The Town of Slave Lake passed a new bylaw to update its Leisure Economic Assistance Program, ensuring local recreation facilities remain accessible to low-income individuals and families. During the July 14 committee meeting, council unanimously gave all three readings to Bylaw #10-2026. This legislative update officially repeals and replaces the town’s outdated 2015 policy, establishing […]

Water Not Coal is asking people contacted by Elections Alberta during petition signature verification to share their experiences, as the campaign weighs a legal challenge with a filing deadline of Aug. 2. “We’re still gathering our information. We’ve put out a public call,” campaign proponent Corb Lund says. “We want to understand their experience and […]

A citizen initiative petition proposing a referendum on Alberta becoming an independent country has been declared successful after Elections Alberta verified enough signatures to satisfy the requirements of the Citizen Initiative Act. The agency announced Friday that statistical verification estimated 222,597 valid signatures from an initial submission of 286,593 signatures, surpassing the required minimum of […]

Norman Wapachee was born around a decade after his sister Hattie, but he never got to meet her. Instead, he grew up hearing their mom tell stories about her brief time on Earth.  In 1955, Wapachee’s parents took their seven-month old daughter to a hospital in Roberval, QC to treat her pneumonia. Soon after, the […]

CBC/Radio-Canada won’t disclose how much participating in the Eurovision song contest could cost. A government document, obtained through access to information law, says information about other countries is limited but total costs ranged from about $400,000 for Portugal to $1.5 million for Israel in 2025. The Canadian Heritage document also says that because the Broadcasting […]

COCHRANE — After two consecutive years of record-breaking demand, the Cochrane Food Bank is cautiously optimistic that 2026 could mark the first signs of stabilization. From January through June, the food bank served 1,961 individuals across 1,029 households, according to manager Ardis Proulx-Chedore. While there are still six months left in the year, she said […]

A second Peel municipality has awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to the same Ontario-based on-demand transit provider with a limited operating history, just days before The Pointer entered an adjudication process with Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner to obtain the City of Brampton’s agreement with the company. On June 25, Argo Transit announced a 15-month micro-transit […]

Razan Abu-Ghoush filed her Canadian citizenship application on July 2, 2024. Two years later, she’s still waiting. That shouldn’t be happening. IRCC’s own published processing-time data shows citizenship grants — the standard path for permanent residents applying to naturalize — have been improving this year, even as the separate citizenship-by-descent queue has ballooned. Application decisions […]

The City of New Westminster has established an AI working group to tackle the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence. City council recently received a report outlining the work staff have done to date on the development of appropriate AI usage guidelines and upcoming work.  The July 13 report said publicly available Generative AI (GenAI) […]

Naheed Nenshi, leader of the Opposition of Alberta, is asking the premier to come clean about the total cost of holding the referendum will be. Though Access to Information requests by Alberta NDP found an additional $2 million in costs towards the referendum to the already staggering $132-180 million. Some of these costs include a […]

For residents who have spent years demanding action on the abandoned former General Motors property in St. Catharines, the latest chapter will sound all too familiar. Just weeks after the City’s Property Standards Appeal Committee upheld sweeping compliance orders requiring the owners to repair or demolish dozens of deteriorating structures, the controversial numbered company that […]

Alberta’s Opposition says the cost of just getting the word out on the province’s looming separation referendum is setting taxpayers back at least $365,000 dollars. The new numbers come from a freedom of information request, NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said Thursday. He said contracts show about $365,000 in fees for a televised address and promotional […]