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Alberta adds $2.8-billion to Heritage Fund, expands board of new oversight corporation

The latest addition to the fund is made up of $2.6-billion drawn from the province’s surplus, with an additional $200-million from the government.

Alberta’s government has contributed $2.8-billion to a provincial wealth fund that now stands at $30-billion and fleshed out the board of directors for a new corporation that was set up to make the fund grow faster.

Premier Danielle Smith’s government created the new Crown corporation, called the Heritage Fund Opportunities Corp., or HFOC, late last year. It will oversee a plan announced in January that aims to boost the assets held by the province’s Heritage Savings Trust Fund to at least $250-billion by 2050.

Yukon prepares for vote on possible switch to ranked-ballot elections

A ranked-vote system “encourages an outcome that can be seen as more legitimate in the eyes of voters,” a Yukon citizens’ assembly report on electoral reform said last year.

The last time Yukon residents voted in a territorial plebiscite it was about allowing the sale of alcohol, this time the vote will be on the equally dizzying question of electoral reform.

More than a century since that 1920 plebiscite, the vote that is expected to be part of this year’s territorial election could see the Yukon become the first jurisdiction in Canada to move to a ranked ballot from the current-first-past-the-post system.

B.C. drug body members resign as health minister apologizes to family of 10-year-old girl with rare disease

Osborne speaks at the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, in North Vancouver, B.C., June, 2023. She issued the apology at a news conference Friday after her government announced it would restore the drug funding for the only person in B.C. with Batten Disease. 

Four members of British Columbia’s Expensive Drugs for Rare Diseases Committee have resigned after the government went against its recommendation and reinstated medication funding for a 10-year-old girl with a rare disease.

The fallout from the handling of Charleigh Pollock’s case also saw Health Minister Josie Osborne “sincerely apologizing” to the Vancouver Island girl’s family on Friday.

Alex Delvecchio quietly built a Hall of Fame career with the Detroit Red Wings

Alex Delvecchio, playing for the Detroit Red Wings, is firing the puck past Toronto goalie Harry Lumley for the Wings' third and winning goal in the final period of the playoff game.

By the age of 23, Alex Delvecchio had placed his name on the Stanley Cup three times. He kept skating with the Detroit Red Wings until he was 41, but he never won another championship.

For nearly a quarter-century, he quietly put together one of the greatest careers in National Hockey League history, though few outside Detroit paid much notice. The forward never won a scoring title, never was named a first-team all-star, never won a most-valuable-player award. Overshadowed by teammate Gordie Howe, it was barely noted upon Mr. Delvecchio’s retirement as a player that he was the league’s second-highest scorer of all time, trailing only his famous linemate.

Alberta serial romance scammer fights court ruling keeping him in prison indefinitely

Court of Appeal at the Edmonton Law Courts building, in Edmonton on Friday, June 28, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

A fraudster Romeo who bilked five Alberta women of thousands of dollars by faking a lavish lifestyle, brain cancer, seizures and fathering a child with at least one of them, is appealing his dangerous offender designation.

Jeffrey Kent’s lawyer says he has filed a notice of appeal challenging the ruling and his client’s indeterminate sentencing by an Edmonton judge last month.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith dismisses report finding province complicated Jasper wildfire response

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith tours Jasper on Friday, July 26, 2024. Smith on Friday defended the province's wildfire response after a report found that the government impeded the work of crews.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is demanding an apology for a report commissioned by the Town of Jasper into last year’s devastating wildfires in the National Park after firefighters said their work was impeded by the province.

Blaming the federal government Friday, Ms. Smith dismissed findings from the report. The publication surveyed firefighters and other emergency officials involved in the effort against the wind-whipped conflagrations that destroyed at least one-third of the buildings in the Rocky Mountain resort town.

Chevron’s $53-billion Hess deal greenlit after Exxon’s legal challenge fails

With Chevron getting the go-ahead to acquire Hess on Friday, the company is now one of the major players in the Stabroek Block, an oil field off the cost of Guyana. 

Chevron CVX-N has scored a critical ruling in Paris that has given it the go-ahead for a $53 billion acquisition of Hess HES-N and access to one of the biggest oil finds of the decade.

Chevron said Friday that it completed its acquisition of Hess shortly after the ruling from the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris. Exxon XOM-N had challenged Chevron’s bid for Hess, one of three companies with access to the massive Stabroek Block oil field off the coast of Guyana.

Human-rights tribunal rules in favour of disabled woman denied ultrasound at Calgary clinic

Stephanie Chipeur, a law professor at the University of Calgary, filed a human rights complaint against a diagnostics clinic in Calgary after being denied service.

An Alberta woman who filed a human-rights complaint after being turned away at a clinic for an ultrasound says she hopes her recent win paves the way for better accommodations for disabled patients.

Stephanie Chipeur complained to the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal after the Calgary diagnostics clinic refused to schedule her for an appointment in 2021 unless she had a caretaker also attend to lift her from her wheelchair onto an exam table.

Morning Update: How to move a river

Good morning. A new park that will be unveiled tomorrow in Toronto is an ambitious example of moving rivers to bring civic imagination to public spaces. More on that below, plus catching up on First Nation leaders meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney on Bill C-5 and Ukraine’s cabinet shuffle. But first:

Today’s headlines

© Sammy Kogan

Part of Biidaasige Park nears completion on July 16.

Why First Nations are clashing with Ontario and Ottawa over bills aimed at speeding up megaprojects

Keisha Paulmartin of Okiniwak Youth Led Movement speaks on Thursday at a protest at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., where Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Indigenous chiefs the same day.

First Nations leaders have opposed both the federal government’s Bill C-5 and Ontario’s Bill 5, pieces of legislation that would allow the two governments extraordinary powers to ignore existing laws – including environmental regulations – to fast-track megaprojects such as mines or pipelines.

They say the two bills run roughshod over the constitutional requirement that governments consult First Nations about development on their traditional territories. A group of nine First Nations in Ontario launched a constitutional challenge this week of both Ontario’s and Canada’s bills.

After 18 years of work, Toronto’s Port Lands opens to the public

On a sunny July afternoon, the Don River flowed into Toronto Harbour. Its banks were lined with lake sedge, switchgrass and Canada anemone. Paths and bridges laced through the landscape, which looked as if they had always been there.

In fact, this stretch of river and its surrounding lands − now known as Biidaasige Park − are entirely manufactured. They are not a work of nature but a feat of civic imagination.

They are the product of a $1.5-billion effort known as the Port Lands Flood Protection Project, which has redrawn the mouth of the Don and conjured vast new public spaces from what had long been a civic afterthought.

© Sammy Kogan

Part of Biidaasige Park nears completion on July 17, 2025, as preparations remain underway ahead of its public opening in Toronto’s Port Lands. (Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail)

Minister restores drug funding for B.C. girl with rare disease

B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne said Thursday that she has reinstated the funding for Charleigh Pollock.

Funding for a nine-year-old girl who has an extremely rare neurodegenerative disease has been restored by the British Columbia government.

Health Minister Josie Osborne said Thursday that she has reinstated the funding for Charleigh Pollock for the drug Brineura, which costs about $1 million a year.

Army removes commanding officer after alleged racist, sexual social-media posts by soldiers

Army commander Lieutenant-General Michael Wright said he was taking steps to address the 'inappropriate behaviour' of members involved in the Facebook group.

The commanding officer of the Cameron Highlanders, an Ottawa reservist unit, has been temporarily removed from his position in the aftermath of a controversy involving soldiers who are alleged to have posted racist comments and sexual images in a private Facebook group.

Army commander Lieutenant-General Michael Wright said in a statement released to media Thursday that he was taking steps to address the “inappropriate behaviour” of Canadian Army members involved in the “Blue Hackle Mafia” Facebook group.

Alberta Auditor-General says province failing to ensure daycares use funds to cut fees for parents

Alberta’s Auditor-General says the provincial government has not done the work to ensure daycares getting public funds use them to lower fees for parents or top up staff wages.

Doug Wylie, in a report released Thursday, says without proper verification, Alberta could be overcompensating operators with federal and provincial funds meant to lower the average cost of daycare to $10 per day.

“There is a risk that public funds may not be used as intended – leading to parents overpaying for child-care and educators being under-compensated,” the report says.

© JASON FRANSON

The Alberta legislature is seen in Edmonton, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

Canada and New Zealand reach resolution in dairy trade dispute, Ottawa says

Under the new agreement, Canada has committed to make commercially meaningful changes to the way it administers its dairy quotas under the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, according to the New Zealand government.

Canada and New Zealand have reached a “mutually satisfactory” resolution to a long-running dispute over access for dairy products, the federal government said in a statement on Thursday.

“This agreement, negotiated in close consultation with Canadian dairy stakeholders, will result in certain minor policy changes to Canada’s TRQ (tariff rate quotas) administration, and does not amend Canada’s market access commitments,” International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu and Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald said in a statement.

No grounds to charge officer in death of Thunder Bay woman, Ontario police watchdog says

A law firm representing Jenna Ostberg’s family says they are 'deeply disappointed' with the findings of the SIU investigation.

Ontario’s police watchdog says it found no grounds to lay a criminal charge against a Thunder Bay officer who approved the cancellation of a domestic disturbance call hours before a woman was found dead in a home.

The Special Investigations Unit has released a report on its investigation into the death of 21-year-old Jenna Ostberg, who the agency said was found without vital signs in a closet in her boyfriend’s bedroom on Dec. 30, 2023. 

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