Alberta's legislature resumes today, beginning with the speech from the throne.Government house leader Joseph Schow has said there will be between seven and nine bills in the sitting, which is to run until early December.Premier Danielle Smith's United Conservative government is to spell out in legislation that a referendum must be held before Alberta could leave the Canada Pension Plan and set up a provincial one.The government has also promised legislation on Albertans having a direct say on any future tax hikes.The throne speech is to give a broad outline of the government's goals and prior

The Town of Cochrane made the declaration earlier this week after an accident on Saturday affected its water and wastewater pipelines, causing sewage to flow into the Bow River.There haven't been any issues with water quality in the town or in downstream communities such as Calgary, and the sewage leak was contained earlier this week.Damage to the water pipeline, however, led to significant water loss in Cochrane.The town had asked its 32,000 residents, as well as its businesses, to follow mandatory water restrictions to make sure there was enough available for fire suppression and other emerg

The Alberta government has dismissed the entire board of the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and replaced it with a temporary administrator.The centre in the mountain town of Banff, west of Calgary, develops and promotes creative work in the arts, sciences, business and the environment.The government says in a statement late Thursday that it's supporting the centre as it focuses on its mandate while 'strengthening its future competitiveness and sustainability.'It says the temporary administrator, Paul Baay, will review the internal processes and policies at the Banff Centre over the next

Edmonton continues to experience light snow overnight and into this morning.The first snowfall of the season across much of central and southern Alberta Monday morning left some roads and highways in poor condition.Early morning traffic in Edmonton was slow and slippery.Special Weather Snow Warnings were issued by Environment Canada yesterday for central and southern Alberta.A total of two to five centimeters of snow is expected by Monday evening.Innisfail RCMP reported very poor conditions on the QEII highway and drivers were asked to avoid the area entirely.

According to the RCMP, a school bus overturned on Highway 2A in North of Calgary, with several students on board, including six children with injuries.Six people, including five children and one adult, were admitted to the hospital.Three children are in medical care in Didsbury while two other children and an adult were taken to a hospital in Calgary.Didsbury RCMP say the crash happened just after 10:20 a.m., when the school bus was traveling on Township Road 320 on Highway 2A.Investigators have closed the section of Highway 2A between Township Roads 320 and 314.Drivers have been asked to take

Finance Minister Nate Horner says if Alberta abandons the Canada Pension Plan to run its own stand-alone fund, it will not adopt Quebec's model, which mandates optimizing returns while also investing in the province.Horner's comments come three weeks after Premier Danielle Smith said her government wants to hear from Albertans first before it makes decisions such as whether to follow the Quebec model.Horner says legislation will be introduced this fall to effectively cancel out using the Quebec model and spell out that any pension assets would only be used for a pension plan.He says when it co

The fuse is lit for fireworks in Ottawa next week with a Liberal member of Parliament accusing Alberta's premier of making false claims.Calgary MP George Chahal says Danielle Smith is making "false," "baseless" and "ludicrous" statements about the federal Liberal government's plans to bring Canada's electricity grid to net-zero.He says Smith is playing on people's fears for purely partisan reasons and calls on her to release her United Conservative Party government's report on electricity.Chahal says that since the UCP took power in Alberta, electricity rates have increased fivefold.Smith has

A bear expert who's a family friend of one of two people killed by a grizzly bear in Banff National Park says the couple was experienced in the outdoors and could have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.Kim Titchener, who has a company called Bear Safety and More, says both the couple and their dog died in the backcountry on the weekend.Parks Canada has said in a statement that its dispatchers received an alert around 8 p.m. Friday from an inReach GPS device about a bear attack west of Ya Ha Tinda Ranch, which is about 200 kilometres northwest of Calgary.The federal agency immediately s

A young man convicted in the hit-and-run death of a Calgary police officer has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.Sgt. Andrew Harnett died after he was dragged by an SUV and fell into the path of an oncoming car on Dec. 31, 2020.The driver of the SUV was days away from turning 18 and was charged as a youth with first-degree murder.A judge convicted him of manslaughter and ordered that he receive an adult sentence.The driver testified during his trial that he was scared when police approached the SUV during a traffic stop, and he saw Harnett put a hand on his gun.Court heard the SUV took off