Alberta got out of the starting gates in the global critical minerals race Thursday with the opening of the province's first lithium extraction pilot project.With this opening, the state has joined the global lithium race. with this project new job opportunities are expected to be created. Lithium, a light metal, is in demand around the globe right now because it is a key component in electric vehicle batteries. Currently, the world's biggest lithium producers are Australia, Chile and China. However, it has long been known that Alberta is home to one of the world's largest lithium deposits, l

The Valley Line Southeast LRT will open this fall, according to the company building the project, but an opening date has yet to be announced. "We expect passenger service to be this fall," TransEd spokesman said at a news conference on Thursday morning. According to the spokesperson, 13 kilometres long cables have been replaced and Line-wide train testing has resume. The $1.8-billion project, a 13-kilometre track with 11 stops from Mill Woods to Downtown, began construction in the spring of 2016 and was first set to open in December 2020. The most recent opening date was last summer, but th

A recent change to Alberta's Traffic Safety Act are coming into effect today.Starting on Friday (September 1), vehicles driving in the closest lane to roadside workers will now have to reduce their speed to either 60 km/h or the posted speed limit. Drivers could also move into the far lane from the workers if safe to do so. Previously, only first responders and tow truck drivers were protected under the Traffic Safety Act. It will now apply to all roadside workers, including police, fire, EMS, tow truck operators, highway maintenance workers and snowplow operators. Failure to comply with the

Edmonton Police issued a warning to Lexus owners after six RX350 SUVs were stolen in Edmonton between Tuesday and Wednesday. According to the Edmonton Police Service, nearly 50 Lexus RX350s have been stolen in Alberta in 2023, with 19 of them being in Edmonton. Most of the SUVs are 2019 to 2022 models, but a few 2016 and 2017 models have also been targeted. The thieves are disabling the GPS tracking systems, police say. "We want to make owners of these vehicles aware of these thefts, so that they can protect themselves from becoming victims," Acting Sgt.Don Lawrence of the Targeted Response to

The EPS Financial Crimes Section has charged a man and a woman in a $7.8 million alleged Ponzi scheme targeting investors in Alberta and British Columbia. In early 2020, police became aware of a Ponzi scheme reportedly being run by a man and a woman operating primarily out of Kelowna, BC and Edmonton, AB, although some victims were located as far away as Nevada, USA and Australia. The two suspects were allegedly offering securities in the form of promissory notes to guarantee investors a set return on their investment. The scheme was run under the company name Group Venture Inc., and is believ

The Alberta government has levied more than $11,000 in fines for wildfire-prevention violations this year. Nineteen violation tickets, with fines totalling $11,520, were given out between April 1 and July 31, according to statistics provided by Alberta's forestry and parks ministry. Most of the tickets were for failing to extinguish an open outdoor fire during a fire ban, which comes with a $600 fine. More fines have been levied this year than last year, but in the past five years, 2020 saw the highest number handed out.That year, 60 tickets were issued, most of which were related to fire ban

The body of a hiker missing since August 27 has been found in Banff National Park.Officials say the death is not suspicious.Banff RCMP were notified of a missing person on August 27 at 3:50 p.m.Officers found his vehicle at the Banff airstrip, after which assistance was sought from Parks Canada.At 11 a.m. Monday, aerial search crews found the 64-year-old Calgary resident dead on Cascade Mountain, officials said in a release.Police have not released the hiker's name or any other details about him.

Post-secondary schools in Edmonton are seeing record-high enrolment rates for international students. The University of Alberta will welcome 44,036 students total this upcoming school year across their undergraduate and master's programs. accounting for 20 per cent of this year's total enrolments. For comparison, in fall 2021, there were 8,216 international students at the U of A. MacEwan University made 756 admissions offers to international students for undergraduate programs. Of the 361 students confirmed to arrive, the majority are coming from India, Nigeria, and the Philippines. Internat

Sheila Annette Lewis, the Alberta woman who was denied an organ transplant because she refused to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, has died. In recent months, Lewis had been crowdsourcing funding to travel to the United States to get an organ transplant, but she died before that happened. She was 58. In 2018, Lewis was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic lung disease, and was placed on the Alberta transplant wait list. In 2021, Lewis was told she would also need the COVID-19 vaccine to receive the transplant. Given the high risks of death following a transplant, and the immunos