called the
Boyle Street Education Centre, has recently joined.
- Low prices detract from bountiful
harvest
Like most Alberta farmers, Ken Motiuk completed
his harvest this year long before there was even a hint of killer
frost.
But neither he nor his colleagues throughout the province have
managed to move much of the grain, peas or other farm products
they grew even though quality in many cases is very high. Neither we nor CN anticipated such an early harvest, so CN
ended up leasing some cars to the United States. Not that it
mattered much anyway. The Canadian Wheat Board is not
moving much grain now anyway because the prices are so low.
They're holding on until they can get a better price."
No one can actually believe how low grain prices have
descended, and many are worrying that it will be too late before
they recover.
Motiuk says the elevator prices for the peas and wheat he grew
this year are about half of what he got two years ago.
- Paying the price for a lapse
in safety
Westlock - A judge has awarded an estimated $4 million in
damages against a Westlock teacher and his school district for a
gymnastics accident that paralysed a 16-year-old girl.
Justice Cecilia Johnstone's ruling may mean major changes to the
way gymnastics and other subjects are taught in Canadian
schools.
And in a ground-breaking move, Johnstone defied legal
precedent and based her award for Margaret MacCabe's lost
income on the assumption that women should earn as much as
men. - Paralysed woman plans for degree,
marriage, babies
When Margaret MacCabe raced out to warm up
for a high-school gymnastics class seven years ago, she didn't
know it would be the last run of her life.
- Albertans very upbeat about jobs,
prospects
Hey, Albertans, we like to work and it shows.
A new Royal Bank survey has found that we enjoy the
second-highest job satisfaction in the country, behind only
workers in Quebec.
Eighty-six per cent of us are satisfied in our jobs compared with
91 per cent of Quebecers. British Columbians, by comparison,
are Canada's grumpiest workforce -- yet a full 81 per cent
report some degree of satisfaction.
- ASC looks to unplug Internet 'stock exchange'
Alberta securities regulators are trying to close down an Internet site
they say is acting as a pseudo stock exchange, accepting listings and
selling shares to people around the world.
The site, originally based on a computer in Edmonton but now
offshore, solicits companies that want to have their shares listed
electronically on the "World Stock Exchange." Investors would then
use the Web site to buy and sell the shares.
The Alberta Securities Commission (ASC), which will set a hearing
date for the case on Oct. 22, said this is one of the first Internet cases
to be taken to a formal hearing before a Canadian regulator.
- Alberta Pool announces profit
Despite reduced operating earnings this year, Alberta
Wheat Pool earned $56.6 million thanks to a $28.8 million boost from the
sale of half its interest in its Vancouver grain terminal, the co-operative
announced Friday.
Excluding that one-time gain, the pool had net earnings of $27.8 million,
down slightly from last year's $34.2 million.
Revenue from the pool's grain and agriculture business was $1.99 billion,
down from $2.05 billion.
- Picket line melee
Furniture factory staff injured as fracas erupts on
first day of strike
More than 200 strikers clashed with
police and non-unionized employees
on a southeast Calgary factory picket
line yesterday, leaving two employees
injured.
The strikers, many of whom are
Punjabi, say Dynamic Furniture, 5300
61 Ave. S.E., wants to cut employee
salaries by $1 an hour if they aren't
proficient in English.
And union reps say workers have
been subjected to verbal abuse and
their bathroom breaks have been
limited to one or two a day.
"The $1 decrease we will not budge
on," said strike organizer and picket
captain Onkar Victor Ghuman, about
the negotiations which broke down in
late September.
"We take it as a form of racism."
The company refused to comment on the $1 an hour cut and
only issued a news release saying the company treats its
approximately 425 workers fairly. Richard Malitowski, president of the Construction and General
Workers Union Local 1111, blamed the violence on
management, saying it started when the company allowed
employees to exit at the opposite end of the factory in an attempt
to avoid the picket line.
<- Ottawa takes moral stand
City becomes first municipality to screen
record of corporate donors
Ottawa has become the first municipality in Canada to introduce ethical
screening for potential corporate sponsors.
Yesterday city council voted 6-5 in favour of paying for an independently
researched report on every company offering to sponsor a city event,
facility or improvement worth more than $50,000.
The screening reports are to include a summary of the company's
human-rights record.
The decision comes in the wake of a controversy that erupted after Nike
offered $50,000 for a new gym floor for the Carlington Gym this spring.
The Caldwell Avenue gym serves youth in a neighbourhood with a lot of
low-income housing. The new floor was to include Nike's "swoosh" logo.
But Nike withdrew its offer and gave the money to the Boys and Girls Club
of Ottawa-Carleton instead after a group of city councillors led by Richard
Cannings criticized the sneaker giant over labour practices in its Asian
plants.
The ethical screening reports will cost about $50 if the company has already
been screened and between $500 to $1,000 for companies that haven't
been screened.
GO TO JUST DO IT! BOYCOTT NIKE (ALBERTA)
- Fall of General painful for some
Looking to the future was also the primary concern of local historian Jean
Leslie, who told me she avoided watching the General fall Sunday because it
would have only increased her sense of helplessness.
"It wasn't a freak show to go and watch," Leslie said. "As a historian, I don't
like going to things like that when there's nothing I can do about them.
"I've never felt so politically helpless in my life. We have to do everything we
can now to make sure that land is kept for another hospital."
Last words for the General. First words in the fight to persuade politicians that
hospitals aren't just building blocks that can knocked down like child's play.
- Hospital now rubble but people persevere
Shortly after 9 a.m. Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people watched as a
century of the city's health history was blown away in 20 seconds leaving a
pile of rubble and a huge cloud of dust.
The General Hospital demolition was a feat of engineering in an engineer's
town. It drew oohs and ahs from the awe-struck crowd.
By mid-day the sky had cleared, the crowds had dispersed, the TV crews
had packed up and the dust cloud had moved off to the southeast. Life
returned to normal.
- Village gladly feeds city homeless
Today at noon, up to 500 homeless people are expected at the Calgary
Drop-In Centre to tuck into a feast of farm-fresh vegetables and juicy beef,
courtesy of the village of Carbon.
That's close to the population of Carbon itself. "When you tell them it's
Carbon coming, they look forward to it," said Thompson, sitting in the kitchen
of the Carbon Community Centre Tuesday watching friends and neighbours
slice and dice bushels of vegetables for today's lunch. "I never expected it to
turn into this."
Thompson came up with the idea in 1990 after her community reaped an
exceptionally large harvest.
- West softens stand on climate change
Energy minister pledges co-operation
Alberta Energy Minister Steve West has softened his
hardline stand on climate change and pledged to avoid
confrontations and work with the federal government.
West, who had harshly chastised Ottawa for signing the Kyoto
agreement last December, told a Calgary Professional Club
audience his previous comments were not based on personal
beliefs.
- Consumers revving up for power cuts
mall generators have become a big business in a
city facing possible rotating power outages this winter.
Duilio Casali, of Honda Extreme, said generator sales have
jumped since talk of potential blackouts began more than a
month ago. Edmonton Power has warned that homeowners
could see half-hour rotating power outages this winter if heavy
demand causes a shortage of power in the provincial electricity
grid.
- Higher tax urged to stop young female
smokers
Canada could face a "catastrophic" epidemic of
young, female smokers unless governments take immediate
action to heavily tax and regulate tobacco products, says an
industry critic.
"The good news is that the smoking rate has declined 50 per
cent in the past few years," Dr. Andrew Pipe said Wednesday
during the launch of a new coalition called the Alberta Tobacco
Reduction Alliance.
"The bad news is that smoking among young women has steadily
increased. We are witnessing a public health disaster."
- Students take protest to the top
Edmonton - While other Canadian students demonstrate next
week for more money for higher education, Alberta's student
union leaders will quietly lobby their premier.
The Canadian Federation of Students, which represents 400,000
students at 60 campuses across Canada, has announced a
campaign starting Tuesday that will include marches and
picketing federal politicians' offices.
But students' union leaders from the Universities of Alberta,
Calgary, Lethbridge and 23 other colleges and technical schools
across the province will meet privately that day with Premier
Ralph Klein at the legislature.
- Eco-terrorists called anarchists
Slashing attack by West as he defends environmental
standards
Alberta Energy Minister Steve West has lashed out at
so-called eco-terrorists attacking oil industry sites, and defended
the province's environmental standards.
"I wouldn't honour them calling them eco-terrorists because that
would mean they had a cause," West said in Calgary Tuesday.
"I call them anarchists."
- Albertans to face blackouts this
winter, energy minister
Power companies will pull the plug on Alberta homeowners
and businesses this winter due to an electricity shortage, Energy Minister Steve
West said Tuesday.
After months of emphatically denying reports that Alberta will have blackouts this
winter because of an insufficient power supply, West admitted the province will
experience electricity shutoffs.
"There is a shortfall coming up," Steve West warned delegates of an electricity
deregulation forum.
- Report questions usefulness of new
health computer system
The province's "Wellnet," a computerized health
information system, could be a $1-billion boondoggle that does
nothing to improve the health of Albertans, says the government's
financial watchdog.
Auditor general Peter Valentine said regional health authorities
may not be capable of hooking into the system.
"If Wellnet initiatives are not in line with the authorities'
capacities, about $1 billion could be spent building a network
that is not used and the department and health authorities could
still lack information they need," Valentine warned in his
1997-98 report on government spending.
-
Global shutdown?
While world leaders search for solutions on eve
of a possible global economic crisis, the
outlook for Alberta ranges from mild
discomfort to severe economic pain.
- Tears shed in court over worker's death
Edmonton - A company president broke down in tears as he
apologized in court Tuesday for the death of one his workers.
"To us, Gert Nielsen was a friend," said Keith Epton of Fabtec
Structures Ltd. "He just wasn't a number on the payroll ... We
are sincerely sorry and we regret this happened."
Fabtec, which manufactures portable industrial trailers, pleaded
guilty to two counts under the Occupational Health and Safety
Act for the accident that killed Nielsen, 43, and injured another
worker on Dec. 17, 1996.
- Restrictions will hurt U of A's
fund-raising
The University of Alberta stands to miss out on
millions of dollars in donations because of Alberta's
protection-of-privacy law, the U of A's chief fund-raiser warned
Tuesday.
The U of A -- in the midst of a $145-million fund-raising
campaign -- and other post-secondary institutions gather
personal information on some wealthy individuals that they target
for donations.
- Lund promises crackdown on river
polluters
Gov't probes declining Athabasca quality
- MLAs give themselves a raise
Politicians get 5% pay hike and up to $115,000 cash
when they leave office
Alberta MLAs have voted themselves a
five-per-cent pay hike and six-figure severance package when
they leave office.
The deal, approved Monday by the MLA committee in charge
of pay and perks, sweetens the pot for politicians who had their
pensions killed nearly five years ago.
The salary increase takes effect Oct. 1 and restores the rollback
MLAs took to help balance the budget.
Future pay adjustments will be tied to the annual change in the
average weekly earnings of Albertans, as reported by Statistics
Canada.
- Misery indicators on the rise
Edmonton's economy is up, but so is the overall
social misery in the city, according to the Edmonton Social
Planning Council.
A study released Monday of the council's index based on 15
indicators of social health shows the index declined by 4.3 per
cent between 1993 and 1996 and was expected to decline again
in 1997.
Some of the more alarming figures include a 44-per-cent
increase in food bank use, an 11-per-cent increase in
low-birth-weight babies and a 28-per- cent larger child welfare
caseload.
Social planning council president Kirk MacDonald said it's no
coincidence the report is being released during the election
campaign.
Although it won't endorse candidates, the council wants them to
discuss the city's social problems.
- Chateau Lake Louise expansion
protested
Edmonton - Expansion of the Chateau Lake Louise will threaten
wildlife in Banff National Park, demonstrators said Monday.
"The river valley through Banff is clogged already with human
development," environmentalist Sam Gunsch said as he joined a
group of about 25 in front of the Hotel Macdonald.
Protesters said the Macdonald was chosen because it's part of
the CP Hotels chain, which plans to build a conference centre
and 66 additional guest rooms at Lake Louise.
"We're trying to protect wildlife, which is the reason people go
there," said Gunsch, Edmonton spokesperson for the Canadian
Parks and Wilderness Society. Additional traffic caused by the
expansion will add to pressures that threaten animals such as the
grizzly bear and wolverine, Gunsch said.
- Unfair to be singled out, pulp industry
says
Alberta's pulp industry says it is being improperly
blamed for rising levels of pollutants in the Athabasca River.
An Environment Department report singling out pulp mills as the
cause of declining water quality is at odds with a separate study
showing pollution from mills has decreased, said Neil Shelly,
director of environmental affairs for the Alberta Forest Products
Association.
"According to the facts and figures we know of, everything is
getting better," Shelly said Monday. "We've had studies on
effluent releases from pulp mills showing dramatic
improvements."
Alberta Environment's 1997-98 annual report said the quality of
the Athabasca River, used by five major pulp mills, has declined
in recent years.
- Oil companies, ranchers aim for
peaceful settlement of disputes
EDMONTON (CP) - The uneasy relationship between Alberta farmers and the
oil companies that drill beneath their land was tragically illustrated by the
weekend shooting of an oil company executive.
But representatives of both sectors say the number of complaints is very small
compared with the amount of exploration and drilling.
They also say they are trying their best to resolve problems before they escalate
to violence.
- Firefighter who took buyout sues city
over job refusal
A former deputy fire chief has filed a human rights
complaint against the city of Edmonton, charging it with
discriminatory hiring practices.
Bernie Williams says he is a victim of "backroom politics''
involving the firefighter's union and city management.
City manager Bruce Thom says he can't comment on the
complaint because he has not received it yet.
Williams claims the city discriminated against him on the grounds
of income by refusing to consider his application for another
deputy chief's position, despite his obvious qualifications.
- Province warned to plan for millennium
bug failures
Albertans should brace themselves for phones that
won't ring and lights that won't switch on when the clock strikes
midnight Jan. 1, 2000, says the province's financial watchdog.
As the next century draws nearer, the Alberta government must
prepare a strategy for providing emergency services should the
dreaded "millennium bug" strike its computer systems, says
auditor general Peter Valentine.
"It's very important, with only 15 months left, to be sure that we
have some contingency plans in place," Valentine said Tuesday.
In his 1997-98 annual report, Valentine said the failure of the
government's computer systems "may pose a risk to public
safety."
- Public to help doctor group on
private hospital
CALGARY (CP) - The public is invited to help the Alberta College of
Physicians and Surgeons decide whether to license a private, overnight hospital.
"We obviously want to make the best decision based on the medical issues, but
clearly we are concerned about how this might impact the public health system,"
college president Larry Olhauser said Friday.
The college has twice rejected an application by the Calgary Health Resource
Group to expand services to overnight stays at its existing 37-bed hospital.
But after receiving advice from lawyers, the college has reopened the matter.
Many of the 28 college council members were frustrated and angry that they
were faced with a controversial decision that could impact the future of Canada’s
health care.
Dr. Harvey Albrecht lashed out at the Alberta government for its "cowardly
silence" on privatization.
- Power squeeze in Alberta may mean darker, colder
winter
Energy-rich Alberta is bracing for possible power blackouts
this winter, a predicament brought on by rapid population growth and a
rocky transition to becoming the first province to deregulate its
electricity market.
The threat to Alberta businesses and households will be greatest during
the cold months ahead, as surging demand strains an electricity grid that
hasn't added a major generating station since 1994.
- One man's crusade shakes up the oil elite
Wiebo Ludwig says the industry is poisoning people.
He's getting a lot of support
Calgary -- It was to be the first salvo in the powerful petroleum
industry's response to the Wiebo Ludwig factor.
In a Calgary conference room draped in royal blue and stuffed with
reporters last month, stood Gwyn Morgan, the head of Alberta Energy
Co. Ltd. and one of Canada's senior petroleum players.
Mr. Morgan -- dapper in a sober tie and navy-blue pin-striped shirt,
his shoes polished to a high gloss -- told the media that people
sabotaging petroleum facilities around the province are nothing but
terrorists who will be satisfied only once they've shut down the
industry.
Downstairs, a gate-crasher was trying to grab the spotlight from Mr.
Morgan. Wiebo Ludwig -- the farmer who has single-handedly ignited
the current controversy over pollution in the petroleum industry -- was
restrained by a beefy security guard, but nevertheless demonstrated
why he's become a nightmare for the petroleum industry.
Sporting black jeans and discount-store loafers, Mr. Ludwig had a
highly personal reason for trying to see Mr. Morgan. He reached into
the pocket of his threadbare jacket and pulled out a videocassette, an
agonizing record of the recent birth of his grandson -- born dead and
deformed -- that Mr. Ludwig wanted Mr. Morgan to watch.
Mr. Morgan's industry, the farmer asserted, is to blame for the death of
his grandson and two other miscarriages at the Ludwigs' Trickle Creek
farm, not to mention the deaths and abortions of many farm animals.
That scene played out in Calgary illustrates the incendiary rhetoric now
in play between Canada's powerful petroleum industry and those who
say it is poisoning them. What's not so clear, however, is how the
Ludwig factor will affect the industry's practices.
- China establishes Calgary consulate
A new gateway to the world's
largest market opened Friday as
China established a consulate in
Calgary.
Gu Huaming, the new consul
general for the People's
Republic of China here, arrived
earlier this month, joining a
growing number of foreign
representatives seeking to
strengthen ties with this city.
Roughly 200 people, mostly
members of Calgary's Chinese
community, looked on as
Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister
Tang Jiaxuan declared the office at Suite #100, 1011 6th Ave. S.W., officially
open.
"China-Canada relations have shown a good momentum of all-around
growth," Tang said.
"The opening of the consulate general in Calgary marks the reinforcement of
the efforts of China and Canada to build a partnership of all-around
cooperation into the next century.
- Candidates announced for first Wheat
Board elections
A total of 65 candidates have tossed their farm caps
into the ring to make Canadian Wheat Board history by running in the grain
marketer's first elections for its board of directors.
Most districts have at least four candidates vying for a seat, although wheat
board chairman Art Macklin has just two other candidates to contend with
in one Alberta district.
- Homeless shelters fear winter will take
its toll
Edmonton - Homeless people will die on Edmonton streets this
winter if something isn't done, says the Salvation Army.
A group of inner-city agencies and civic leaders met Thursday to
discuss how to keep people from sleeping outside when winter
hits.
The group will report its findings to Social Services Minister Lyle
Oberg in about two weeks, said the army's spokesperson Capt.
Brian Venables.
"If nothing is done, this is the year people across North America
will say someone froze to death in Edmonton because there was
no place for them to go. Something has to be done."
- Leave issue to politicians, doctors urged
Rock joins 'private hospital' debate
Federal Health Minister Allan Rock waded into the
private-hospital controversy Thursday, asking the Alberta
College of Physicians and Surgeons to leave the political hot
potato in the hands of the provincial legislature.
The college meets today in Calgary to reconsider blocking what
Rock bluntly calls a "private hospital." The college's own lawyer
indicated it did not have a legal right to debate the social
implications to justify saying no.
Rock said the Alberta government will likely take responsibility
for private hospitals this fall when MLAs will debate Bill 37
intended to give the province responsibility.
"In the circumstances, I would respectfully ask that the college
consider either adjourning the application or reserving its
decision thereon until after the Alberta legislature has concluded
its consideration of Bill 37," he says in a letter to college registrar
Dr. Larry Ohlhauser.
- Doctors college to deal with Alberta's
privatization issue
Private hospitals, extra billing and baby care will be
on the examining table today when the Alberta College of Physicians and
Surgeons holds a council meeting.
First up for discussion will be whether the college will permit a private
hospital to perform complex surgeries and keep patients overnight.
The college has twice rejected an application by the Calgary Health
Resource Group to open a 37-bed hospital, but is reconsidering its
position. That is causing temperatures to rise.
"Ultimately it means further severe damage to the public health-care system
which is stretched to the limit financially right now," said Desmond Achilles
of a seniors action group in Edmonton.
- CN apologizes to families of three killed
in crash
Edson - The families of three men killed when a string of
runaway rail cars collided with a freight train two years ago have
finally received an apology from CN.
- U.S. investor made $8M on WEM deal
Quick flip on mortgage by Nomura Asset Capital Corp.
bumps up cost to Albertans
- University bursary program not enough
for students in need
Edmonton - A $1.65-million bursary program announced
Thursday by the University of Alberta won't be enough to solve
all of the financial hardships faced by students, says a student
representative.
At the university's fourth annual general meeting held Thursday at
the convention centre, U of A president Rod Fraser announced
the university's contribution to bursaries will increase to $1.65
million from last year's $235,000.
- Keeping Canada in the game
The Edmonton Oilers could get a $5- million annual
federal grant to help them stay in Canada, if a proposal by a
House of Commons committee is adopted.
The committee was struck last year after the presidents of all six
Canadian National Hockey League teams warned MPs that a
weak Canadian dollar and oppressive tax system may one day
kill NHL hockey in Canada.
Oilers general manager Glen Sather was one of those who spoke
to the Canadian Heritage's subcommittee on sports, chaired by
Dennis Mills.
"The argument I kept presenting to them was, 'Look what you
do for Bombardier. Look what you do for the hog industry, the
lumber industry, the auto industry,' " Sather said. "This is not
about giving us some money. This is about trying to save an
industry in this country."
- AUPE pans health appointee
Capital Health board member figured in privatization
effort
Edmonton - Union leaders are furious a man has been
appointed to the Capital Health board who was part of a
company that took the starch out of unionized hospital laundry
services.
The union leaders object that Robert Kinasewich was among the
owners of K-Bro Linen Systems when it won the contract to
replace public-sector laundry services in the Edmonton region.
Thousands of support staff in the region threatened to walk out
three years ago because of the K-Bro contract. They dropped
the threat only when the health authority agreed to a one-year
moratorium on further contracting out.
Calgary support workers took to the picket lines in 1995 over a
K-Bro contract, ending their strike when their health authority
cancelled the deal. K-Bro eventually got the contract last
October.
- Court asked to rule on for-profit clinic
Refusal was justified, ex-official says
Dr. Harold Swanson is going to court to try to
make sure the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons won't
change its mind and let a private clinic sell hospital services.
Swanson is a 12-year veteran of the college's ruling council and
was council president in 1981.
A supporter of medicare, the semi-retired radiologist ran as a
Liberal candidate against Premier Ralph Klein in the 1997
provincial election.
He is asking a Court of Queen's Bench judge to rule the college
had the legal authority to deny a for-profit clinic's request that it
be allowed to keep surgical patients overnight.
- Dropping a dime will soon cost 35¢
City callers escape for now as the price of a pay phone
call rises for first time since '83
Buddy, can you spare a dime? And a quarter, too,
because that's what it will soon cost to make a call from pay
phones outside Edmonton.
Telus has won approval to charge 35 cents for pay calls,
effective immediately. Alberta will be the first market in the
country to pay more than 25 cents.
It's the first increase since 1983, when city of Edmonton calls
went from 20 to 25 cents and other areas in Alberta jumped
from 10 cents to 25.
The reason for the increase? Costs are rising, Telus says.
(ACTUALLY ITS BECAUSE THEY CUT RATES FOR LONG DISTANCE AT LOCAL SERVICES EXPENSE...EDITOR)
- Injuries take their toll in the region
Statistics indicate 'a problem' in our area
Residents in the Mistahia Health Region may not be accident-prone but they are injury-prone.
At least according to statistics released at the protective and emergency services committee meeting
on Tuesday.
Medical health officer Dr. Hilary Wynters identified the region as having the fifth highest rate of
death due to injury among the 17 Alberta health regions in 1994.
It also had the fourth highest rate of hospitalization due to injury in the region.
"We have a problem with injuries," Wynters said, noting that injuries are preventable and
predictable while "accidents" happen by chance.
Wynters and injury control facilitator Bill Leggat made the presentation on the day after the Alberta
Centre for Injury Control and Research in Edmonton was opened. The pair attended Monday's
launching of the first national facility dedicated to prevention, control, education and research of
injuries.
- Some government offices overspend by
large margin
Municipal Affairs Minister Iris Evans missed the
budget for running her office by a country mile last year,
spending 42-per-cent more money than expected.
Government figures released Wednesday show it cost $301,000
to run her office in 1997-98, $90,000 more than her $211,000
budget.
Joan Forge, Evans' executive assistant, said the municipal affairs
minister spent the extra cash criss-crossing the province visiting
municipalities, seniors' lodges and registry agents.
- Social workers assured of union support
in job action
The provincial employees' union is promising to
back social workers if they strike or take other job action --
even if it's illegal.
Dan MacLennan, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial
Employees, promised the support Tuesday as social workers in
Edmonton and Calgary rallied to demand higher wages and an
end to pay disparities across different job classifications.
Social Services Minister Lyle Oberg said he's hopeful of a
settlement without a strike, particularly as the government has
offered the social workers a 7.25-per-cent increase.
The lunch-time rallies marked the start of a scheduled three-day
mediation bid to reach a new contract.
- Social workers prepared to walk
Strike imminent if latest talks fail
Alberta's 2,200 government-paid social workers, child counsellors and psychologists are prepared
to strike if the latest round of contract talks crash this week.
"If talks break down we don't have a lot of alternatives left," says local child welfare worker
Rebecca Fitzgerald.
Although Fitzgerald faces legal action for even mentioning a strike by workers "that's always an
option for unions."
In April, Fitzgerald was verbally reprimanded after saying Alberta children are being lost in a system
of unstable care due to cost saving measures by the Klein government.
Workers are picketing locally and across the province today in support of union negotiators, the
Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, now in mediated talks with the province.
- SAIT racks up surplus in time of tight funding
The Southern Alberta Institute of Technology rang up a $6.9-million surplus
and a 43-per-cent hike in training program revenues last year despite flat
government funding, the college's board said Tuesday.
"It's a reflection of the good work that a number of people around SAIT have
done," said chairman Larry Macdonald. "Everybody has pulled together and
we've had a very successful year."
The extra cash will be spent on building renovations, classroom and lab
upgrading and the computerization of all courses for worldwide delivery on the
Internet. Employees, from instructors to maintenance personnel, will also
receive a 2.04-per-cent performance bonus, based on their 1997-98 salaries.
- No job losses expected in the oilsands
industry
With gloomy oil prices forecast for the next year,
oil and gas analysts warn oil companies are honing
the knives in preparation for fall job cuts.
The oilsands industry, however, doesn't seem to
be included in any proposed layoffs, according to
companies contacted by Today.
Syncrude Canada spokesman Peter Marshall said
he's not aware of any plans at the oilsands giant to
shed jobs.
- Minimum-wage pay increase kicks in
About 33,000 Albertans working for minimum
wage will get pay raises Wednesday.
That's when the province's minimum wage will jump by 40 cents
an hour, to $5.40.
Students between 16 and 18 will get an added bonus. A
separate minimum wage, which had allowed students to be paid
50 cents an hour less, will be eliminated.
The increase is the first of three announced earlier this year. The
wage will jump another 25 cents April 1 and another 25 cents
Oct. 1, 1999, to $5.90 an hour.
Alberta's minimum wage was the lowest in the country and
hadn't been raised since 1992. A minimum-wage earner working
a 40-hour week will now earn $10,368 a year.
- Injuries 'disease' top killer
Edmonton - You'd think the leading killer of Albertans aged one
to 44 would get a little recognition.
But injuries don't come to mind when most people think of
epidemics that can be prevented and maybe eradicated.
That could all change with the opening Monday of the Alberta
Centre for Injury Control and Research, Canada's first facility
dedicated to prevention, control, education about and research
of injuries.
"People don't realize that injuries are a disease just like any other
disease and they think that there's nothing that you can do about
it," said Dr. Louis Hugo Francescutti, chairperson of the centre's
advisory body.
- Radiologists getting into MRI business
Group to 'gamble' on venture
An Edmonton radiologists' group is buying its own
MRI machine to cope with a growing need it says will continue
to rise faster than expanding public service.
Medical Imaging Consultants -- the biggest radiology group in
Canada -- will locate the high-tech magnetic imaging resonance
scanner in a clinic across from University Hospital.
Dr. Patrick Heslip, one of 67 partners in the group and
past-president of the Alberta Society of Radiologists, said the
move is "a gamble" since funding restrictions mean radiologists
cannot bill medicare for MRI tests the way they can with
office-based diagnostic machines.
"There is no guarantee we are going to get any public money," he
said.
- CRHA draws up plans to whittle deficit
Calgarians could face health care cuts as the regional authority struggles with a
burgeoning $52-million deficit. A major austerity program announced Monday
will involve behind-the-scenes cuts, but cuts to services may be necessary
unless the provincial government provides more money, said Bruce Libin,
chairman of the Calgary Regional Health Authority finance committee.
"It's a very serious problem," said Libin.
New cost-cutting measures mean delays in hiring new staff, putting off capital
purchases and reducing administrative staff, Libin told the monthly meeting of
the CRHA board.
- Leduc hotel defends group branded
racist
Leduc - The manager of a Leduc hotel says she knows of no
reason to cancel the meeting of a group labelled as racist by the
Jewish Federation of Edmonton and a B.C. group.
The Canadian League of Rights, based in High River, has met for
the past two years at the Leduc Inn and will meet there again
Oct. 16-17.
The Coast Terrace Inn cancelled their booking in 1996 at the
suggestion of the Alberta Human Rights Commission after it
reviewed material supplied by David Lethbridge, of Salmon
Arm, B.C.
He heads a group called the Bethune Institute for Anti-Fascist
Studies.
- Welfare rates gap 'hidden'
Social planning council seeks report through access law
Data showing the gap between welfare rates and
housing costs in Alberta's booming economy is being kept under
wraps, says the head of a city agency.
The government won't update a report on the housing crunch
and now says some data revealed a few months ago never
existed, said Brian Bechtel, executive director of the Edmonton
Social Planning Council.
"It's a public policy issue," he said. "They know it's damning and
they will not release it."
The council asked Social Services for an updated version of a
May 1997 report which suggested that two out of three welfare
clients can't find housing within the shelter rates set by the
province. The internal document, leaked to The Journal three
months ago, found single parents are among the hardest hit.
- Liberals say government failed to meet
its own goals
The Klein government failed to measure up to its
own performance goals 122 times in the past two years, say the
provincial Liberals.
An analysis of the government's 1997-98 annual reports
indicates the departments fell short of their goals in 66 separate
instances, said Liberal house leader Howard Sapers.
That brings to 122 the number of instances where the
government failed to measure up to its own standards within the
last two years.
- Endangered animals need protection,
say protesters
Edmonton - Sporting masks of eagles, bears and frogs a small
group of demonstrators marched outside the legislature Monday
to protest what they say is government inaction on endangered
species.
"It's absolutely essential to get endangered species legislation
because it's the 11th hour," said Gray Jones, executive director
of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee's boreal forest
campaign.
With clear-cutting slated for most of the forests owned by the
province, animals and plants are threatened, Jones told a crowd
of about 35 people.
- Social workers, child-care staff demand
pay raise
About 2,200 government social workers,
child-care counsellors and psychologists will need a substantial
pay raise to prevent a strike vote from being called following
mediated contract talks this week, a union representative said
Sunday.
Ron Hodgins, staff negotiator for the Alberta Union of Provincial
Employees Local 006, said members are frustrated that a fair
wage offer hasn't been made by government negotiators, despite
the settlement six months ago of most other provincial contracts.
- New Democrats Deplore Mar Tactics on School Construction
‘Divide and Conquer’ Tactics Mask Real Problem of Provincial Underfunding
- A principled gathering
Edmonton - If there were such a thing as a human rights
Olympics, Edmonton would be the host city.
The November conference planned to commemorate the 50th
anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is
attracting many of the world's leading advocates of human rights.
It's such a star-studded event that Chief Justice Antonio Lamer
of the Supreme Court of Canada has second billing at the gala
Friday-night banquet Nov. 27.
Open to the public at $50 a ticket, the dinner gives top billing to
Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
and former president of Ireland; and to Most Rev. Desmond
Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape
Town, and chair of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation
Commission.
- Concerned parents denied access to
Catholic school report
Edmonton - Catholic parents' groups are demanding access to a
school-board report they say recommends school closures as
part of an overall study of facilities.
Patricia Coe and Teresa Kos, co-chairs of the Louis St. Laurent
junior-senior high school parents' group, say they have been
repeatedly denied access to the report, titled The Facilities
Master Plan.
- Rival's bid may mean cash for unpaid
workers
Deal calls for contracts takeover
There's a ray of hope for about 400 workers
recently employed by a bankrupt temporary job agency.
Another Edmonton company has offered to take over the firm
and pay all the workers, who were left without wages when the
private agency suddenly closed its doors last week.
Greg McNeill, regional vice-president of Adecco Canada Inc.,
said Sunday his company is interested in taking over the
contracts and covering the unpaid wages of the temporary work
force.
Workers at Action Force Industrial Personnel Ltd. found out
Friday they wouldn't be paid after the firm, near 92nd Street and
111th Avenue, posted a handwritten sign on its door saying it
was closed until further notice. Some people lost up to two
weeks wages.
- School council review raises fears
Education Minister Gary Mar is expected to announce soon a formal study of
school councils -- a move some parents fear could lead to even more
responsibilities on their shoulders.
"The minister is considering a review of school councils by school councils,"
said his spokesman Kelley Charlebois. But, "whether there will be an
expansion or reduction in powers, that's not something he's given any thought
to."
Calgary Board of Education chairwoman Judy Tilston said the review might
be an attempt to undermine the authority of school boards. "School boards
continue to be a thorn in the minister's side," she said. "Perhaps this is a way to
take even more of boards' traditional role away from them."
- Calgary Mayor Al Duerr says VLT funds OK for homeless
Mayor Al Duerr said Sunday he has no problem
with money from VLTs and lotteries being used
for the city's homeless.
Initiatives to tackle the city's growing homeless
problems will receive $2 million of the initial
disbursements announced today by the Calgary
Community Lottery Board.
"A big portion of all the money that goes to the
province in gaming comes out of this city," Duerr
told reporters at a rally attended by 1,000
supporters, many of them who are working
toward his re-election in the Oct. 19 municipal
vote. "I don't have any qualms about the money
coming back to the city, especially when it comes
to deal with crisis issues like the homeless. The
alternative is to have it spent elsewhere."
- Depressed oil industry poised to cut
jobs
CALGARY (CP) - With gloomy oil prices forecast for the next year, oil and gas
analysts warn oil companies are honing the knives in preparation for job cuts.
"At the larger companies there will be layoffs - and they will all be decided this
fall," said Rick Roberge, an oil and gas analyst with Pricewaterhouse Coopers.
As companies sharpen their pencils to shape next year’s budget, some American
companies have already cut staff.
- Alta.: Ottawa to appeal
pro-environment court ruling
The federal government will
appeal a Federal Court ruling on a Rocky Mountain foothills logging road that
environmentalists called a powerful tool in forcing wider-ranging assessments of
development.
"The government is appealing to clarify an important point of law," Justice
Minister Anne McLellan said Friday.
The appeal involves the so-called Sunpine decision, handed down earlier this
summer, which involved two bridges and a logging road in the province’s
northern foothills.
- Alta. farmers meet to try to resolve
border trade dispute
Farmers on both sides of the border realize a dispute over
farm shipments is more about governors garnering votes than it is about grain,
says the president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association.
"Certainly the politicians are using . . . Canadian farmers as a whipping post to
try and get themselves re-elected," Larry Maguire said Friday.
"I think the business-minded farmer in the U.S. sees through that very clearly - as
they do here in Canada - when people try to use their own money to buy their
vote."
South Dakota and other northern states began blocking Canadian farm
shipments last week by asking truckers for paperwork not previously required.
- Alberta Appeal Court upholds worker's
severance pay
Prison employee's loss of seniority recognized
Grande Cache - Prison worker Gerry LeBlanc's fight for
severance pay stands to cost the province millions of dollars,
following a higher court ruling in his favour.
"I'm one happy guy," LeBlanc, 42, said Thursday from the
Grande Cache Institution, northwest of Jasper National Park.
"It's a good day for public-service workers."
Earlier the same day, a three-member panel of the Alberta Court
of Appeal unanimously upheld decisions by an arbitrator and
Court of Queen's Bench that the province owes severance to
LeBlanc and about 120 other workers at Grande Cache. The
total: about $800,000. LeBlanc, who became a test case for http://www.aupe.org/sept24.htmlAUPE, is among former
provincial workers who switched to federal employment in
1995. That was when the province transferred the Grande
Cache Correctional Centre, as it was known then, to
Corrections Canada as part of divesting itself of government
services.
- Union to take Government to the Labour Relations
Board Over Brand Inspectors
The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees is accusing the Government of
Alberta of reneging on a promise to hold consultations before transferring
its livestock inspection services to a private contractor.
According to Union Representative Ron Hodgins, the Department of
Agriculture made a commitment in writing eight weeks ago to meet with
the Union and a committee of brand inspectors and clerical staff, but is
now refusing to meet at all.
- Doctors fighting WCB over preferential care
Alberta doctors are fighting what they see as plans by the Workers'
Compensation Board to obtain treatment for injured workers ahead of other
patients in public hospitals.
"We are really concerned about the impact on the public health care tier," said
Dr. Rowland Nichol, president of the Alberta Medical Association.
"I think the public needs to be concerned," added Nichol, who called for a
public debate on the issue.
- Barracks to shelter homeless workers
A 60-room shelter for Calgary's working homeless will open next Thursday at
Currie Barracks on the city's former military base.
The facility will serve Calgarians who have managed to find jobs but are
sleeping on cots and mats at emergency shelters because they cannot afford
permanent lodgings in Calgary's red-hot housing market.
Half the shelter's rooms have already been allotted and the rest will probably
be snapped up by the Oct. 1 opening, said Dale Stamm, manager of
Cal-Home Properties, the city agency operating the shelter.
- REGISTERED NURSES GATHER TO DISCUSS PATIENT SAFETY
Patient safety was the key topic of discussion
at the 1998 Provincial Nursing Forum held in Edmonton September 18.
About 70 registered nurses from across the province gathered at the
Alberta Association of Registered Nurses (AARN) to address patient safety and
other difficulties facing Alberta's health care system. Staff nurses, nurse
managers and educators came up with a number of strategies that will be
brought forward to the Minister of Health. The Minister will be asked to
commit to a variety of actions aimed at ensuring a greater degree of patient
safety.
The Alberta Association of Registered Nurses (AARN) is continuing to
receive reports of patient safety concerns in record numbers. During its
latest review period (34 weeks ending May 22, 1998), one hundred and seventy
five (175) callers contacted the Association with their concerns about patient
safety. This is a continuation of an alarming trend and represents a fivefold
increase from 30 calls in 1994 when the AARN first started tracking safety
concerns.
- Liberal challenges college's stand on
hospital
The Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons is
not a democratic body and has no right to permit what amounts
to this province's first private hospital, Liberal health critic Gary
Dickson said.
Calgary-based Health Resources Centre is still asking to keep
surgical patients overnight and the college -- which said 'no' last
December and confirmed that decision in June -- will consider
reversing its position Oct. 2, the MLA said.
A special council at the college, which acts as its watchdog
regulator responsible for enforcing quality care and ethical
standards, must now show respect for the legislature which will
grapple with the private hospital issue this fall when Bill 37 is
debated, Dickson said.
- Nurses agree to changes
Edmonton - After three months of talks with nurses, Capital
Health is planning to take pressure off overcrowded emergency
departments in Edmonton by treating one in 12 patients
elsewhere in hospital.
Patients requiring intravenous therapy will soon get treatment at
special IV clinics to give overworked emergency staff a break,
United Nurses of Alberta president Heather Smith said
Wednesday after a meeting between the Capital Health board
and nurses.
- Labour minister supports raises for
MLAs
A five-per-cent pay raise for members of the
Alberta legislature would not be unreasonable, says Labour
Minister Murray Smith.
"Generally, it is now recognized that MLAs are probably the last
category of (government) employees that haven't received a
raise," Smith said Wednesday. "Can we live without it?
Probably. Would it be nice to have? Yes."
Treasurer Stockwell Day said he's open to the idea of reinstating
the five-per-cent pay cut MLAs took to help balance the
province's books.
- MLAs eye bigger pay, more severance
We sacrificed too, says Klein
Provincial politicians who retire or lose an election
could receive six-figure severance packages under a proposal
before a legislature committee.
A plan to double severance pay for politicians -- to a $109,000
maximum -- has been pitched as an alternative to reinstating the
MLA pension plan, Speaker Ken Kowalski said Thursday.
The legislature's members' services committee is also expected
to discuss proposals to restore the five-per-cent pay cut MLAs
took in 1993 and to tie future raises to the provincial average.
- General Hospital site may be preserved for health care
Earlier this week, I wrote about the strange political silence surrounding the
blowing up of the doomed General Hospital during a civic election.
Well, it turns out quiet work behind the scenes could -- stress could -- lead to
the inner-city hospital land being preserved for medical use.
Of course, nothing can save the General's buildings from being reduced to
dust and rubble Oct. 4. They're already packed with 2,000-plus kilograms of
explosives. In a matter of days, they're gone.
However, historic restrictions on the 14-acre Bridgeland site could spare it
from being instantly turned into hoity-toity condo heaven by lip-licking
developers.
- Alberta gets D-minus in wildlife protection
Conservationists gave Alberta a D-minus
Wednesday for failing to properly protect
endangered creatures.
But Premier Ralph Klein quickly countered by
slapping his own grade on Alberta's
environmental groups -- he gave them an F in
communication.
A report put out by the Canadian Endangered
Species Coalition -- made up of more than 100
environmental groups -- gave Alberta a
D-minus on progress made towards
commitments on the National Accord to
Protect Species at Risk, signed in 1996.
The grade puts Alberta in the middle of the
pack. The best grade was a C for Manitoba.
Seven governments shared the lowest, an F.
- Province plans to pump money into film
industry
The provincial government plans to redirect arts
funding to Alberta's film industry to make it competitive with
other provinces, Premier Ralph Klein said Thursday.
Cabinet has approved the use of Arts Foundation grants to
backstop the film industry, which is estimated to be worth about
$100 million a year to the province's economy.
But it has rejected a proposal to set assistance at $15 million
over the next three years, Klein said.
Although he has often said his government won't fund private
business, the film industry is an exception, said the premier.
- Authority puts assets on the block
Buildings sold to help meet health costs
Edmonton's Capital Health Authority is selling
buildings as part of an effort to keep its budget balanced, says
the government-appointed chair Neil Wilkinson.
"We have disposed of some assets," he said Thursday after
meeting with Health Minister Halvar Jonson.
Consulting briefing notes prepared for his presentation to the
minister, Wilkinson gave examples to show Capital Health is
trying to cut spending.
"We have disposed of the old nursing residence," he said,
without giving the price paid for the older building west of 114th
Street across from University Hospital.
- Coliseum deal puts investor on cloud
nine
Naseem Javed, a consultant who helped Telus, Epcor and
Aqualta find their new names, said the price of $1 million a year
is a bargain.
"No money can buy that kind of advertising," he said. "You
become a landmark, basically."
Brian Hetherington, owner of Edmonton public relations firm
Hetherington & Associates, said Skyreach will benefit in local
goodwill and widespread exposure, largely from mention of the
Skyreach name during televised hockey broadcasts.
"It's a wonderful marketing tool. For them to get the exposure
across the country in any other way would cost far more than $1
million a year."
- Crane company gives Coliseum a new
name
Edmonton - It's difficult enough to name all 31 members of the
Oilers ownership group.
But through years of franchise frailty it was absolutely impossible
to name the building that houses their NHL team.
Until Wednesday, that is, when it was revealed that the Oilers
have sold the naming rights to St. Albert-based Skyreach
Equipment Ltd.. The building which had been named Northlands
Coliseum, then Edmonton Coliseum, is now Skyreach Centre.
It will have that moniker for at least the next five years. A source
said the deal is worth about $1 million Cdn per season to the
Oilers and Skyreach has an option for an additional five years. (Privitization by any other name...EP)
- Good economy bad news for homeless
Nobody knows how many homeless people there are in
Edmonton, but agencies are certain the number is up
considerably, which is cause for concern as the temperature
drops.
What sounds like good news to the economy is bad news for the
people at the bottom of it.
According to a recent survey by CB Commercial Real Estate,
the apartment vacancy rate is 1.8 per cent, an 18-year low. Only
a few years ago it was in the high single digits.
Brian Bechtel, executive director of the Edmonton Social
Planning Council, said the net effect is to push more people into
the homeless category.
- Homeless to get new city shelter
Calgary's homeless crisis will soon be over -- at least for this
winter.
Mayor Al Duerr says the city is just days away from announcing
the opening of a major new shelter, ending the worst homeless
crunch in Calgary history.
"We have to ensure there's no reason for anybody to be on the
street when it gets cold," he said.
- Pay hike for MLAs discussed
Speaker Ken Kowalski has been quietly talking to
all political parties about raising politicians' salaries, MLAs say.
Under a proposal floated in recent weeks, the five-per-cent
rollback which MLAs took to help balance the budget would be
restored. Future changes would be tied to ups and downs in the
average weekly earnings of all Albertans, as reported by
Statistics Canada.
Kowalski could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
However, any salary increase would have to be vetted through
the members' services committee, which he chairs.
- BOOKS:Larissa Lai combines mythology and activism
Writer and activist tackles racism through ancient Chinese story
by Ashok Mathur
- Finning plans major cost cuts
Low commodity prices force move that is likely to lead
to layoffs, onetime charge against quarterly profit
- Finning speeds up cost cuts as
business weakens
VANCOUVER (CP) - Finning International Inc. will speed up its cost cutting in
the face of weakening markets for its Caterpillar heavy construction equipment.
The Vancouver company announced Tuesday it is "implementing major cost
reduction programs throughout all its operations to improve its competitiveness in
light of continued weakness in commodity prices and a deteriorating U.K.
economy."
The company, which sells, leases, finances and services Caterpillar equipment,
did not say whether the moves will lead to job cuts. Finning said it will provide
details of its latest cuts next month when it issues its third-quarter profits - results
the company warned will be far worse than last year.
- Orchestra racks up financial surplus
They didn't break into a chorus of Beethoven's Ode to Joy, but the board
members of the Calgary Philharmonic were pretty happy Tuesday as they
announced the orchestra's financial results for last season.
"It was an excellent year, resulting in our second consecutive surplus," said
chairwoman Lois Mitchell at the CPO society's annual general meeting.
The orchestra ended up with a $103,000-plus surplus in revenues over
expenses, allowing it to take another big bite out of its accumulated operating
deficit. The deficit, at an alarming $2.5 million two years ago, is down to $1.2
million.
- Fighting for the underdog
Noam Chomsky still working to empower the impoverished
by Rob Kennedy
- Lawyer withdraws from Alberta mall case
Alberta Treasury Branches, battling the owners of
West Edmonton Mall in court over a controversial taxpayer-backed loan
deal, succeeded Friday in getting the mall's lawyer to quit the case.
But Rod McLennan said his departure should not be interpreted that he
agrees with the bank that he and his firm are in conflict of interest because
he acted for the bank during part of West Edmonton Mall's refinancing in
1994.
- Are MLAs about to get a raise? Sources differ on the outcome of Ken Kowalski's
quiet talks
Speaker Ken Kowalski has been quietly having informal
discussions with representatives of all three political parties on
raising MLAs' pay, sources told The Sun yesterday.
"Kowalski has met with representatives of each caucus and put
to them the restoration of the 5% cut," said an MLA who asked
to not be identified. "It hasn't gone anywhere but the signal I got
was that it would go somewhere."
Kowalski could not be reached for comment.
- The crush of higher learning
HERALD EDITORIAL
Lethbridge Herald
September 21, 1998
Figuring on minimum wage, it can take almost half a normal working week, say 20 hours, to
purchase a single textbook, let alone pay for the course. It's no wonder those city students who can
live at home, at an age when many of their parents had already flown the nest, find themselves in a
better financial situation upon graduation.
Yet, student costs continue to rise in this province under an Alberta government mandate that
tuition pay for an increasing percentage of university and college operations.With this pressure to earn that magic piece of paper, perhaps the government should begin to
realize the cause-and-effect relationship between higher tuition and fewer jobs.
- U.S. farmers, politicians crank up
attack on Canadian agriculture
Canadian farmers faced more
frustration getting their hogs, cattle and grain into the
United States Monday as American politicians and
farmers cranked up the heat in a cross-border
dispute.
A state-ordered blockade of Canadian trucks
carrying cattle and hogs continued in South Dakota
with no end in sight.
About 50 people blocked a Canadian Pacific
Railway freight train for 30 minutes at Portal, N.D.,
just south of the Canada-U.S. border. Protesters had warned both state police
and the railway of their blockade.
- XL Foods feels the squeeze
Calgary -- If you're looking for examples of how the Asian market
meltdown can affect even companies that don't have a big export
business, look no further than XL Foods of Calgary. A small beef
producer that has focused on trying to create and market an Alberta
brand for meat, XL Foods has had its profit margins hammered by
larger competitors flooding the market.The main problem in the meat business, industry analysts agree, is
simple: "Too much protein," as Mr. Patillo puts it. Massive producers
such as Minnesota-based Cargill and Nebraska-based IBP have
watched their Asian business fall off a cliff in the past year, and so they
have dumped a lot of their meat in the North American market, driving
down prices.
- Care in home saves money, professor
says
Extra homecare funding might be the best way to
reduce pressure on overburdened acute-care hospitals, a
University of Alberta researcher says.
Despite years of budget cuts and chronic bed shortages, recent
studies indicate patients still spend too much time in hospital,
nursing professor Donna Wilson said.
- Court fight offers big VLT payout
Video lottery terminals could remain operating in Alberta centres long after Oct. 19, even if electors vote them
out.
The head of a Calgary VLT operators' group says his members
are prepared to go to court if necessary to keep their machines,
even if voters ask the province to remove them from the city in
the upcoming civic election.
And Premier Ralph Klein says if the matter goes to court, the
government couldn't take the machines out until after the legal
process is complete.
The Municipality of Wood Buffalo voted its machines out in
May, 1997. But because an operator there went to court, the
VLTs are still there 15 months later.
- Health care grades slightly lower in survey
Albertans have given their provincial health care system a slightly
lower rating than the year before, says a large-scale government survey.
Fifty-six per cent of 4,000 Albertans interviewed rated the overall health care
system as good or excellent, down from 60 per cent a year ago.
It is the lowest rating since the Alberta Health Survey got underway in the
midst of the government's health care cutbacks four years ago. Since that time,
the province has injected more than $650 million back into the system.
- New head of Alberta doctors out to cure
fractious association
Dr. Roland Nichol knows it's going to take more than
a pill to cure his ailing patient.
The new president of the Alberta Medical Association said Friday he is
desperately searching for a remedy that will soothe irate, fractious doctors
who are lashing out at their own association.
"We recognize that the physicians are angry. They're hostile. They're
frustrated. They are questioning the institutions that are representing them,"
said Nichol, who today becomes the president of the 4,600-member
association.
- Government says grizzly bear mortality rate
drops in K-country
An Alberta government report on the status of
grizzlies in Kananaskis Country says less bears are being killed in the
popular recreation area.
But the report has triggered alarm bells for environmentalists.
The report was prepared for Alberta Environmental Protection and is a
preliminary interpretation of research that is to continue until 2000.
"The key for me is that Kananaskis Country offers the least amount of
habitat security for grizzly bears in the central Rockies," said Stephen
Legault of the Alberta Wilderness Association.
- Waiting game could pay off for AEC
With last week's $446-million offer for heavy oil producer
Amber Energy, Alberta Energy Co. CEO Gwyn Morgan gets the
award for best timing in launching a takeover bid. Sure, luck and
global markets may have played a part in producing all the right
conditions for such a purchase, but so did AEC's prudent
decision-making in the past.
By waiting until now to make a play for Amber, Calgary-based AEC
probably slashed about a billion dollars off the purchase price --
turning what might have looked far too pricy into a reasonable
acquisition. Like many heavy oil producers, Calgary-based Amber
was much in demand last year but has since fallen on hard times as oil
prices plummeted close to record lows.
SEPT 1998
- Nova's big gamble
Over the next four years Nova Corp. and its partners will spend $1.8 billion
on four new Alberta petrochemical plants. Don't they know their industry is
in the dumper?
- Teachers for Aspen View board reject
contract offer
Rural teachers north of Edmonton have
unanimously rejected the latest contract offer from their board,
clearing the way for a strike vote later this month.
One hundred and fifty teachers for the Aspen View Regional
Division voted 100 per cent on Tuesday to reject the offer for a
collective agreement for the 1997-98 and 1998-99 school year
- Child welfare, poverty linked, Bechtel
says
Government insists rising numbers simply reflect greater
awareness of need to report abuse
Alberta's soaring child welfare caseload can't be
explained by increased awareness of the need to report abuse,
Edmonton Social Planning Council spokesperson Brian Bechtel
said Thursday.
Bechtel -- who has repeatedly clashed with Social Services
Minister Lyle Oberg over what's causing the hike in cases -- said
Oberg's latest account doesn't add up.
Earlier this month, Oberg said the rising number of kids needing
protection from abuse and neglect could be explained by
improved public awareness.
- Midwife title reserved for registered
midwives
But doctors are licensed to provide 'midwifery services'
The law won't allow obstetricians to call themselves
midwives as part of their escalating fee protest, Alberta Labour's
Dave Hennig said Thursday.
- First complaint filed over job action
The Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons
has received its first patient complaint over the obstetricians' job
action, registrar Dr. Larry Ohlhauser said Thursday.
Details are confidential, but patients' concerns are significant
because the college is responsible for maintaining quality medical
care, he said. "If patient care is jeopardized that is not good."
- Postal outlets could close under new
payment scheme
The operators of private postal outlets say they
could be stamped out by Canada Post's move to cut the fee it
pays them to sell postage.
The post office will reduce the fee for selling stamps from 17.5
per cent to five per cent Oct. 1, says Sandy Jones, an Edmonton
member of the Association of Canadian Postal Franchisees.
It's also looking at distributing stamp books through machines
run by banks, she said Thursday.
"They will take people's sales and if the sales of the stamps are
gone then the viability of your franchise ... will be gone," said
Jones, front store manager of the outlet at Shopper's Drug
World on 51st Avenue and 122nd Street.
- Obstetricians plan to opt out of specialty
Edmonton - Some obstetricians are on the verge of withdrawing
services, say the Edmonton leaders of a four-month protest.
"There may well be some physicians who will choose to give up
their obstetrical practice for a period of time, until this problem is
sorted out," Dr. Nan Schuurmans said late Wednesday, after city
obstetricians met privately at the Mayfair Golf & Country Club.
They could continue to practise gynecology and other women's
health care, she said. Each specialist will now decide what to do
next.
Doctors will then tell their patients if they will no longer deliver
babies, if they will elect to charge patients roughly $2,000 for a
package of midwifery services, or if they will opt out of medicare
entirely.
- Judges ask court audit in pay row
Gov't reasoning challenged
Alberta's provincial court judges are taking their
pay dispute with the government back to court, their lawyer said
Wednesday.
Donnel Sabey will ask Court of Queen's Bench to review
reasons cited by the government in rejecting a proposal that
would have given the judges the highest salaries in Canada for
that class of judge.
- Government slots VLT report to a
post-plebiscite date
Mum's the word from the provincial government on
VLTs.
Despite a gaming summit recommendation that it accepted to
keep Albertans better informed of the costs and benefits of
gaming in Alberta, the government won't be producing any new
information before the Oct. 19 plebiscites on VLTs.
The problem is the government doesn't want to be accused of
trying to influence the VLT votes, says Gordon Turtle, a
spokesperson for Alberta Community Development, which was
charged with developing ways to respond to the
recommendation.
- Ludwigs to sue for abuse wrongful
arrest
A family whose members were charged by the RCMP
after the bombing of a gas well in the Hinton area plans to sue
the police for wrongful arrest.
Weibo Ludwig said Thursday he has instructed his lawyer,
Richard Secord, of Edmonton "to bring an action against the
RCMP for wrongful arrest and abuse of power."
Ludwig, his son Weibo Jr., his wife, Mamie, and partner Richard
Boonstra were charged with mischief endangering life within
hours of an early morning explosion Aug. 24 at a Suncor wellsite
60 km north of Hinton.
- Klein says he will run again
Premier Ralph Klein has told his Conservative
colleagues he will lead them into the next provincial election.
Klein told the government caucus last week he intends to stay on
as party leader to fight a third campaign, expected in 2001.
"I want to, and God willing, I will lead this government into the
next election," he said last Thursday in his closing address at a
caucus planning session in Edmonton. "I want to be with you as
we lead Alberta into the next century."
- Stoneys win $6.1M royalty battle
The Stoney First Nation has won $6.1 million from a Calgary petroleum
company in a five-year court battle over natural gas royalties, and is suing
other oil and gas firms for an additional $13 million.
Court of Queen's Bench in Calgary ordered PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd. to
pay the Stoneys the money because of "unauthorized" deductions made from
gas royalties owed to the tribe, tribal administrator Rick Butler said in a
statement faxed Tuesday to the Herald.
- Klein attaches strings to more health cash
Premier Ralph Klein promised more money for Calgary's
health care system Monday -- if regional health leaders can
justify the need for it.
He was responding to a comment from newly-appointed
Calgary Regional Health Authority chairman Dr. John
Morgan, who said Sunday in his first interview that the
number one problem he plans to tackle when he takes over
officially Oct. 1 is the $25-million regional health deficit.
- Obstetricians unveil their direct-billing
package
Obstetricians escalated their fee dispute with the province
Monday, unveiling a new proposal to direct bill pregnant women
for an expanded care package outside medicare.
The response was sharp and immediate, with both the Alberta
government and consumer advocates saying the obstetricians are
threatening to violate the Canada Health Act.
The new idea involves charging every pregnant patient a private
fee of roughly $2,000 -- the exact price hasn't been set -- for a
package of midwife-type services, said Dr. Nan Schuurmans
Monday.
- Ghitter may sue Reform over scathing
newsletter
Ottawa - Alberta Senator Ron Ghitter may pursue a defamation
lawsuit against the Reform party after he was savagely attacked
in a newsletter aimed at raising funds for the party's campaign for
Senate nominations.
"It's in the hands of my lawyers," the Calgary Conservative
senator said Tuesday.
Reform organizers had hoped to net between $25,000 and
$40,000 from the four-page fund-raising letter slamming Ghitter.
It was signed by Calgary Reform MP Rob Anders, who said it
was co-written by Ezra Levant, an adviser to Opposition Leader
Preston Manning and manager of Reform's Senate campaign.
Albertans vote Oct. 19 for provincial nominees for a Senate
vacancy.
The letter, which arrived on doorsteps Tuesday, was mailed to
31,000 Alberta Report subscribers. The party rented the
magazine's subscription list on the assumption it would be a
"sympathetic readership," Levant said in an interview.
ABOLISH THE SENATE PAGE
- Liberal MLA takes complaint to
Ombudsman
Minister derailed probe, Sloan says
Edmonton - Liberal MLA Linda Sloan is appealing to the
Provincial Ombudsman, saying the Conservative government
treated her unfairly in derailing an official probe into alleged
problems at University Hospital.
Health Minister Halvar Jonson and the Health Facilities Review
Committee refused to accept her complaint about conditions in
the University emergency department, the Edmonton-Riverview
MLA said late Tuesday.
The review committee -- acting on instructions from Jonson --
stopped her from doing her job as an MLA, Sloan wrote in a
complaint delivered to the Provincial Ombudsman earlier in the
day.
For more than two months, the opposition MLA asked the
government-appointed review committee to launch an inquiry
after University emergency nurses told her patient care had been
compromised by inadequate staffing and limited resources.
- Crack down on vandals, energy
executive says
Tougher legislation and broader investigative powers are needed
to curb the escalating violence against the resource industry in
Alberta, says the top man in Alberta Energy Company.
AEC president Gwyn Morgan came out swinging Monday
saying the vandalism, shootings, bombings and dynamiting of the
forest, electrical utility, and oil and gas industries over the past 18
months in northeastern and north central Alberta have got to
stop.
Not only did he call on both Ottawa and the province to start
flexing their legislative muscle to combat the problem, he also
suggested that the resource industry has got to do more to
protect its interests and its employees.
- Province says its laws can fight
terrorism
Alberta Justice believes that the province's laws are
tough enough to deal with the escalating violence against the
resource industry.
The department was responding to calls from the president of
Alberta Energy Co. for tougher laws and broader investigative
powers to deal with the vandalism, shootings, bombings and
dynamiting of forest, electrical utility, and oil and gas industry
stations over the past 18 months.
- Dust off 1991 report on natives, urge
Indian leaders
Indian leaders at a Monday hearing leading up to the justice
summit in January urged the Alberta government to dust off a
forgotten report on natives and the law.
Much of what Justice Allan Cawsey recommended in 1991 to
reduce the high rate of natives being jailed has been ignored, said
Roy Louis, a former Indian Association of Alberta president, and
Dennis Callihoo, a native lawyer.
Their report, Justice on Trial, found "systemic discrimination
exists in the criminal justice system", resulting in aboriginal people
being vastly over-represented in courts and jails.
- Day welcomes Ottawa's new
debt-paydown plan
Chretien would apply most of surplus to $579B debt
The federal Liberal government has finally seen the light in
following Alberta's lead to make debt reduction the nation's top
priority, Treasurer Stockwell Day said Monday.
In a surprise weekend announcement, Prime Minister Jean
Chretien said "very nervous" world money markets have forced
the federal government to be prudent for the next three years of
its mandate.
That means devoting nearly all of the estimated $5 billion to $10
billion in this year's surplus to lowering Canada's $579-billion
debt. The policy shift contradicts Liberal promises in the 1997
election campaign to devote half of all surpluses to new program
spending. The other half was to have been split between tax cuts
and debt reduction.
- Fix them up or tear 'em down
Community group wants city to order derelict buildings
cleaned up
Ed Laboucane, head of the Community Action Project, said
these derelict houses lower property values, raise insurance rates
because of fire risks and become dangerous magnets for kids
and vagrants.
But the city doesn't force the owners to do anything, other than
secure the premises with plywood, unless an engineer finds
structural defects that make them likely to collapse.
"We hope the city is going to take a much more aggressive
stance and make a much more liberal interpretation of the
Municipal Government Act as it relates to derelict, vacant
buildings," Laboucane said. "I would suggest the city has been
very conservative in its interpretation."
- High-tech spying high-growth field
Calgary - There's a pesky new bug that's getting under the skins
of some of the richest corporate tans in town. And swatting it is
proving to be big business.
Corporate espionage, whether it be monitoring a competitor's
business deals, hacking inside a boss's computer or
eavesdropping on a big oilpatch merger, has become a stinging
reality of doing business, say crime and security experts.
- VLTs too much of a gamble for mayoral
candidates
Given their druthers, most of Edmonton's would-be
mayors would like to see video lottery terminals banned from
bars, but allowed in casinos.
But that option won't be on the ballot on Oct. 19 when
Edmontonians are asked to answer Yes or No to whether they
want all VLTs removed from the city. The VLT issue doesn't seem destined to be as big an issue in
Edmonton's mayoral race as it does in Calgary. There, Mayor Al
Duerr wants VLTs banned but his main opponent, Ald. Ray
Clark, says he's not convinced it will do any good.
- National park communities may get
more autonomy
Lake Louise, Alta. - Talks are under way between the federal
and Alberta governments to transform Lake Louise, Jasper and
Waterton into specialized municipalities with a greater range of
self-government.
"These communities are not like other municipalities because they
have special needs and special requirements," said Gaby Fortin,
Parks Canada executive director for mountain parks. "This is
basically a work in progress. If the final decision is to delegate
this, certainly it would mean more autonomy."
- Mine takeover brings jobs here---Edmonton's Luscar buys Calgary's Manalta
Edmonton-based coal giant Luscar has won control of rival
Manalta of Calgary in a takeover bid worth as much as $600
million that was secured yesterday.
Resulting layoffs at Manalta's Calgary headquarters will lead to
job gains in Edmonton, Gordon Ulrich, president and CEO of
Luscar Ltd., said yesterday.
- Deep, dark secrets--Oil well spies paid up to $1,000 a day to steal data
- 'That money's the only way I make it by'--Teen worries about how she'd manage if support cheque delay happens again
Teresa Hopkins battled alcoholism as a pre-teen and survived group home harassment. Now, at 17,
she fears late social assistance cheques will push her onto the street.
The Spirit River teen spent her Aug. 31 birthday scrambling to come up with rent after being told
her $500 monthly support cheque was caught up in a computer glitch.
"Just because I'm a number on the computer doesn't mean that's all that I am," says Hopkins who
scrapes by on the Supported Independent Living dollars.
- Rural doctors secure $400 on-call service
fee
An agreement reached between the Alberta Section of Rural Medicine (ASRM) and Alberta Health
has local physicians and regional health authorities breathing a sigh of relief.
"This is a very positive step forward," says Peace River physician Dr. Dave Willox. "The bottom line
is, it will help us attract and retain physicians."
The compromise deal, announced by Health Minister Halvar Jonson Sept. 3, gives rural doctors a
$400 fee for each 24-hour period on-call at local emergency departments in addition to
fee-for-service billings. The deal comes into effect Oct. 1.
- Disagreement flares among Lubicon
Some Lubicon band members have sought public attention to air their long-standing disagreement
with the band's leadership, since settlement negotiations recommenced this summer.
A Little Buffalo man is claiming 90 per cent of the Lubicon people living in the community do not
support Chief Bernard Ominayak and his council.
The last election was unfair and the chief is not listening to band members who might have accepted
earlier government settlement offers, says Mike Ominayak, a resident at the community about 60
miles northeast of Peace River.
- Talks started between province, lease
holders on contested land
Provincial government discussions with oil and gas companies who hold lease sites in the proposed
Lubicon land claim area have begun.
"We've met with some already and have some further meetings planned for this month," Indian Land
Claims, Intergovernmental and Aboriginal Affairs department executive director Ken Boutillier told
the Record-Gazette.
"We want to be in a position to transfer lands," when the federal government and Lubicon
negotiators agree to a settlement package, he said.
had his ambitions frustrated by reality's long shadow.
- Edmonton Bridge worker honoured
Most people who travel the Capilano freeway on a regular
basis know who the bridge on its north end is named after, but
few know why.
Angeline Moellmann is hoping a new plaque she helped unveil at
the southwest foot of the bridge yesterday will change all of that -
and will remind people of the dangers construction workers like
her late husband face daily.
"Most people probably think he was a head of government or
something like that, because that's who these things are usually
named after," she said yesterday.
"Not Grant. He was just a working stiff, just like everybody else.
The difference is he lost his life while building this."
- Joblessness not matched by drop in
poverty
Edmonton - More Albertans are working than ever before, but
not everyone is cashing in on the economic boom, Alex Grimaldi,
president of the Edmonton and District Labour Council, said
Monday.
"The drop in the unemployment rate has not been matched by a
drop in the number of people living in poverty," Grimaldi said at
the council's ninth annual Labour Day Barbecue for the
Unemployed.
- NHLPA offers pool better deal
Edmonton - The NHLPA has backed off and changed its tune.
The union called Dean Andres Monday morning, and wants a
fresh start with NAIT's hockey drafts.
"They guaranteed me it won't cost us a cent," draft organizer
Andres said Sunday. "Any money is too much, and we're not
going to pay them anything. They say we won't have to now, and
that's great."
Andres received a call from Ted Saskin, senior director of
business affairs and licensing for the National Hockey League
Players Union. Saskin told him it's time to make a new, sweetheart
deal, after Andres was originally told by the union it wanted
one-third of NAIT's profits as a licensing fee.
- More professionals seek treatment for
addiction
The problem of cocaine addiction is growing. Cocaine and its
free-based derivative, crack, are Edmonton's most popular hard
drugs.
Use among doctors, lawyers and executives is on the rise. More
professionals show up at Cocaine Anonymous meetings and face
the prospect of detox, forced there by employers and families, or
by hitting rock bottom.
The Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission will open a
new cocaine clinic for business and industry Sept. 1 in Grande
Prairie, prompted by requests from Alberta's energy sector.
Already professionals make up eight per cent of all AADAC
clients in Edmonton.
(Another sign that Alberta's Boom is A Bust .EP)
- Some answers in ATB-WEM affair
Confused about the controversy surrounding
Alberta Treasury Branches, West Edmonton Mall and the
Conservative government?
Here is a primer to help you negotiate the maze of unanswered
questions and conflicting statements that have arisen since the
story broke earlier this year.
- West Edmonton Mall tenants enter financial fray
Scores of tenants at the embattled West Edmonton Mall
took to the microphones Tuesday to sing the praises of the shopping complex
and denounce the mall's chief lender for trying to take it over. "Take this mall
away and where's the City of Edmonton going to be - and where is Alberta
going to be?" Marlene Murphy of Shefield and Son Tobacconists told a news
conference in a ballroom above the mall's life-size replica of the Santa Maria
galleon.
- Mark's new chain will trade on Levi's
image
Mark's Work Wearhouse Ltd. is creating a new chain of stores, trading on the popularity of the
Dockers brand of casual clothes.
Calgary-based Mark's said yesterday it will open four stores under the Dockers banner by the fall
of 1999, adding there is an opportunity to expand to at least 150 stores within the next few years.
Under terms of the agreement with Levi Strauss & Co. (Canada) Inc., owner of the Dockers brand
name, Mark's will own and operate the chain and have the exclusive right to open Dockers stores in
Canada. (Sort of like Forzanis deal with Nike...Calgary Retails Sweatshop Labour .EP)
- Pot party raises a stink with
lawmakers--Province will look at banning weed warriors from
Legislature grounds after smokefest
Monday's pot party on the Legislature grounds was likely the
last straw for the annual high-jinks, Public Works Minister Stan
Woloshyn said yesterday.
"I'm looking at the feasibility of not allowing it," Woloshyn said.
"We try to make the Legislature grounds available to people in
the province - it's their place, after all. But in no way can we
condone illegal activities."
- Utility merger results in 10 city jobs
lost
About 65 jobs, including 10 in Edmonton, will be snuffed out as
Atco Ltd. reorganizes its natural gas utilities to increase
efficiency.
But Edmonton may still come out ahead, with as many as five to
10 jobs created in the head office of an as-yet-unnamed new
distribution company, said Chris Sheard, president of
Northwestern Utilities Ltd.
Northwestern and Calgary-based Canadian Western Natural
Gas Co. Ltd. are being joined and then split into two separate
companies focusing on function, rather than region.
- Jostling for position in the Ralph stakes
Calgary -- Alberta Provincial Treasurer Stockwell Day and Justice
Minister Jon Havelock will be front and centre for the premier's job
whenever Ralph Klein decides to go fishing for good. Last week the
rivalry between the two cabinet ministers added unnecessary
complications to already complex political controversies. Their hidden
agendas were showing.
- Judges' pay issue may go back to
high court
The issue of judges' pay and judicial independence may
head back to Canada's highest court now that Alberta has ignored the
recommendations of a court-ordered commission.
"The (Alberta) government is continuing to fight on an issue where they've
already been told by the Supreme Court of Canada that the independence of the
judiciary is an issue," says Chris Levy, a law professor at the University of
Calgary.
Alberta judges are unhappy with the province's decision last month to increase
their salaries to $125,000 from $113,000. It's an 8.8 per cent increase but well
below the 24 per cent recommended by an independent commission.
- Board decision pending in unfair labor
practice complaint against PREMS
Peace Regional Emergency Medical Services (PREMS) management and staff squared off at an
Alberta Labour Relations Board hearing Aug. 20 and 21.
The newly unionized staff of paramedics and emergency medical technicians (EMTs) filed an unfair
labor practice complaint this summer after management carried out a restructuring plan and laid off
six EMTs.
- Daishowa appeal still planned
Daishowa Inc. expects an appeal of a court ruling allowing the Friends of the Lubicon to continue a
boycott campaign against the company to be heard early next year.
"We are pursuing the appeal," Daishowa's director of corporate affairs Tom Cochrane told the
Record-Gazette from his Toronto office.
The Ontario-based paper product manufacturing company, is seeking to overturn a part of the
Ontario Court judge's ruling that involved the Friends of the Lubicon's right to picket Daishowa's
customers.
- High River: Would-be renters are unhappy campers
Tracy Balan will be the first one to tell you while George Lane Park is a nice place to visit, she
doesn't want to live there.
But a shortage of rental accommodations in High River has forced her family to call George Lane
Park home for two months.
Balan, her two-year-old daughter Whitney and her companion Brian have been living at George
Lane Park since June 20 because they haven't been able to find a place to rent in High River -
despite the fact Brian has a full-time job at Cargill Foods.
- 30 Weldwood employees get pink slips in
Hinton
A recent Federal Court ruling has sent a wave of uncertainty across the country and in the Peace
River area, as pressure mounts on Ottawa to appeal the decision that quashed the approval of two
forestry bridges in Alberta.
The July 10 decision says approvals granted by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for the
construction of the bridges by Sunpine Forest Products Ltd. must be scrapped.
The court ruled the department's approval looked only at the environmental impact of the Ram
River and Prairie Creek bridges rather than the entire 45-kilometre road near Rocky Mountain
House. Because the bridges cross two waterways, they need approval by the Federal Department
of Fisheries and Oceans, which conducted an environmental review and gave the go-ahead.
The ruling may force the federal government to play a bigger role in environmental assessments
across the country, intruding into areas currently considered the jurisdiction of the provinces.
Since the decision, the province of Alberta and various industry representatives have been urging
Ottawa to appeal.
- Oil and gas leases under review in Lubicon
talks
Oil and gas lease sites within the 95-square-mile area claimed in the long outstanding Lubicon land
settlement are now under review.
Eight oil and gas companies have continuing interests and two pipelines exist in the territory
proposed as reserve land, chief federal negotiator Brad Morse told the Record-Gazette.
"Alberta (government) is in the process of dealing with that. I have no idea at all of (the companies')
response right now," Morse said, noting, the Lubicon invited a Union Pacific Resources (UPR)
representative to sit in on discussions of third party rights during last week's session of negotiations.
The province holds lease agreements with the companies to extract resources from 30 to 40
subsurface sites and 20 to 25 surface sites, Morse said.
- Lubicon membership criteria to be resolved
Agreement on how Lubicon Cree band membership is to be determined is said to be within sight,
following last week's settlement negotiations at Little Buffalo.
Parties tackled several issues during the three-day session, with some "long and detailed"
discussions about band membership, chief federal negotiator Brad Morse told the Record-Gazette
Friday.
- Rural doctors will get $10M more
A compromise deal giving rural doctors an extra
$10 million has ended a fee dispute which shut country doctors'
offices twice, Health Minister Halvar Jonson announced
Thursday.
Obstetricians reacted by demanding a similar concession in their
own fee dispute, warning their ongoing job action may put
pregnant women and their babies at risk.
- Privatization bid gone -- only for now
A proposal to launch a full-scale study into
privatizing city services is down but not out, say its proponents.
While city council Tuesday defeated a motion to review which
services could be privatized or contracted out, Edmonton
Chamber of Commerce president Doug Cox said Wednesday
he expects another debate on the issue shortly after the Oct. 19
civic election.
- Child welfare caseloads up 10% from
last year
Child welfare caseloads jumped nearly 10 per cent
in the past year, according to figures released this week by
Alberta Family and Social Services.
The average monthly caseload of abused or neglected children
was 11,258 in the year ending March 31, compared to 10,236
for the previous year.
- http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/alberta/090398ab7.html
City council will ask Alberta mayors' groups to
urge the provincial government to find a political solution to end
the brain drain of Alberta's film and television industry.
The industry is under attack by "predatory tax practices'' of other
provinces which are siphoning off a highly-skilled and talented
pool of people and a substantial source of revenue, says an
Economic Development Edmonton report to council.
- Archive location a hard sell
Stolidly utilitarian in style and large enough to hold
reams of records, the Westerra building might make a
"wonderful" home for Alberta's provincial archives -- but for one
shortcoming.
"It's in the wrong place," Dorothy Hodgson, an archival
researcher, said Wednesday after touring the 10,600-sq-metre
pile of brown bricks that served as NAIT's Stony Plain campus
until it closed in 1997.
- Edmonton Catholic teachers reject
memorandum of agreement for 1997/98
contract
- Those were the days...
Once dubbed the "eighth wonder of the world," scandal-plagued West
Edmonton Mall may be a retail relic
- Lethbridge:St. Mike's and CHR at odds over
blame for staff layoffs
The layoffs affect three unions; the United Nurses of Alberta, the Health Care Guild and the
Canadian Union of Public Employees.
Gwen DeMaere, president of CUPE Local 408, said she believes the layoffs are the result of
not only insufficient funding from the CHR, but from government cuts introduced several years ago.
``The rippling effects will be felt for a long time,'' she said.
- Lubicon membership criteria remains a
bone of contention
Agreement on how Lubicon Cree band membership is to be determined is said to be within sight,
following last week's settlement negotiations at Little Buffalo.
Parties tackled several issues during a recent three-day session, with some "long and detailed"
discussions about band membership, chief federal negotiator Brad Morse said.
- Grand Prairie: Economics force WeyCan job cuts
Weyerhaeuser Canada is cutting 10 per cent of its local staff.
Spokesman Gord Head said Wednesday that 50 of 500 workers will leave its Grande Prairie
operations - but all of them will do so voluntarily.
"We're doing it by voluntary measures," said Head, who made the official announcement to staff.
Workers, who were consulted before the offer was made, are being given the option of either
early-retirement or voluntary-layoff packages.
- YWCA blasted
A former employee has filed a human-rights complaint against
the city's top women's organization -- the Calgary YWCA -- for
allegedly discriminating against workers on maternity leave, the
Sun has learned.
- Manalta board accepts Luscar bid
Sweetened offer clears way to create 6th-largest
coal producer in North America; job cuts feared
Calgary -- The path was cleared for Luscar Ltd. to take over Manalta
Coal Ltd. after the latter's board yesterday accepted the sweetened
bid to create North America's sixth-largest coal producer. The
Manalta board unanimously recommended that receipt holders of the
Manalta Coal Income Trust -- which invests in the Calgary-based coal
producer -- tender to the Luscar Coal Income Fund, which invests in
Edmonton-based Luscar.
- Auditor-General's probe of Alberta mall queried
Observers see potential for conflicts of interest
Alberta's Auditor-General, who is heading an investigation
into the 1994 refinancing of West Edmonton Mall, endorsed the
books of Alberta Treasury Branches in four annual audits involving the
bank's loans to the mall, according to government records.
- Crossroads MDs oppose severance for
top exec
The chief medical administrator in Crossroads
Region is resigning, amid persistent rumours he will get a
severance package.
"Severance would be totally inappropriate," Dr. Robert
Thompson, who speaks for the region's doctors as chair of the
Crossroads medical advisory committee, objected Monday.
Health dollars are in short supply and the government-appointed
Crossroads board should not pay severance to an executive who
resigns, he said in a phone interview.
- Cabinet kept in dark over ATB, says
Day
Tory cabinet ministers were not aware of a huge
Alberta Treasury Branches loan guarantee to West Edmonton
Mall because it was never singled out as a problem, says the
provincial treasurer.
Stockwell Day said when word of the increase was first reported
in 1995, "nothing was noted with any sense of alarm.
- Province seeks deal to destroy Maple
Leaf plant, says Smith
Northeast Edmonton's abandoned meat-packing plant will soon
be razed to make way for new industry.
Mayor Bill Smith said yesterday the province is set to contract
out the demolition of the old Maple Leaf buildings and clean up
the 18.8-hectare lot on 66 Street next week.
Once the site is scoured, at a cost of about $6 million, Smith said
negotiations will begin on selling the land to the city. Premier
Ralph Klein announced this spring that the city will get the land at
sale prices in the wake of the plant's closure last year.
AUGUST1998
- Uncivil civil servants
Cries of "shame" and demands for equal pay from angry federal
workers rang out beneath federal Justice Minister Anne
McLellan's Edmonton office yesterday afternoon.
The 150 or so Public Service Alliance of Canada members and
supporters were rallying in front of Canada Place along Jasper
Avenue to demand what they say is their due - billions of dollars
in back pay for female workers.
(See Canada Labour News for complete coverage of Pay Equity Battle .EP)
- Pensions perfect to play divide and conquer
No one has clean hands when it comes to the question of
MPs' pensions. Certainly, Reform Party MPs have not covered
themselves with glory as they grapple with the question of whether
they should stick their noses as far into the trough as most other
politicians.
- Alberta Senator Jean Forest
resigns
Liberal Senator Jean Forest announced her resignation from
the upper house Friday.
Forest, from Edmonton, said in a statement she was leaving for reasons related
to her husband's health. Reform, Klein press for elected
senator
Prime Minister Jean Chretien was under pressure Friday to
select an elected senate candidate from Alberta to replace Liberal appointee
Jean Forest, who quit to care for her ailing husband. Reform tries to block PM's Senate pick
Party seeks court injunction to bar
Chrétien from filling vacancy in Alberta.Prime Minister Jean Chrétien has three days to choose an
Alberta senator before the government must appear in court to fight a
Reform Party attempt to stop an appointment.
(ABOLISH THE SENATE! See our new Abolish The Senate Web Page. EP)
- Worksite Fatality at Calgary Airport Leads to Charges
Charges, under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, have been laid against CANA
Construction Company Ltd. of Calgary. CANA Construction has been charged with two counts of violating the Act and regulations. The
charges are related to failing to take measures to protect workers at a worksite, and failing to ensure
adequate fall protection for workers.
- Privatization led to bank's action,
says Ghermezian
Alberta Treasury Branches' lawsuit against
West Edmonton Mall may mark the first step
toward privatizing the government-owned
bank, say analysts, opposition parties and the
mall's owners.
- ATB's mall exposure could top $470M
Provincially owned Alberta Treasury Branches will have to pay up to $346 million to Toronto
Dominion Bank if ATB is privatized, because of a refinancing deal on the West Edmonton Mall, say
documents filed in court.
- Former ATB head accused of shredding
loan documents
The former head of the Alberta Treasury
Branches, accused by the bank of taking bribes to fix a $440-million loan
deal for West Edmonton Mall, shredded some mall-related files before
retiring, court documents allege.
- Unrest brews over judges' pay raise--Revolt feared as wage offer unveiled
A Calgary judge adjourned his court cases Wednesday in the wake of an
Alberta government decision to reject a proposed pay hike that would have
given provincial court judges the highest wages in the country.
Instead, Justice Minister Jon Havelock Wednesday gave the judges an
8.8-per-cent increase bringing their annual salary to $125,000 from
$113,9000, retroactive to April 1.
Although provincial court Judge John James made no reference to the
announced salary hike, defence lawyers Andre Ouellette and Allan Fay said
James expressed concerns about suggestions judges should bear a share of
the government's deficit-reduction strategies.
- Judges' pay increase totals almost 20 per
cent
Provincial court judges will receive pay raises
amounting to almost 20 per cent when pension and other benefits
are factored in, according to a government document.
- Interest rates, dollar woes punish
oil industry
CALGARY (CP) - The sudden hike in interest rates will punish Calgary's
debt-heavy energy companies, but oilpatch analysts say it's critical to maintain
perspective amid chaotic markets.
"The industry has a lot bigger problems right now than a one per cent interest
rate hike," said Rick Roberge of Pricewaterhouse Coopers.
Depressed commodity prices are still the big problem.
- Slots triple to 1,800 in Alberta
The province has hit another
jackpot with the number of slot
machines in Alberta soaring to
1,809 from 685 last year.
Although the Alberta Gaming
Commission could not provide
profit totals Wednesday, the slot
machines generated $47 million in
the province's 17 casinos last year.
The province takes a 70-per-cent
share.
- New park not enough for
environmentalists
nvironmental groups are panning the Alberta
government's attempt to reduce the environmental impact of a
proposed coal mine by creating a new wilderness park nearby.
They say the Whitehorse Wildland Park, which was announced
Wednesday by Environmental Protection Minister Ty Lund, is
too small and will do little to protect the wildlife in the area near
the Cheviot coal mine, which has been approved to open a few
kilometres east of Jasper National Park.
- Whaleback report 'tainted' -- WWF
A report allowing oil and gas exploration in one of
Alberta's "special places" is tainted because an Amoco
representative helped write it, according to an environmental
group.
Alberta Special Places 2000, the province's showcase initiative
to create a network of protected places, has been under fire
from environmentalists because the government has allowed
industrial activities such as logging and oil and gas development
in the areas.
- Bringing in the hemp
Now that it's legal, marijuana's utilitarian cousin is on the road to
commercialization
- Grand Prairie getting down to business with utility
corporation idea
- Copps within right
Banff Town Council has received legal advice that the federal government was well within its legal right to
reduce the town's proposed commercial development quotas.
- One nation, from sea, to sea, to sea-Unity crusade rolls through Fairview
Canada Indivisible Inc. arrived in Fairview on Friday afternoon with ambassadors Roy Stewart and
Sheila Burke at the wheel of a motorhome, two simple signs on its sides and a Canadian flag
hanging from one window the only indications these were not ordinary tourists passing through
town.Their current goal is to try and gain support for 44 municipalities in Quebec which have passed
resolutions rejecting the separatist option, declaring their wish to remain part of Canada regardless
of the outcome of any future referendum. With one, the County of Grande Prairie, already passing a
resolution supporting the Quebec municipalities' wish to remain part of Canada, Fairview and the
rest of the Peace country were an obvious attraction to Canada Indivisible Inc.
(See Canada Labour News for more on Quebec's Right To Self Determination EP)
- Business dean says Hinton can capitalize on
Alberta economy
Hinton is well-positioned to be the leading and most prosperous business community in the
Yellowhead region.
That was the conclusion made by a former member of the legislative
assembly last week at a Rotary Club of Hinton gathering.
Mike Percy, dean of the faculty of business at the University of Alberta,
addressed more than 30 Rotarians and guests Aug. 19 at the Crestwood
Hotel.
"I think this community can capitalize a great deal on Alberta's economy,"
Percy said.
- Wetaskiwin School tax levy fails with
confusion
Wetaskiwin Regional Public School's tax levy has
been quashed.
Not by any great debate or irrefutable point by
trustees, but by poor communication and a
misunderstanding.
- Funding runs dry for MD service agency
Time has run out on a three-year agreement between the Department of Municipal Affairs and the
Mackenzie Municipal Services Agency, threatening the future of the agency and the services it
provides to 14 area municipalities.Municipal Affairs spokeswoman Laurie Collins says the basis of the agreement was to provide
support for the agency which was going through a transitional phase from a provincially-funded
planning commission to an agency.
Planning commissions were dissolved in 1995 as part of the government's de-regulation of regional
planning systems.
- Province should recognize obstacles, says
mayor, MLA
Peace River mayor Michael Procter wants the province to give the Peace Country a fair share of
funding.
"They (the provincial government) keep putting us into the same basket as the rest of Alberta and
we are not the same," says Procter. "I sometimes feel they tend to lump us in with the rest of the
province and we are different."
Procter wants to see the Peace Country and the north-western region of the province receive
equitable funding, taking into consideration the area's special circumstances that make servicing
difficult for municipalities. The 'Fair Share' agreement between the B.C. government and the Peace River Regional District will
put $113.5 million into infrastructure renewal throughout that province's Peace Country over the
next 10 years.
That agreement has sparked action on this side of the Peace.
"We are seeing what has been done in an adjacent jurisdiction and saying 'hey, we wouldn't mind
the same situation on the Alberta side of the Peace,' " says Procter.
- Fort merits fair share of VLT revenue, says
Mayor Hodgins
The one-time $130 million hand-out of VLT revenues by the Alberta government for road projects
should be spent on a needs priority basis, says Fort Saskatchewan mayor, Ken Hodgins.
Hodgins attended last week's meeting with Municipal Affairs Minister, Iris Evans, where
infrastructure priorities and future per capita formulas were discussed.
- Chief doctor steps down
Prem Chengalath tenders resignation to CRHA board.Doctors in the Crossroads indicated last month they had no
confidence in Chengalath as the medical director after a
vote at the Medical Advisory Committee meeting (MAC).
Chengalath has been the focus of several issues which
caused physicians to waiver in their support.
- Whitecourts City Council says no to Canada Post parking
request
Whitecourt's post office could soon be providing handicapped parking for its physically disabled
patrons.
"I think what if Canada Post wants to provide that, it's a good corporate decision on their part," said
Mayor George VanderBurg. "I think that's all we're saying is go ahead and build it."
Town council turned down a request at its Aug. 17 meeting from the local post master Brian Roth to
build such a stall on the street in front of the post office.
- Day sees surplus despite oil doldrums
Alberta is heading for another surplus this year
despite reduced expectations from oil revenue, says Treasurer
Stockwell Day.
- Judges get 8.8% hike to $125,000 per
year
The Alberta government has rejected a proposed
pay hike that would have given provincial court judges the
highest such wages in Canada.
Instead, Alberta judges will get an 8.8-per-cent raise retroactive
to April 1 -- to $125,000 from $113,964. They'll also receive a
pay increase next year tied to increases in the average weekly
earnings of all Albertans. (We should all be so lucky EP)
- Trend to privately financed health care
system decried
Medicare is under attack and a broader public
debate is needed to keep the public health system safe, says the
Edmonton doctor who led the National Forum on Health.
"Right now medicare is in pretty serious trouble," said Dr. Tom
Noseworthy, once again active with the National Forum a year
after the federal group completed its review of medicare.
"People are raising very serious doubts about different aspects of
the system."
- Free legal advice offered to man
charged in bombing
A former pastor charged with bombing an oil
well near Hinton said he's cheered by offers of free legal advice
and support from an environmental group. The environmental community does not support violence
although it's easy to understand why some people might be
driven to it, said Brian Staszenski, director of Edmonton's
Environmental Resource Centre.
- Oil prices won't delay $3B
Syncrude expansion
Syncrude's proposed $3-billion upgrader
expansion won't be delayed because of low world oil prices, its chairman said
Wednesday.
Construction is slated to begin in 1999 with first production starting in 2002.
When completed by 2007, the expanded upgrader will increase average daily
synthetic crude oil production to 480,000 barrels per day from the current
210,000.
- A popular Edmonton nightclub will not renew financial support of
CKUA radio amidst layoffs, financial problems and political unrest
at the station.
- Northern Alberta Hospitals Support staff strike averted
A strike by hundreds of Alberta hospital support staff workers has been diverted but employees
deserve better than what the latest contract offers, says a local union president.
"They'll live with it but they're not overly pleased," said Canadian Union of Public Employees local
924 president Mary Ann Sieben.
Sieben learned Monday union members agreed to the latest deal with the Provincial Health
Authorities Association but doesn't expect Friday's vote-splits will be known until mid-week. The
QE II surgical reprocessor said members had hoped tougher negotiating would secure more than a
nine per cent salary increase over three years to make up for provincial government wage cuts taken
several years ago. The new contract has also only put an end to contracting out for one year.
- Gand Prairie Public trustees on board with new deal with teachers
The board of the Grande Prairie Public School District has brought a deal with its teachers one step
closer to completion.
Trustees voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a memorandum of agreement signed by
negotiators from both sides June 25.
- Grande Prairie Regional College board approves deal
A deal between the college board of governors and employees' association has now been approved
by both sides.The board of governors of Grande Prairie Regional College voted on the EA contract at its first
monthly meeting of the fiscal year Tuesday.
- Buffer zone formed between park and
proposed open-pit mine
The Alberta government has announced the
creation of a buffer zone between Jasper National Park and an open-pit
coal mine proposed near its southeast boundary.
The buffer zone was required by the federal-provincial environment panel
that approved plans for the Cheviot mine in June 1997.
About 11,000 hectares have been set aside under the province's Special
Places program.
- One of Edmonton's most successful theatre companies is looking
for a break on rent
The Varscona Theatre Alliance, which operates the New
Varscona Theatre in Old Strathcona, has asked city hall to waive
the $1,900 per month it pays in rent.
- Coal giants part of trust evolution
a couple of
lumbering giants whose business appears to have more in common
with the Middle Ages than the 1990s. But Luscar Coal and Manalta
Coal are now ultramodern beasts, and their takeover battle displays
all the hallmarks of the species. Manalta, the takeover target and the larger of the two, had
been owned for eons by the reclusive Mannix family of Calgary.
Luscar had been around since the turn of the century, owned by the
descendants of British MP Sir Harold Mitchell.
- Workers pull man from cave-in
A crew of construction workers dug a man out of
an early grave after he was buried alive in a trench cave-in
Tuesday morning. Alberta Labour has halted work on the trench until an
investigation of the incident is complete, said department
spokesperson David Hennig. (Trenching accidents have increased since Alberta Labour no longer 'regulates' but 'consults' with its 'business' partners. EP)
- Clan members charged in bombing
Alberta Christians blame oil and gas
wells for health problems on their farm
- New Alberta centre to do
anti-land-mine research
A new centre for research into the problems of clearing
anti-personnel landmines and helping their victims opens at Suffield, Alta., this
fall.
-
ATB makes grab for mall
Alberta Treasury Branches has launched court
action to wrest control of the world's largest
mall from the Ghermezian family, alleging
bribes and secret commissions were paid to
obtain financing.
- Calgary Base handover now complete
The handover of Harvey Barracks to the Tsuu T'ina Nation has
been signed and sealed, complete with a new name and some
nagging concerns of contamination.
- West Edmonton deals `concealed,' court told
Numbered companies used to ensure Ghermezians
kept control of mall, documents allege
- Bomb blast rocks Suncor wellsite
The war waged by vandals is heating up against the oil
and gas operations of several Calgary companies in northern
Alberta after another bomb exploded at an oil well site Monday
morning.
- Alberta? This is Alberta? Globe & Mail Editorial
Aficionados of irony can find a classic example to savour in Alberta.
Premier Ralph Klein, arch-enemy of government interference in
business, is being deeply embarrassed by the operations of his
government-owned bank, the Alberta Treasury Branches. The
revelations of potential political pressures on the ATB include a 1994
memo from the Premier to the minister responsible underlining the
importance of the ATB undertaking "serious discussions" to find a
"positive resolution" to the financing problems of the huge West
Edmonton Mall and, preferably, an "Alberta solution."
- Don't give in to private clinic, Barrett
says
- International conference celebrates
volunteer spirit
Premier Ralph Klein opened Edmonton's world
conference on volunteers on Sunday with some advice to the
delegates.
"Volunteers, true volunteers, don't complain. They're there
because they want to be there. Isn't that the spirit of
volunteerism?" said Klein. Klein was responding to earlier media queries about a provincial
survey showing nearly eight in 10 Albertans feel their
communities will need to turn to volunteers, in part because of
government cuts.
- Ghermezians assail ATB
Brothers allege bank has `bizarre' plan
to back out of loan guarantees on West Edmonton Mall
- Klein admits involvement in ATB
refinancing of mall
- Residents caught in battle for Banff 'ghetto'
It's the underbelly of Banff that
tourists -- and even most locals
-- don't see.
Beyond a tree-covered bluff in
Canada's Rocky Mountain
paradise, the low-income
residents of the Pinewoods
Hotel are separated from
thousands of daily tourists.
- Klein prepares to speak about
loans to West Edmonton Mall
- ATB takes writedown on mall loans
Alberta bank anticipates losses from financing guarantees
to Ghermezians' West Edmonton Mall
- Mopping up ATB's mess
As Paul Haggis tries to put a new face on Alberta Treasury Branches,
scandals keep surfacing at the province's bank
- Past haunts cop union boss who
marches on
- Private care battle resumes
Alberta New Democrat Leader Pam Barrett wants to ensure
that private hospitals continue to be denied approval to keep
patients overnight.
- No Mc-union seen in Alberta
McDonald's employees in this province won't be
turning in their uniforms for union memberships any time soon,
says a top labor boss.
"Even in my very optimistic life - I hope I'm wrong - but I don't
see it happening," said Audrey Cormack, president of the
Alberta Federation of Labor.
- Edmonton Journal Special Feature on International Volunteer Conference
- Top cops converge on Edmonton
93rd annual Canadian Association of Chiefs of
Police conference being held in Edmonton this week.
- ATB preparing to lose money on loan to
mega mall
- Klein denies memo shows he directed ATB
refinancing of mega mall
- Pop go the jobs!
Need for 35 workers fizzles out at Gray Beverage
bottling plants
Call it the Generation Next - of unemployment.
Pepsi-Cola Canada Beverages Inc. confirmed yesterday it is
canning 35 former Gray Beverage Inc. staff in Edmonton and
Vancouver, just five months after buying the bottler.
- Rigth Wing Alberta Report plans major changes
The Edmonton company that publishes Alberta Report
magazine has set its sights on going national.
And it's willing to go public, too, to finance the journey.
Alberta Report editor and publisher Link Byfield confirmed
yesterday that United Western Communications Ltd. plans to try
to raise up to $6 million via the Alberta Stock Exchange, in an
offering which could come as soon as this fall.
- Tourism threatens Whaleback
The biggest threat to the ecologically sensitive Whaleback region is
tourism, not energy development, says a committee of local residents.
The report, written for Alberta's Special Places 2000 program, says carefully controlled oil
and gas exploration and production are acceptable, although it draws the line at sour gas processing
plants.
- Stats Canada Report shows that there big wage gaps betwen men and women
Fort McMurray might not have the highest
wages in Canada, the city is tops in Alberta,
according to Statistics Canada.
However, the median income of $28,500
here shows a wide gap in income between
men and women. The median wage for men
was $50,400 and $13,900 for women in
1996, the most recent year available.
- Social planning council taking shape in Grand Prairie
A social council is a non-profit society that conducts research, organizes activities and provides
education for residents to improve the social well-being of a community.
Social councils can also analyze and critique a community's social service infrastructure by
monitoring such social and economic indicators as child and family poverty, income, job growth,
infant mortality rates and suicide rates.
Currently, there is only one other council in Alberta - the Edmonton Social Planning Council has
been in operation for 57 years.
- MD of Greenview takes issue with GAP site
Reeve suggests Smoky River better suited to handle effluent than Wapiti.Opposition to the $900 million Grande Alberta Paper project may seem light, but that doesn't mean
there is no opposition, a local municipal leader said Wednesday.
Even though many people in the municipal district of Greenview want the plant and its tax revenues,
Reeve Ken Mulligan said some residents are still troubled by the amount of effluent the proposed
lightweight-coated paper mill will discharge into the Wapiti River.
- ATB Reports Record First Quarter Profits
- Discussion Papers on Safety Codes Now Available
Alberta Labour and the Safety Codes Council are seeking public and stakeholder input on a
number of aspects of the Safety Codes Act. Three discussion papers have been prepared that
solicit feedback on proposed changes to the Safety Codes Act and two related regulations -- the
existing Exemption Regulation and a proposed Permit Regulation.
- Provincial Archives of Alberta holds open house and
information sessions
Albertans invited to discuss future of Provincial Archives
- Little movement seen in Edith Cavell
dispute
Lethbridge Herald
August 21, 1998
- Task Force to help determine Aboriginal needs
COLD LAKE - A report calling for greater financial and democratic accountability
from aboriginal bands and councils was released last week and is now in the hands of
Jane Stewart, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. The report, titled
"Voices from the Grassroots" was initiated by Lakeland MP Leon Benoit, who formed
the Lakeland Aboriginal Issues Task Force to look into the wants and needs of his
aboriginal constituents
- Endangered species act has serious
implications for private landowners
Proposed federal legislation aimed at protecting Canada's endangered species is drawing fire from
several groups worried about the effects it will have on this country's private landowners.
In 1996 Bill C-65, the Canada Endangered Species Act, was introduced but was never passed.
Now there is talk the bill will be reintroduced sometime between now and March of next year and
the Reform Party, Western Stockgrowers Association, the Canadian Property Rights Research
Institute and others are pushing for changes to the Bill which they feel contains serious flaws.
- Lloydminster
Public School Division Faces Angery Parents
A plethora of problems, and the school board's perceived lack of action in dealing with them, were
laid on the table at a special meeting between concerned E.S. Laird parents and the Lloydminster
Public School Division Monday evening.
More than 150 people filled the school's gymnasium to voice and hear concerns about staff
turnover, class sizes, lack of leadership, discipline problems and school spirit .
- Peace River High School deficit to be eliminated
- Spruce Grove City Council per diems curbed
- Native protestors demand action
on reserve housing shortage
- Memo links Klein to controversial loans
Premier called for `an Alberta solution'
to West Edmonton Mall troubles
- Tougher law sought for landlords
Landlords who ignore orders to demolish
condemned houses will face hefty fines if the province agrees to
legislative changes being pushed by several Edmonton politicians.
- Pipeline proposal raises ire or
environmentalists
The controversy over "special places" heated up
again on Wednesday with the government plans to allow a
pipeline corridor to run through one of them.
On Tuesday, The Federation of Alberta Naturalists became the
second environmental group to quit the coordinating committee
of Alberta Special Places 2000, the provincial government's
showcase initiative to create a network of protected areas
representing the diversity of the natural regions.
- Critics slam ATB's deal with Alexander
Albertans deserve a more complete explanation for
the $4 million break-up fee paid to Les Alexander after he lost
out on his bid to buy the Edmonton Oilers in May, opposition
critics said Wednesday.
- Oilpatch debt soars
Canadian oil and gas companies are piling up
debt to levels not seen since the great oil price
plunge of 1986.
Deteriorating balance sheets caused by low oil
prices are making a growing number of
companies vulnerable to takeovers.
- Best grain to reap above-average profit
Market conditions and early results from Prairie harvesting about two weeks ahead of schedule
indicate top-quality grain will command a premium price this year.
Combines are running from dawn to past dusk in Alberta and Manitoba, and will likely swing into
high gear in Saskatchewan in about a week, said Gerry Klassen, market analyst with Growers
Marketing Services of Winnipeg.
- Pension legislation proposed
The Alberta government will introduce legislation
next spring spelling out how pension funds should be divided
when married couples split.
- B.C. sends patients to private clinic
A Calgary clinic selling private surgery outside
medicare has been getting patients through a British Columbia
government agency, even though B.C.'s New Democrat
government opposes privatization.
- We love to lend a helping hand
As Edmonton prepares to host the world's largest
conference on volunteers, a new study paints the province as a
hotbed of altruism. The survey, conducted
by Statistics Canada, polled about 19,000 Canadians.
It will provide the first glimpse at Canadian volunteers since the
last national survey released in 1987.
- Feds treating us like servants, Lund
complains
Environment Minister Ty Lund slammed his federal
counterpart Tuesday, claiming Christine Stewart's pledge to sign
the Kyoto agreement shows she's treating the provinces like
servants rather than partners.
(Whine Whine Whine.EP)
- Ottawa sticking to Kyoto goals, says environment
minister
Environment Minister Christine Stewart says
Canada will ratify the Kyoto agreement to curb greenhouse gas
emissions despite strong objections from Alberta Premier Ralph
Klein. Stewart noted Monday the federal government has
constitutional authority to ratify international treaties, and although
Ottawa needs provincial collaboration to cut emissions, no
province has a veto.
- Toxicity results to be released in fall
Swan Hills - Health Canada has finished its toxicity tests on
aboriginals who live near the Swan Hills waste treatment plant,
but the results won't be public until at least November.
- Luscar seeks to crush poison-pill
plan launched by takeover target
In the latest salvo between Alberta's coal titans, Luscar
Coal asked securities regulators Tuesday to smash a poison-pill plan standing
between it and takeover target Manalta Coal.
- Telus and AT&T are talking again, source
says
- Drillers hope winter heats up rig demand
- Grand Prairie County, industry still working on policing
deal
- Road building approved for
controversial Cheviot mine
- Progress made on rural doctors' pay
dispute
- Patients in peril says nursing union
- I spy a WCB spy
opinion By Leslie Primeau VUE magazine Aug. 13 - Aug. 19
- Ministry rejects criticism of care for
mentally ill
- Mentally ill forced into cells, says
physciatrist
- ATB could negotiate deal with former
executive
- NDs, Grits want ATB/WEM deal info
- Lights! Cameras! Tax breaks!
There's a war between the provinces to lure TV and
film production. Alberta stays out of the fray.
- Many of CKUA's staff support resigning
GM
- CKUA GM slams staff on way out
The general manager of CKUA Radio has resigned after admitting
he misread accounting statements for three months, a mistake that
ballooned the station's true deficit by $172,000 and cost six staff
their jobs.
- Sources differ as to finances in wake of CKUA layoffs
VUE magazine Aug. 13 - Aug. 19
- CKUA Cuts Staff
In this week's edition of SEE, you'll also find an article about
layoffs at CKUA. The Ugly Rumors are flying like mad, swirling
through every corner of the station. Among them: the station's
board of directors has no idea what extra expenses, on the order
of $600,000, went to, or why station manager Ken Davis couldn't
stay within his budget of $1.6-million in the first place.
More Ugly Rumors have it that David Ward, Katherine Hoy and
Daphne Bain were axed because they'd likely lead a mutiny once
news of financial strife got out.
It seems the scent of blood has filled the hallways and the piranhas
are closing in. Davis is a target, as managers always are. But Davis
is tainted by the fact he was hired by much-despised former
CKUA CEO Gail Hinchliffe.
"He was Hinchliffe's man and should never have been brought
back in the first place," said one source.
- CKUA laying off on-air personalities due to deficit
Fast Forward Weekly Calgary
- Lake Louise board members quit over Copps
- Alberta bank alleges former chief took bribes
His lawyer denies `innuendo' about West Edmonton Mall. (The ATB is being set up for privatization. ep)
- Agriculture Minister calls for changes to Canadian Wheat
Board election process
- Expert questions lower shelter stats
- Province Releases 1997 Women's Shelter Statistics
- Social housing policy conference sought
- Ex-Liberal Zwozdesky joins Tories
(so whats new the Liberals run from the left and jump ship to the right .ep)
- Premier Klein welcomes Zwozdesky to the team
- PCBs above normal at Swan Hills
- Natives forced out by boom suing
- Private hospital renews push for
overnight patients
- Banff considers challenging Copps's
edict
- Wasps keep garbage collectors under
siege
- Dollar Doldrums Special Feature Edmonton Journal
- Wetaskiwin Docs threaten to suspend
emergency services
- Peace River social workers join provincewide
demonstrations
- Calgary:Downtown development keeps prostitutes on the move
Outreach agencies don't know where prostitution
will surface next as they work to combat it
- Province seeks feedback on proposed Alberta Insurance
Act
- Mighty dollar falls - end of the world is near!
Reform's panic solution to dollar crisis exposes their political limits
- Banff: Dada recalled in baffling opera(review: Zurich 1916)
At the Cabaret Voltaire the libretto is lost but the spectacle soars
- Land entitlement, band membership top
list of issues in Lubicon talks
- Chapters of the Lubicon proposal package
- Lethbridge: Public School Board plebiscite on computers
- Grand Prairie to Form Utility Company
Modeled on Edmontons EPCOR
- Hanna Ranchers Urged To Meeting
The issue is the provincial Agricultural Lease Review, a report with the potential to drastically affect
ranching operations in the Special Areas, as well as the forthcoming federal Endangered Species
Act, with even more restrictions on farming and ranching.
- Chernobyl children begin their
stay in Hinton
- Lacombe County to oppose school tax levy
- Denham Inn health programs recognized
The Denham Inn in Leduc is one of 22 Alberta Hotels which have been given a Certificate of
Recognition from Alberta Labor.
- Survey to determine Leduc's social needs
- Mayerthorpe County struggles
with cuts to funding
- Starving students focus on Web design
Students earn money; clients get noticed.Working for minimum wage
won't pay the bills for most
students so Jon Watson opened
a business to help his fellow
classmates earn some cash.
Aptly called Starving Student
Technologies, the company
Watson started in March
specializes in affordable Web
design.
- Province pushes Ottawa to appeal
bridge ruling
- Many area mayors unopposed for Oct.
19 vote
- Tenants suing landlord
Renters say renovations have led to intolerable
conditions
- Bombs, bullets and bad air, Trouble rocks the oilpatch
- Alberta premier willing to consider
inquiry over loan to big mall
- Power of private police rises across Canada
- TransCanada Pipeline to build new Power Plant in Medicine Hat
- Federal Government awards high tech youth employment contract to Medicine Hat Company
- Latest ATB revelation likely not
the last, says professor
- Government moves to privatize Brand Inspectors
- Peace River Area Unemployment Up
- Lethbridge Sugar plant workers hit by
respiratory problems
- Pipeline project on standby
- Lack of opposition could
undermine Reform's Senate
election in Alberta
- Silhouette painters unknown
The silhouettes, also found near the University of Alberta and on
the High Level Bridge, were probably done to mark the 53rd
anniversary Thursday of dropping the atomic bomb on
Hiroshima, say some peace activists.
- Worksite Fatality Leads to Charges
Alberta Labour has laid charges against The City of Lethbridge, Tollestrup Construction Inc., and
Wilfred Irvin Flammond and Steven James Wickwier, of Tollestrup Construction Inc.
- Worker under surveillance, Barrett
charges
- Alberta checks options for ATB
Options=Privatization
- Extra funds sought for psychiatric
patients
- Auditor to probe WEM deal
- Ex-ATB head wants inquiry into mall
loans
Cleaning up accounts before privatization?
- Eco-terrorism is no solution
- Capital well idea inflames ND
- Backgroundeer on Eco Terrorism from Grand Prairie
Buyout was Ludwig's idea, AEC contends. Negotiations could resume if offer contentions are withdrawn: Farmer
- Backgrounder on Eco Terrorism from Alberta Report
An explosion waiting to happen. Grande Prairie back-to-the-lander Wiebo Ludwig
is fed up with the oil industry Alberta Report Feb 9, 1998
- Day advises cut debt to boost buck
- Bombings prompt call for more cops
- Alberta Treasurer questions loan deal
between bank, West Edmonton Mall
- Alberta Continues To Stretch Its Lead In Debt Reduction
And Tax Competitiveness Says Scotia Bank
- Fort McMurray Chamber of Commerce Ups Ante to attract Mobil Upgrader
(Comrade)Billy Bragg At Edmonton Folk Festival Friday August 7!
- Billy Bragg and Wilco revist the legend of Woody Guthrie
- Chalk up another one for the little guy
The words of Woody Guthrie get the lack of respect they deserve
from Billy Bragg
by Mike Bell Fast Forward magazine, Calgary, July 20-August 5
- AlbertaSocial workers look at strike action
- Gas well, pipeline vandalism
prompts anti-terrorist call
- Federal government resumes talks with
Lubicon Cree
- Alberta government offers money for water
systems at new processing plants
- More Calgarians joining
millionaires club
- In Calgary, jobs are plentiful, homes aren't
Booming city's shelters are packed with employed newcomers
- Government is watching system die, says Grand Prairie MD
- Beef up security for MDs: Reynolds
- Are country hospitals safe for
birthing?
- Four written comments received on GAP
project
Province now gathering, assessing input
- Whaleback watching produces little
in assurances from Klein
- Women's centre opens at U of L
The University of Lethbridge is the only university in the province without a women's centre.
Until now.
- Pagan meet draws little public notice
- Energy head's quitting 'mutual,' West
says
- Calgary Critical Mass Ride
JULY 1998
- BC: Doctors, home care workers off the job July 31
- Airport Strike Looming in Winnipeg July 31
Press Release from Winnipeg Airport Authority stating:
Winnipeg International Airport will continue to
operate as usual in the event of job action by the Public Service Alliance of
Canada (PSAC).
- Talks break off between gov't, union July 31
Talks have broken off between the Alberta
government and the union representing about 2,200 social
workers employed by the province.
- Western Pacific Security Group Files Defamation
Lawsuit Against BC Hospital Employees Union July 31
- Canadian energy firms fired up over Mexico July 31
Foreigners, shut out for decades, are
being invited to help develop its huge market
- Economic confidence slides July 31
The dollar's plunge has shaken Canadians' `fragile' faith
that prosperity will continue
THE GLOBE AND MAIL / CTV / ANGUS REID POLL
- Immigration puts squeeze on foreign
strippers July 31
- Thousands of Ontario teachers leaving profession July 31
- Union aims to block CN expansion July 30
- CAW MEMBERS AT TORONTO COKE PLANT SET TO STRIKE AUGUST 1 July 30
- Working Ventures Canada's Labour Fund announces $24 million in project funding July 30
- Weak loonie keeps miners on the job July 30
At least 1,000 might have been laid off
- Revenue Canada frets snack write-off
will cost July 30
- WEAK CANADIAN DOLLAR IS A MADE-IN-CANADA CREATION SAYS
NESBITT BURNS July 30
( sure blame the victim! ed.)
- Coalition fights arts group changes July 30
Ontario's move to use non-artists sparks battle
- School for tots back on the table in
Ontario? July 30
- THE RETIRED TEACHERS OF ONTARIO (RTO/ERO) HAPPY WITH
DECISION ON SENIORS BENEFIT July 30
- Talks break off between gov't, union July 31
Talks have broken off between the Alberta
government and the union representing about 2,200 social
workers employed by the province.
- Many injured workers unaware of
allowance says leaked WCB report July 31
- Mayors duelling over pothole pie July 31
- Health authority to recoup money from
recruited MD July 31
- Special Feature and Backgrounder on the Pay Equity Decision From the Edmonton Journal July 30
- Alberta Health survey suggests public
confidence declining July 30
- Delays leave patients waiting in pain July 30
- Grand Prairie health officials echo provincial
concerns over longer waiting lists July 30
- Tax panel tries to calm critics July 30
Wide input sought for review, insists official
- Groups recommend tax cuts Labour and NDP say the fix is in July 30
- Revenue Canada frets snack write-off
will cost July 30
- Seniors facing cuts to health,
recreation July 30
- Calgary Growth Electrifing July 30
$50M Telus Convention Centre shows strength of
diversity
- Wages, stress drive social workers out,
says union July 29
- Albertans suffering, dying on
waiting lists, doctors say July 29
- ALBERTA REGISTERED NURSES' PRESIDENT MEETING WITH HEALTH
MINISTER TO DISCUSS NURSING SHORTAGE AND PATIENT SAFETY July 29
- PATIENT SAFETY CALLS STAY AT ALARMINGLY HIGH LEVELS SAY NURSES ASSOC. July 29
- Company drops chronic fatigue case
appeal July 29
- LAWYERS LOOK FOR BOOST July 29
DEMANDING LEGAL AID FEE HIKES OF AT
LEAST 16%
- Silencing workers won't prevent tragedies:
AUPE July 29
Pickets set up here, and across the province to send Tories a message
- Whitecourt: Town gets out of the arena eatery business July 29
- Forest Industry Companies release self-critiquing report
card July 29
- Recruitment plan no cure for rural doctor
burn-out trend July 29
- Woodland Cree, Union Pacific Resources
sign exploration deal July 29
- Edson Trustees mixed on election future July 29
- Nurses in high demand July 29
Crossroads Health Region experiencing province-wide shortfall in attracting new people to the profession
- Letter from local physician sparks
discussion July 29
Drayton Valley doctors cannot continue short staffed indefinitely
- Company official confirms Wal-Mart's
coming to Fort McMurray July 29
- Brink's suspect linked to white supremacists July 29
- GROWING TRADE TIES LINK PROVINCIAL ECONOMIES TO GLOBAL
PERFORMANCE, SAY TD ECONOMISTS July 29
- Bass family group buys 6% of Nova July 28
Makes wealthy Texans among top 10 shareholders
- Pregnant mom petitions for higher
obstetrician fees July 27
- Northern Alberta Hospital workers vote on contract Aug. 8 July 26
- Beware of violence, physicians told
- Suncor meets with workers to head off
future walkouts
- Puck accused of looting companies
to thwart receivership JULY 24
- Logging letter breaks park promise:
environmentalists July 24
- Business leaders angered by Pocklington's
anti-entrepreneur barb July 24
- Syncrude Shut Down July 26
- Telus Corp. doubles net income in second
quarter July 26
- Ontario school funding decision won't have
much impact here:
- Trip to U.S. gives grand Prairie principal a new
appreciation for our school system
- Grand Prairie: Housing shortage has many camping out
- Evansburg awaits long-term care beds
- Minister defends retirement deal for
ex-WCB boss
July 23
- Retirement deal for ex-WCB chief
criticized
July 22
- Calgary Homeless Figures called Low July 23
- Puck packs it in
July 23
Peter Pocklington the capitalist Edmontonians love to hate for selling off Gretsky and for the Gainers Strike,leaves town owning big $$$ to his creditors see: Friends bid adieu, critics good riddance
- Feds' bungling threatens oil and gas industry July 23
Environmental issues, not low oil prices, are the
biggest threat facing the oil and gas industry
today.
- Experts fail to agree on
standard for cleaner gasoline July 23
- Researcher says MMT ban
shouldn't be lifted July 23
- Luscar bids for Manalta July 23
$550-million deal would create
N. America's 6th-biggest coal firm
(Luscar is the The Company Behind the controversial Cheviot Mine ed.)
- Luscar makes $550M pitch July 23
Edmonton-based coal producer launches takeover bid for bigger rival
Manalta.( editors Note: Former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed is Chairman of Luscar, Manalta is owned by his former employer Mannix Inc. of Calgary)
- Edmonton Ambulance Workers Get 5% Over Three Years July 21
- Grand Prairie: Local CUPE officials talking tough July 20
Hospital Strike Looms
- Fletcher's deal means the end of some
dreams July 20
- Park maintenance 'a responsibility' for all July 20
Users urged to do their part as privatization takes hold
- Grand Prairie: Patchworkers beware! July 20
Explosive device found on pipeline has RCMP cautioning workers
- Edmonton Court fines slumlord $12,200 July 21
- Environmentalists say UN still opposes
Cheviot mine July 21
- Bovar suing its insurance company July 21
- Native group fears transfer of social
housing to province July 21
- Report calls for increased public input
on gambling issues July 21
- Edmonton City Council Flunks Out says Biz Group July 21
- Edmonton Regional Airports Authority Executive Salaries higher than those of Calgary AA July 21
- Housing Prolbems for the Poor Growing In Calgary July 21
- SEC seeks court order against Solv-Ex
principals July 20
- Fort McMurray: MP argues for concessions to attract
upgrader July 20
(Reform Party offers corporate welfare. ed)
- Grand Prairie: Hospital support staff 'shaking heads' over
latest wage proposal July 17
- Newly unionized Peace Regional Emergency Medical Services (PREMS) staff have laid an unfair labor practise complaint against their employer. July 17
- Critics say WCB violating guidelines July 17
- Hinton: United Nations has no problem with Cheviot mine July 17
- Lubicon, government negotiators resume
talks in earnest July 17
- Fort McMurrayMLA mad at Mobil for pitting cities
against one another July 17
- Rural docs 'continuously' wear a leash July 17
Rounding up foreign doctors is not the cure to filling physician gaps in rural Alberta, says one
small-town physician.
- Grand Prairie: QE II emergency room bearing the brunt of
doctor shortage July 17
- New rural docs: A Band-Aid on a 'leaky
bucket' July 17
- What price education? GP mom sees '10
years of hell' July 17
- WCB office closing July 17
Grande Prairie branch one of three in province deemed expendable
- CRHA says sorry for misplacing patient files July 17
- Suncor profits soar as PanCan's dive July 17
- ICG Propane buyout raises competition
questions July 17
- Beneficiaries of VLT funds not keen on
taking sides July 17
- VLT money won't go to core programs
-- Klein official July 17
- Fairview: Farmers have to wait for answers from United Grain Growers July 17
"Transportation and grain handling is more important than the Wheat Board right now,"(tell that to the Reform Party and their front group Farmers for Justice. ed)
- Hanna: Questions raised over Public School Board award of accounting contract July 17
- Teacher turnover hits new high, enrollment
drops in Peace River July 17
- Closing acute care and emergency
unacceptable say Mannville residents July 17
- Humans are depleting the
environment July 20
Economic development should not take
precedence over the environment
By BISHOP FRED HENRY
Special to the WCR, Calgary
- Edmonton Ambulance Workers settle contract get 5% wage hike July 16
- Progressive pro-union alderman thinking of running for Mayor of Edmonton July 16
- Edmonton Indo-Canadian Women protest violence against women in assualt case July 16
- Privacy Breached July 16
Calgary:Construction workers find thousands of confidential medical files in closed hospital
- Mistakes Happen but this is Astounding July 16
Calgary Sun Editorial on
confidential medical files being found abandoned in old hospital
- Provinces want to allocate new health
funding july 16
- Province putting highway rest stops to
test July 16
- WCB claimants infuriated by probe July 16
- Hospitals, schools may get VLT cash July 16
- Albertans satisfied with jobs -- survey July 16
- Oilsands fuel growth July 16
Syncrude, Suncor ventures show no signs of slowing down
- Minister won't launch inquiry into WCB July 15
- Businesses to provide homeless solution July 15
- Fletcher's workers accept slashed pay July 14
Workers at the Red Deer, Alta., hog-slaughtering plant of Fletcher's Fine Foods Ltd. have ratified
a new six-year contract that will cut their base wage to $10 an hour from $15.35
- Privacy watchdog blasts WCBJuly 14
Edmonton - Alberta's privacy commissioner has rapped the
Workers' Compensation Board for failing to protect the personal
medical information of an injured worker.
- Greenhouse gas targets unworkable,
says Klein July 14
- Swan Hills plant costly to close July 14
- Committee calls for strict health privacy
bill July 14
- Radical Environmentalist Planning to Run for Mayor of Edmonton July 14
- Edmontons Commonwealth Stadium Name Not For Sale to Corporations July 14
- School Boards Face Immigration Restrictions on Foreign Students July 14
- Tory MLAs lectured on ups and downs of windfall cash July 14
- Banff townsite to turf ineligible residents July 14
Parks Canada is working on weeding out ineligible residents in Banff National
Park -- including the rich and famous who own park property only for
recreational purposes.
- Lake Louise's fate writ large July 14
Why plans for major expansion yesterday sparked a lawsuit
- Oil bosses turn to debt financing, become
less hopeful of price rise July 14
- Privatization bid for Calgary LRT upgrade July 14
- Fort McMurray bids for Mobil Oil Upgrader July 13
- Strike threat all too familiar July 12
also see:CUPE Local 3197 Edmonton Emergency Health Services Personnel
- STRIP BIZ NEEDS FOREIGN
VA-VA-VOOM: BAR OWNER July 12
BUT CITY WOMEN'S GROUP GLAD FLESH
TRADE'S GONE LIMP FROM A LACK OF
GIRLS
- Leduc Teachers contract settled July 10
- Fletcher's, union reach tentative deal July 10
- Staff crunch hits hospital July 10
Edmonton - Northern Alberta was down to one emergency
operating room for several hours this week when a nursing
shortage shut down emergency surgical services at the Royal
Alexandra Hospital.
- UNION WANTS SECURITY
TIGHTENED AFTER ASSAULT July 10
- Delivering babies just not worth it, says
family physician July 10
- Obstetricians' role in routine births at
issue July 10
- Edmonton Cabbies complain they're being taken
for a ride
- Asia puts damper on Alberta boom - TD report July 10
Like this year's soggy Calgary
Stampede, Alberta's booming economy will be dampened
as Asia's economic storms continue to rain on the West's
resource-based parade. But the TD Bank's quarterly
forecast says Canada's overall outlook is bright, despite a
growth rate predicted to fall to 3.3 per cent from four.
- In Defense of Panhandling July 10
Catherine Ford of the Calgary
- Bankruptcies down, especially in Alberta July 10
Personal and business bankruptcies continued
to fall in April, Industry Canada reported Friday. There were
7,079 consumer bankruptcies and 920 business failures, down
3.75 per cent and almost 10 per cent respectively from the March
numbers. In all, there were 30,070 business and consumer
bankruptcies through the first four months of 1998, down 12 per
cent from 34,181 in the same period of 1997.
- Heavy oil producers enjoy rising fortunes July 11
Price differential between heavy, light crude shrinks
- Alberta and Manitoba Wheat Pools report strong earnings, just before proposed merger July 9
- Grand Prairie:Klein gov't being let off the hook? July 9
Poll suggests city should buck up on social program shortcomings but not all
agree
- Hinton: Cheviot Mine Environmentalists to argue judge didn't
consider future July 8
- Hinton:Cheviot coal mine and municipal district
discuss plans for new road July 8
- Mayerthorpe: Northern Gateway school board amends
busing policy
- Lubicon band, federal negotiators resume
talks July 7
- Edmonton Paramedics Hold Strike Vote July 8
- No new cash for obstetrics, says Jonson July 8
- Minimum-wage hike gets cabinet
blessing July 8
- Injured worker's case illustrates WCB
problems -- MLA July 8
- Klein's silence could be death knell for VLTs July 8
All-or-nothing is the wrong question to put to municipal voters
- Grizzlies under threat: report July 8
- PCBs Alberta-bound 10 years after
toxic blaze July 8
- Greenhouse gas inaction 'irresponsible' July 8
- The Price of Politicians July 6
A special report on the recent pay increase Federal politicians gave themselves
From the Edmonton Journal with a
search list of Alberta MPs.
- Grain firm chooses Calgary over Winnipeg July 4
- CRHA set for $2.8M boost July 4
- U.S. investors flock to buy Canadian Airlines shares July 5
- TransAlta considers building gas-fired
generation plant July 4
- JANITORS INK DEAL July 1
Edmonton Public Schools and its 700 janitors cleaned up
contract negotiations yesterday, agreeing to a two-year pact
effective Sept. 1 that provides a wage hike of 5% and beefed-up
benefits.
The deal with Local 474 of the Canadian Union of Public
Employees was reached after just four bargaining sessions, said
board chairman George Nicholson.
"We're pleased and hopefully the other negotiations can be
concluded as amicably as this one," Nicholson said, following the
board's unanimous approval.
The average hourly wage currently paid to custodians is $12.13.
- New MS drug added to Saskatchewan plan June 30
In Alberta a multiple sclerosis group presented the provincial government
on Monday with a 31,911-name petition calling for that province to pay for
the drugs.
- Labour Unions and Taxpayer groups outraged over judges pay hike July 1
- Cheviot mine again targeted by activists July 1
- U.S. firm buying Calgary Northstar Oil & Gas Co. June 30
Devon Energy Corp. of Oklahoma is taking over Calgary's Northstar Energy Corp. in an $828-million
deal that would create a continental oil and gas powerhouse with roughly equal assets in Canada and the
United States.Forty-seven per cent of those
assets are in Canada, and the company would also be among Canada's top 20 producers.
- Business West Hurricane Sheila leaves her mark June 30
the whirlwind known as Sheila Copps has
moved on from the town of Banff to deal with the issue of American
magazines, but the effects of her passage will remain for some time to
come. Depending on whom you speak to, the Heritage Minister has
either struck a valiant blow for the environment or engaged in a
capricious display of political grandstanding.
- TCPL-Nova marriage approved June 30
Shareholders of TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. and Nova Corp. overwhelmingly
approved the $15-billion merger of the two energy giants yesterday, in a wedding that is already taking on
an international flavour.
- Stronger, clearer rules urged for charter
schools July 1
- Link to dead bears riles Chateau Lake
Louise July 1
- Calgary Sun Columnist Supports Air controlers strike June 30
JUNE 1998
- Calgary Students Rally Against Racism June 29
- Doctors fear for patient safety with new dial a diagnosis June 29
- Trans Alta and Nova Copr merge June 29
Ted Newall votes away his job this morning to make way for a
$21-billion energy giant.
The chief executive of Nova Corp. will say goodbye to the
perks of power as he pilots the Alberta-bred pipeline and
chemicals schooner into the beckoning pier of TransCanada
PipeLines Ltd.
Shareholders of both firms will vote on the merged company.
- Calgary: Oil patch slows down, layoffs and sell offs looming June 29
- Calgary business group trying to create municipal party June 28
- Improve busing, not roads -- edmonton citizens say June 27
- Foothills lose ground to industry June 27
Alberta's foothills region has been so severely affected by
industrial activity that less than one per cent of it can be
considered wilderness, a provincial government report says.
- Apply surplus to health, education,
surveys show June 27
- Proposed wage hike puts Alta. judges
on top June 27
Unions and opposition outraged
- Mentally ill sorely underfunded,
advocacy groups say June 27
- Treasury Branch Employees Ratify New Collective Agreement June 26
- Grand Prairie Public board, teachers have a deal June 26
Deal must be ratified by union's rank-and-file, board in late August
- Alberta judges to get major pay raise June 26
Alberta's provincial court judges deserve a 24 per
cent pay hike this year and more money next year, a government review
committee recommended Friday. (so do we all ed.)
- Consultation on surplus draws Opposition jabs June 26
- MS suffers protest government inaction on treatment June 26
- Lakeland Health Boss fired June 26
- Ottawa to limit development in national
parks June 26
- Alberta Education hires expert to research sick building syndrome in Redcliff school June 26
- WCB claims to have improved service in 1997 June 26
(yeah right, for their business partners not for workers)
- Lethbridge: Doctor sounds alarm bell June 26
The former chairman of the Chinook Physicians Association isn't too confident about the
health region's chances of recruiting doctors to replace those who are leaving. And he's concerned
about the repercussions
- Two charter schools win reprieve June 26
- Rural doctors get flak from untreated
patients June 26
- Mobil plans $1-billion Albertan oil upgrader June 26
Would become fourth-biggest player in northern region
- Mobil mulls site for upgrader June 26
- Grand Prairie Rural doctors take action June 25
Office doors shut for the second time in a month over dispute
- Camp conditions prompt walkout at
SuncorJune 25
- Vermilion Support staff sign contract with Buffalo
Trail June 23
Buffalo Trail Regional Division and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) ratified a new
three year contract for support staff in the division. The new contract, signed Wednesday afternoon, sees support staff receive a three per cent increase
retroactive to Sept. 1, 1997, another three per cent effective Sept. 1, 1998 and another two per
cent Sept. 1, 1999.
- Camrose Crisis state at Food Bank June 24
- Some win, some lose in standardized fee
structureJune 23
Fort Saskatchewan Catholic schools both gained and lost last week during budget deliberations at
the June 17 board meeting.Trustees are in the process of bringing in the first budget for the new Elk Island Catholic Separate
Regional Division 41 and certain items required standardization throughout the schools in the Fort,
Camrose and Sherwood Park.
- Farmers wonder about future of hemp as
viable crop June 23
- Hanna Herald: Thurber Report Criticized June 24
- Hinton: Environmentalists still thinking of steps to
take to stop Cheviot mine project June 24
- Peace River School Division call for more reporting stresses
some school staff June 23
- Whitecourt: New bus fees will be implemented in the
fall despite opposition june 24
- Union takes exception to Cheviot's latest foe June 25
- Rural doctors shut offices in ongoing dispute June 25
- Province cuts debt by $2.6 billion June 25
- Edmonton Catholic teachers set strike vote date June 25
Teachers in Edmonton Catholic schools plan to hold a strike
vote Sept. 1 after mediated contract talks broke off yesterday.
"The school board is simply not interested in negotiating,"
charged Fritz Kropfreiter, a negotiator for the 1,628 teachers
who have been without an agreement since Aug. 31.
Kropfreiter said the bargaining session failed to resolve
differences on retroactive pay for substitutes, summer health
benefits for teachers who are temporary or on probation and
board contributions to teachers' health premiums.
Earlier this month, the teachers rejected the mediator's
recommended settlement and then voted 99.9% in favor of
holding a strike vote.
- Two more charter schools under review June 25
- Edmonton Power Privatization to be studied further
June 24
- Social workers must speak for poor, activist says June 24
- Social net leaving mentally ill adrift June 24
- Alberta losing its forests at a 'frightening' rate June 24
- Expectant mom beats doctors' protest June 24
- Health department told to ensure privacy June 24
- Fort McMurray Catholic teachers approve deal, strike
averted June 23
One day before they were scheduled to
hold a strike vote, city Catholic school
teachers decided to accept a new contract
which restores the five-per-cent cut they
took along with provincial civil servants in
1993.
- Calgary cracks down on panhandlers June 23
- Alberta forests vanishing as fast as Amazon's -- study June 23
- Cuts called dilemma for social workers June 23
- Capital Health opens new beds June 23
(Actually they are just re-opening beds closed by Tory cutbacks. ed)
- Edmonton Power Safe For Now even though report recomends privatization June 23
- Alberta alone with increasing traffic
injuries, AMA claims June 23
- Busing deficit closing charter school June 23
- Edmonton Transit can't keep up with urban sprawl June 23
- Rod Love finds consulting 'a blast' June 22
Premier Ralph Klein's right-hand man and chief confidante. Now a lobbyist and consultant to business interests says:
"I left my office in the legislature on Friday and at 8 a.m. on Monday I was
open for business. I haven't looked back since." Must be nice eh? Unlike all the workers whose jobs he helped cut!
- Northern Alberta Gas Company faces ecoterrorism: pipeline attacked againJune 23
- School's Out for Global; Calgary Charter School Closed June 23
- Calgary Hospital strike threat lifts June 22
- Don't expect quick school cash, Fort McMurray trustees
told June 22
- Turf War In Social Work Destructive Fight Over Funds June 22
National Social Work Conference in Edmonton told
- Taking the axe to Alberta's forests June 22
Economic development claims acreage as quickly as in Amazon rain forest
- Is it fair to put kids to the test? June 22
- Aboriginal Solidarity Day: Crowd gathers at Legislature in a circle of friendship June 22
- Sports team IPOs score a following June 22
So far, however, the only franchise that appears close to doing an IPO
is the Canadian Football League's Calgary Stampeders, whose owner,
Sig Gutsche, expects to go market in July.
- Dairies looking at milk jug recycling plan June 22
- Banff mayor critisizes Copps' tactics on
town plan June 22
- Alberta High-school students feel little sexual harassment - study June 22
A new study done in two Alberta high schools
reveals that less than one in five students feels they've ever been
sexually harassed at school.
While that number is low in relation to comparable, earlier
research - one Ontario survey said 70 per cent of Grade 9-13
students experienced sexual harassment - the study is not
necessarily good news, according to its author
- Tax Burden Eased June 22
In July Cut Amounts To $100 For A Family Of Four Earning $55,000
WEEKEND NEWS
- Calgary Hospital Support Staff Could Strike Monday, June 22 June 21
- Edmonton Catholic teachers want a strike vote June 21
Substitute teachers should get a better deal, they say
- Alta. private health group wants to do more operations June 21
- Calgary: Public school board enrolment sinking June 20
- Another link in the chain June 20
NEW CHAPTER / Can a trendy street survive the book superstore?
See Featuresfor article on Chapters expansion across Canada
- Lethbridge: Teachers say `no' to merit pay idea June 19
- Lethbridge: Board gives green light to
controversial feedlot June 19
- Grand Prairie: Teachers vote to strike June 19
Public school teachers give union 82 per cent mandate to act
- Ruling alters concept of marriage, prof
says June 19
The Alberta Court of Appeal may have just done away with the concept of marriage, according to a University of
Alberta law professor.
The decision said the Domestic Relations Act was unconstitutional in
that it ignored common-law spouses.
Legislators have been given one year to amend the law, or write
a new one, to give people living common law the same rights as
married couples.
- Deregulation could make EPCOR a
risky business June 19
- Owners may sue gov't over pine shakes June 19
The Alberta government could be hit with a $10
million class action suit for its endorsement of untreated pine
shakes as a roofing material over the past decade.
- Appointee says minister didn't pull any
strings June 19
An appointee to Edmonton's new children's
services board admits he has political connections, but says that's
not what got him the job.
- Daishowa boycott did its job June 18
- Grand Prairie: Specialists considering job action June 17
Specialists at the QE II Hospital are gearing up to join rural colleagues taking job action to secure
on-call pay.
- Grand Prairie: Catholic teachers won't strike before fall:
Union June 17
- Grand Prairie: Public school teachers expected to vote for
strong strike mandate June 17
- Edmonton: Tax load shifts to homeowners June 18
- Syncrude to spend $900-million on new oilsands mine June 18
- Newell named to university post June 18
Eric Newell, chairman and CEO of
Syncrude, has been appointed
chairman of the University of Alberta's
board of governors effective June 29.
- GAP consultant challenges report June 17
Scientist disputes findings of Northern River Basin Study
- Plans for Cheviot coal mine still on track June 17
- Hinton doctors could call protest once
again June 17
- Cold Lake: Provincial government to study arsenic levelsJune 16
Papson believes oilpatch activities are responsible for the arsenic levels in
his drinking water. He says he doesn't think he can trust a government
dependent on oil revenues to come out with a study that may blemish the
companies' environmental records. "I'm very skeptical," he said.
- Attracting doctors could be costly for
municipalities June 16
Offering incentives will have the wealthy out bidding the poor
- Lacombe: New conditions placed on Union Carbide June 16
- Peace River: Friends of Lubicon call off boycott against
DMI June 16
- Firms not keen on housing plea June 17
Some of Alberta's biggest corporations are balking at the prospect of housing the poor and elderly. (Well,duh!)
- Projects give heavy oil sector $1.4B lift June 17
- Heavy oil plant gets upgrade June 17
- Stockwell Day says Alberta to opt out of CPP June 16
- Inadequate welfare shelter rates may be increased June 16
- Build us homes for poor, Evans begs big business June 16
- Child welfare board tainted by politics, official says June 16
- Lethbridge: Farmers block highways to protest
grain pricesJune 16
A peaceful farmer information blockade of Interstate 15 unfolded
here Monday afternoon following about two hours of producer and government speeches.
- Welfare rates too low, gov't report findsJune 15
- Layoffs expected as Canfor restructures June 13
- Chinese roughnecks learn ways of Alberta oilpatch June 13
- Is Alberta's economic sky falling? June 12
Not yet. Although the Canadian dollar has
hit an all-time low and the price of oil can't
seem to pull out of its funk, Alberta's
economy will keep growing thanks to gas
prices and good planning, officials say.
- Reform's proposal called `white
supremacy' June 11
The Reform Party's proposal to restrict aboriginal land claims is parallel to the Klein
government's plan to use the notwithstanding clause to limit compensation to victims of forced
sterilization, claims a native American studies professor at the University of Lethbridge.
- Oil market shakes budget forecasts June 11
- Green group condemns proposed
Jasper Park hotel expansion June 11
- It't mating season in the oil patchJune 11
Last year, oil firms in Western Canada
had a record $16.3-billion in mergers and acquisitions.
This year, the market has produced a sense
of desperation that could push totals even higher.
- Fort McMurray: Hiring dispute settled June 10
A catering company working at Suncor Energy has promised not to hire more non-unionized workers.
- Alberta takes a bumpy ride on the oil price roller coaster June 10
- Higher gas prices loom, report warns June 10
Oil firm alliances could lead to gouging
- Nova/TCPL deal redefines NEB's role June 10
- Headlines from the 1998 National Petroleum Show in Calgary
- Banff Baffled by Copps Clampdown on Development June 10
- Hinton: Chance of Cheviot coal mine stall slim -
experts June 10
- Young firefighters causing concern in
Beaverlodge June 9
A new form of child labour in Alberta? Teenage Firefighters!
- Peace River: Womens Shelters Under Funded Critic Charges June 9
- Klein looks at privatizing Treasury Branches June 9
- Define moratorium -- Lubicons June 9
- Sierra Club to Challenge Cheviot Development June 9
- Copps slams Banff development proposal June 9
- Edson: Apprentices being offered more June 8
- Labour Relations Board member appointed chair of Lakeland
College June 8Bill Kondro Backgrounder
- Grand Prairie: Layoffs imminent at WeyCan June 8
- Fort McMurray: Unionized Hotel workers hold wildcat picket June 8
- Corporate ads on scenic Alta. highways anger conservationists June 6
- TransAlta plugs in to Ontario market June 6
Plans to build $400M cogeneration plant in Sarnia
- Fort McMurray: Unions urge workers to return to their jobs June 5
At least 250 pipefitters were ordered back to
work at Suncor Energy today after a work
stoppage involving an estimated 400 to 500
unionized contract workers. The labor board issued the
order after the building trades workers walked
out Wednesday.
- Grand Prairie:Protest disrupts hearing on Oil field efects on environment June 5
- Lethbridge: Schools having tough time collecting user fees June 5
- Jobless rate jumps in Peace Country June 5
- New construction in Calgary passes $1-billion mark June 5
- Strathcona County approves controversial million dollar loan to U of A June 3
- Hinton: Local Food Bank experincing increased use June 3
- Whitecourt:Town wants airport manned with 'real
people June 3
- Alberta's bank in the black for '98 June 3
- Grand Prairie City reaches working agreement with CUPE Local 787 June 3
- Government to review number of MLAs June 2
- Business West: Oil firms quietly conserving land June 2
- Edson:CN's exemption supposed to improve safety June 1
UTU Canadian Legislative Director Tim Secord found it 'ironic' that the railway would apply for an
exemption on April 28, the Official Day of Mourning for Workers Killed or Injured on the Job.
Secord noted in his letter that 19 deaths had occurred in the railway industry in 1997.
He cited the fact CN in not having a proper derail in place in the Edson rail yard on Aug. 12, 1996
contributed to the fatal crash later that evening which killed two CN crew members and a
passenger.
- Southam Sells Medicine Hat News June 1
- Liberal MLA faces fraud trial June 1
MAY 1998
- Koch Canada announces oilsands mine May 31
- Unions Slam Klein's EI plea May 30
- Edmonton obstetricians delay action until they hear health minister May 30
- AUPE LOCAL 006 REJECTS GOVERNMENT OFFER May 29
Provincial Social Workers, Psychologists and Child Care Counselors Still Hopeful They Can Reach A Negotiated Agreement
- Calgary Family doctors join pay dispute May 29
- Alberta:Boilermakers walk off the job in dispute at SuncorTar Sands Plant May 29
- Spruce Grove Library doubling fees for Parkland county users May 29
- Sherrit Inc. Plans Further Cuban Investments May 29
- Talisman Resources workers return to Indonesia May 29
- Former PM Joe Clark Joins CubaCan Exploration May 29
- Grand Prairie Doctors say; Job action a necessary evil May 28
Beaverlodge doctor says withdrawal of services an option that must be exercised
- McMurray's ob-gyns staying on the job May 28
- Northern Alberta Public teachers set strike date May 28
- Minister to meet with obstetricians May 28
- Calgary Hospital Workers Draft Battle
Plan May 27
- Aspen Health Unit Contract Sets New Standard for
Health Care Bargaining in Alberta May 27
- ATA 'not impressed' with latest offer from Grand Prairie public school board May 27
- Obstetricians deliver new job threats May 27
- Provincial judges well-paid, salary panel told May 27
- Fort Saskatchewan: Support services provided for Westaim layoff victims by Chemical Energy and Paperworkers Union May 26
- Rural Alberta Doctors Begin Job Action May 26
- Calgary Hospital medical and support staff reject offer May 26
- Doctors ratify AMA deal with province, but not resoundingly May 26
- Doctors grudgingly accept new deal May 26
- Northern Alberta Public teachers take strike vote May 25
- Doctors in the Crossroads region have no confidence in their medical director May 25
- Peace River Farmers Donate Wheat to North Korea May 25
- Failing grade for teacher dismissal idea May 25
- Construction Industry calls for deregulation of apprenticeship May 25
- Boom A Bust For Alberta Workers says AFL May 24
- Education Minister Closes Charter School May 23
- Alta. environmental course on endangered list May 23
By most accounts, a course on environmental advocacy - the first ever offered in Canada - was a big hit with students at the University of Alberta last year. But
concerns it has offended the sensitivities of the forestry industry and the millions of dollars it donates to the university could see it
dropped from the curriculum next year.
- Calgary Boom Creates Housing Crisis May 23 & 24
Part 1:$1 Million Housing Fund Created
Part 2:Corporate sector urged to fight housing crunch
- Roads, transit need money, Klein agrees May 22
- Leduc provides counselling for oil workers and their families May 22
- Fort McMurray Teachers vote 95 per cent in favor of strike May 21
- APEC Finance Ministers Meet in Kananaskis Resort May 21
Summit to focus on Asian meltdown
- Dispute with government could close four edmonton group homes May 21
- Promise may end Daishowa boycott May 21
- Nancy Southern appointed to run ATCO May 21
- Edmonton CABS CAUSE CHAOS May 20
DRIVERS DESCEND ON CITY HALL AS COUNCIL DEBATES LICENSING CHANGES
- Government Lets AL-Pac off the hook for loan May 20
- $155M Al-Pac bath avoidable, Liberals say May 20
- Edmonton Area Hospitals Go On 'Red Alert' Over Long Weekend May 20
- Oil Patch hangs tough as prices hit their lowest since the 1980's May 20
- Rare Rockies wilderness at risk May 20
Environmental panel says Alberta's Whaleback should be drilled, mined, logged
- Canfor's Alberta operations waiting to hear cost-cutting plans May 20
Canfor Corp.'s Alberta mills are bracing for job cuts despite turning a profit in times when many
forestry companies are wallowing in the red. See also stories on Canfor in BC News
- Peace River Doctors vow more action to force deal May 19
- Edson's Nojack campground open to the public May 19
The campground was closed last year when the provincial government could not find anyone to
operate it.Although the Municipal District of Edson Parks office will be responsible for overseeing the campground, making security
patrols and collecting the $10 per night fee, prisoners from Medicine Lodge's minimum security
facility will be responsible for cleaning up the park. See also related story below on parks privatization in Alberta
- Soldiers of misfortune May 17
He is a corporal by day, security guard by night
- Privatization of Alberta parks; Fee hikes make for unhappy campers May 17
- Sexual Harrassment Allegations in Edmonton's Emergency Response Department May 16
- A series of internal probes into alleged financial mismanagement by Alberta Treasury Branches May 16
has resulted in
employee dismissals, criminal charges and six convictions.
- Asian investors eyed in immigrant-entry scheme May 16
- Obstetricians to talk about fees with AMA May 16
- Baby Doctors Work to Rule Starts today May 15
- Rural Doctors in Northern Alberta Ready for Job Action May 15
- Despite Governement Cuts and Staff Shortages Nurses find something to celebrate May 15
- Edmonton Increases Grass Cutting budget after contracting out fails May 15
- City responds to grass gripes with more mowing May 15
- Public School Board Association to take government challenege to Supreme Court May 15
- Lake Louise hotel development approved, with conditions May 15
- Grand Prairie Teachers and Board closer to Deal May 14
- CFRN Cuts Jobs Union 'numb' May 14
- Alberta leads provinces with hot growth May 14
- Income drop in Edmonton double that for Alberta May 13
- Grand Prairie Teachers Show of solidarity? May 13
Public school teachers show up en masse at board meeting during pre-strike cooling off period
- Calgary Public School To Sell Computer Services May 12
Raising cash and raising eyebrows, A school board's plan to sell an Internet service,with ads, to other schools causes concern
- PanCanadian pledges no plans for layoffs May 12
- Calgary Public Teachers want 10.4% raise May 11
- Peace River School closure sign of times? May 11
- High praise for public education system tempered with fears of fragmentation May 9
ATA President Speaks Out
- Out of control Forest Fires Blamed on Government Cuts May 9
- Booming Calgary Soaks Up workers May 9
- New Democrats want 'cooling off' period for ex-public officials May 8
- Southern Alberta School District Teachers get raise May 8
- Former WCB CEO Lands Job With Company that Gets WCB Millions May 7
New Democrats Say This Shows Need for COI Rules to Apply to Senior Public Officials
- Private Practise Feature May 7
Corporate medicine is sneaking through the cracks in our public health system
- ND's Criticize Deputy Ministers' Huge Pay Hike May 7
- Alberta announces raises for senior government officials May 6
- RCMP Monitoring Cheviot Mine For Terroism/Civil Disobediance May 7
- Canadian Airlines Challenges Federal Open Skies Policy May 6
- Midwives Rally To Protest Lack of Government Funding May 6
- Doctors Plan Job Action For May 15 May 6
- Grand Praire Docters Accept Deal May 6
- Government discusses Merit Pay for teachers ATA News May 5
- Catholic Womens League wants higher minimum
wage May 4
Western Catholic Reporter
- May Day Celebrates Labours Highs and Lows May 1
- Principles on Parade as Left Marks May Day May 3
- ND's Unions Love Pocklington Court Settlement May 3
APRIL 1998
- Calgary is Boomtown April 29
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