About 200 soldiers from the Canadian Armed Forces have been deployed to help fight fires in Alberta, and 100 more will arrive in the province this weekend.The Minister of Public Safety of the state, Mike Ellis, gave this information.He said that members of the military are joining firefighters in the fight to control the wildfires in Grand Prairie, Fox Creek and Drayton Valley.Ellis said that the state government has paid about two million dollars in emergency payments to more than 6,500 victims of wildfires.At present, around 16,000 people are out of their homes.Initially, this number reached

The Alberta government says fire danger continues to be extreme in most of the province except the Rockies, where lower danger levels were expected.Some areas have experienced cooler temperatures and some rain, but the government says a return to hot and windy conditions is expected in the coming days.Indigenous Services Canada said Tuesday that nine First Nations were under threat by active wildfires.One of them was Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, about 360 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, where 1,600 people were forced to leave after fire destroyed 45 structures and power infrastructure.As of ea

An Alberta-based R.C.M.P officer who died in a crash while heading to help another officer will be honoured with a regimental funeral later this week.The Mounties have said Constable Harvinder Dhami's vehicle hit a large concrete barrier on a road on April 10th while he was driving to help other officers with a noise complaint.His funeral will be held Thursday morning at Millennium Place in Sherwood Park and will be preceded by a procession from Bethel Lutheran Church.Millennium Place will be closed to all but invited family members, friends and first responders, but R.C.M.P say the public are

Hundreds of police cars have lined streets in Edmonton as the bodies of two slain city officers are transported from the medical examiner's office to a funeral home.Blue ribbons are wrapped around street lights along the five-kilometre procession route.Civilians are also standing along the streets to show their support, some wearing blue ribbons and scarves.The bodies of Const. Brett Ryan and Const.Travis Jordan are to be kept at the Serenity Funeral Home until a public regimental funeral is held Monday at Rogers Place arena.Police have said the officers were responding to a family dispute at

The Alberta government says $1 million in funding is to be used to train rural health-care providers to better support victims of sexual assault.The money, announced in October, helped Grande Prairie's Northwestern Polytechnic develop an online course for specialized training. The course, called Rural Sexual Assault Care-Expanded, teaches how to provide comprehensive, trauma-informed care to survivors of recent sex assaults.It focuses on assessment, forensic evidence collection and court testimony.The government says too often sex assault survivors in rural Alberta must drive long distances to

Edmonton police say two officers were shot and killed while responding to a family dispute at an apartment complex and that it's believed the suspect killed himself.Police Chief Dale McFee says Constable Travis Jordan (35) and Constable Brett Ryan (30) were shot by a man as the entered the building in the city's northwest and were approaching the suite.He says other officers rushed the two wounded officers to hospital, where they were pronounced dead.McFee says it's believed the suspect died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

A Calgary criminologist says Alberta's plan to make all police services in the province use body cameras could come with prohibitive costs and take a long time to put in place.Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis announced the plan Tuesday and said it would provide both officers and the public with protection, as well as transparency when police are required to make split-second decisions.Alberta will be working with the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police on funding, logistics and when the cameras will roll out.However, Doug King, a justice studies professor at Mount Royal University, says a

The Alberta and federal governments say they will work together to understand what happened around public notifications of toxic seepage at an oilsands tailings pond.Alberta environment minister Sonya Savage and her federal counterpart Steven Guilbeault discussed on Tuesday night the seepage and leak from the Kearl oilsands mine.The seepage was discovered in May, but neither politician was told about it until nine months later.Area First Nations were also not updated after initial notification of discoloured water being found on the site, about 70 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, Alta.Savage

Alberta plans to require all police services in the province to use body cameras.Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis says officers often respond to calls that are complex and make split-second decisions.He says that can raise concerns from the public about actions that have been taken and whether appropriate force was used.Ellis says the decision is transformational and would ensure all interactions with officers are objective in both large cities and smaller rural communities.He says Alberta would be the first province to mandate body cameras.The government will work with the Alberta Associatio