Premier Danielle Smith will turn to a panel of five oilpatch veterans to advise her government on the future of Alberta's energy industry.The panel will be chaired by David Yager, a longtime writer on the oilpatch.Yager was also a former political candidate for the Wildrose Party, one of the groups that came together to form the United Conservative Party that Smith now leads.The other members of the panel include Hal Kvisle, who sits on the board of Cenovus Energy and has run several other energy companies.Bob Curran is a former director of the Alberta Energy Regulator.Carey Arnett is presiden

A retired North Vancouver elementary school teacher is facing a dozen charges connected to alleged sex offenses.Brian Moore has been charged with 10 counts of indecent assault on a male, one count of sexual touching of a person under 14 years old, and one count of sexual assault.North Vancouver RCMP say Moore, now 83, taught at Upper Lynn Elementary School starting in 1970 before the end of his employment in 1982.Police say it's alleged that Moore committed at least one of these acts after his tenure as a teacher, in 2007.When Moore was originally arrested in August of last year, police said a

The deputy commander of Norad says a suspected Chinese spy balloon passed through "radar gaps" during its flight over Canada.Lt.-Gen. Alain Pelletier says that it affected the military's ability to track its flight path as it flew over central British Columbia.Pelletier and Maj.-Gen. Paul Prevost of the Canadian Armed Forces strategic joint staff are appearing before a parliamentary committee this morning.The two say the Chinese balloon passed near several Canadian military bases during its journey through Canada on January 30-31.But they say the balloon did not pass over anything of particula

The man charged with killing two young children when the bus he was driving slammed into a daycare in Laval has been ordered by a judge to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.Pierre Ny St-Amand's lawyer requested the evaluation today, saying he has reason to question whether his client is mentally fit to stand trial.St-Amand appeared to be struggling to walk and had to be supported by two corrections officers as he made his way to the courtroom in Laval, a suburb north of Montreal.The 51-year-old driver with the Laval transit corporation was arrested last week after a bus crashed into the front o

President Joe Biden says the three unknown flying objects he ordered shot down over the U.S. and Canada earlier this month were likely no danger to national security.Biden says the objects were downed expressly because they did pose a potential risk to commercial air traffic.Biden, who spoke out after members of Congress had urged him to do so, says the U.S. and Canada worked closely together to monitor the objects before acting out of an abundance of caution.He says there's nothing to suggest they were surveillance devices, and were more likely linked to private research or recreational activ

Alberta’s health minister says there will be $158 million in the upcoming budget to attract more physicians and other health-care professionals to fill gaps in care.Jason Copping says the workforce is stretched and that demands will only increase as the population ages.The budget is to be delivered on February 28, and Copping says that half of the $158 million will be used for programs to recruit physicians to rural areas, which are feeling the brunt of the doctor shortage.There will also be funds to help underserviced and remote communities, and money to bring in internationally trained nur

British Columbia's Appeal Court has overturned a lower-court ruling and ordered the Hells Angels motorcycle club to surrender three properties under the province's Civil Forfeiture Act.The unanimous decision by a three-member panel issued Wednesday, says a B.C. Supreme Court justice was wrong to find "no evidence" that the Hells Angels' clubhouses in Nanaimo, Kelowna and Vancouver were used for the planning or commission of criminal activity.She finds the trial judge did not account for evidence showing Hells Angels members had "committed serious crimes" in the past or that the clubhouses "pro

New legislation introduced in the House of Commons today would make it easier and faster for people who may have been wrongfully convicted to have their cases reviewed.The bill is dubbed "David and Joyce Milgaard’s Law," named for the man who was released in 1980 after being wrongfully imprisoned for 23 years, and his mother who fought relentlessly to free him.The government says it is rare for miscarriages of justice to occur but a formal process to review such cases is needed.The bill would establish an independent commission to review, investigate and decide which criminal cases should be

Some politicians and researchers say four flying objects that were discovered, tracked and shot down over U.S. and Canadian airspace in recent weeks highlight the need to improve security in Canada's Arctic."It should be a wake-up call for Canadians in general of the woefully inadequate capacity we have in the North in terms of our military capacity," said Opposition Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon."The fact that we rely on the American military to a huge degree is simply a fact of life in the North and that's something I don't think a lot of other Canadians would find acceptable."A high-altit