News
Air Quality Advisories, Live Music & The Downtown Market Today!
1:57 pm – A joint investigation between ALERT Red Deer and Red Deer RCMP has resulted in the arrest of two suspected drug traffickers and the seizure of significant amounts of drugs and proceeds of crime. Read More.
For more local news, click here!
11:51 am – Some changes are being proposed for landscaping requirements in the Town of Innisfail. As a result, Innisfail residents are encouraged to attend a Land Use Landscaping Open House at the Library Learning Centre from 3 – 7 pm today. Details Here.
11:38 am – Council for the Town of Sylvan Lake approved this week an increase required for it’s contract with the RCMP. The Town pays for and budgets for 70% of RCMP/policing costs, while the Provincial Government subsidizes the remaining 30%. The regular members of the RCMP have been without a wage increase since January 1, 2015, and recently settled. Find out what else happened at Town Council this week.
11:17 am – Blackfalds Fire Rescue will officially commission a new rescue pumper apparatus jointly purchased by the Town and Lacombe County. A fire rescue display and demonstrations will take place at the Blackfalds Fire Hall tonight starting at 7 pm. Details Here.
For more local news, click here!
10:59 am – Red Deer County is currently seeking workers for the Monday, October 16, 2017, general municipal election. Click here to find out how you can get involved!
10:54 am – Red Deer County encourages the public to get their tickets for the 2017 Entrepreneurial Ag Tour. The annual event is hosted by Red Deer County’s Agricultural Service Board and showcases innovative agriculture in the county. Read More.
10:29 am – Severe Thunderstorm Watches have been issued for many areas to the west of Red Deer today. They include the Rocky, Caroline and Nordegg regions, as well as for the Olds, Sundre, Airdrie and Cochrane areas among others. Details Here.
For more local news, click here!
10:20 am – Westerner Park’s Arts and Culture committee installed an art exhibit on July 11th, showcasing local artists, including work from Red Deer College’s past students! Read More.
9:59 am – The sound of live music will fill the air at the Ross Street Patio today! Enjoy it from 4:30 – 6:30 pm as you shop the Downtown Market! Details Here.
9:52 am – Today is another chance to support local producers who provide us with farm fresh fruits and vegetables at the ATB Financial Downtown Farmer’s Market every week. Today’s Market runs from 3:30 pm – 6:30 pm on Little Gaetz Avenue. Read More.
For more local news, click here!
9:43 am – Get over the mid-week hump today with some live music from 11:30 am – 1:00 pm at the Alexander Way Parklet. Read More.
9:33 am – The ATB Financial Downtown Farmer’s Market means there will be some road closures throughout the City’s core today. Find out where by clicking here!
9:18 am – Air Quality Advisories remain in Alberta’s west country today. Affected areas include Rocky Mountain House, Caroline and Nordegg, as well as for Rimbey, Pigeon Lake, Devon and Drayton Valley among others. Details Here.
Justice
CP NewsAlert: Police identify two of eight victims pulled from water near Akwesasne
QUEBEC — The Akwesasne Mohawk Police say they have identified two of the eight migrants whose bodies were pulled from the St. Lawrence River earlier this week.
The force issued an update on Facebook saying one of the adult males, identified as 28-year-old Florin Lordache, was carrying Canadian passports for a one-year-old and a two-year-old child, both of whom were previously recovered.
Police also identified one of the adult females as Cristina (Monalisa) Zenaida Iordache, who was also 28.
More coming.
The Canadian Press
Automotive
‘War of the states’: EV, chip makers lavished with subsidies

Workers prepare the site of a $4 billion Panasonic EV battery plant Thursday, March 30, 2023, near DeSoto, Kan. Economic incentives offered by Kansas state and local governments beat out those offered by neighboring Oklahoma to help lure the project to the site on land formerly occupied by an Army ammunition plant. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
By Marc Levy in Harrisburg
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — States are doling out more cash than ever to lure multibillion-dollar microchip, electric vehicle and battery factories, inspiring ever-more competition as they dig deeper into their pockets to attract big employers and capitalize on a wave of huge new projects.
Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas have made billion-dollar pledges for a microchip or EV plant, with more state-subsidized plant announcements by profitable automakers and semiconductor giants surely to come.
States have long competed for big employers. But now they are floating more billion-dollar offers and offering record-high subsidies, lavishing companies with grants and low-interest loans, municipal road improvements, and breaks on taxes, real estate, power and water.
“We’re in the second war of the states,” said John Boyd, a principal at the Florida-based Boyd Company, which advises on site selections. “That’s how competitive economic development is between the states in 2023.”
The projects come at a transformative time for the industries, with automakers investing heavily in electrification and chipmakers expanding production in the U.S. following pandemic-related supply chain disruptions that raised economic and national security concerns.
One of the driving forces behind them are federal subsidies signed into law last summer that are meant to encourage companies to produce electric vehicles, EV batteries, and computer chips domestically. Another is that states are flush with cash thanks to inflation-juiced tax collections and federal pandemic relief subsidies.
The number of big projects and the size of state subsidy packages are extraordinary, said Nathan Jensen, a University of Texas professor who researches government economic development strategies.
“It is kind of a Wild West moment,” Jensen said. “It’s wild money and every state seems to be in on it.”
Good Jobs First, a nonprofit that tracks and is critical of corporate subsidies, said 2022 set a record for the number of billion-dollar-plus incentive deals. At least eight were finalized, though that figure might be higher since such deals can be cloaked in secrecy and take time to come to light.
Eighteen of last year’s 23 known “megadeals,” in which state and local incentive packages to private companies exceeded $50 million in value, were for semiconductor and EV plants, according to the group’s data.
More than $20 billion in public money was committed to subsidizing those known megadeals, according to Good Jobs First data. That total eclipsed the previous record of $17.7 billion that was committed to subsidizing such deals in 2013.
Many of the companies drawing the biggest subsidy offers — such as Intel, Hyundai, Panasonic, Micron, Toyota, Ford and General Motors — are profitable and operate around the globe. Some lesser-known names in the nascent EV field are getting big offers too, such as Rivian, Volkswagen-backed Scout Motors and Vietnamese automaker VinFast.
The subsidy offers are generally embraced by politicians from both major parties and the business elite, who point to promises of hundreds or thousands of jobs, massive investments in construction and equipment, and what they contend are immeasurable trickle-down benefits.
Still, academics who study such subsidies find them to be a waste of money and rarely decisive in a company’s choice of location.
In a 2021 paper arguing that subsidies are driven by politicians for their own benefit, researchers from The Citadel, the College of Charleston and the University of Louisville-Lafayette wrote that studies conclude “they do little, if anything, to promote meaningful improvements in economic outcomes.”
The mounting cost of competing for the projects hasn’t dissuaded states from trying. On the contrary, they’re clambering to outdo each other.
Michigan was stung by hometown Ford’s $11.4 billion commitment in 2021 to build electric vehicle and battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky. It responded by pledging more than $2.5 billion for electric-vehicle projects by Ford and GM and plants by makers of EV batteries and battery components.
Pennsylvania has yet to lure a microchip or EV factory, and the state’s business elite are sounding the alarm after watching neighboring Ohio land a $20 billion Intel plant.
In his first budget speech to lawmakers, newly inaugurated Gov. Josh Shapiro said Pennsylvania needs to “get in the game” and warned that it would take money.
Jabbing a finger in the air, he brought the room to a standing ovation, saying: ”It’s time to compete again here in Pennsylvania!”
Oregon lawmakers hoping to attract a major semiconductor plant are advancing legislation that would marshal $200 million in subsidies and loosen decades-old protections against urban sprawl.
The aim is to procure huge plots of land with ready-made utilities. That has elicited protests from conservationists who say the state mishandled developable land and agricultural groups that warned of the permanent destruction of high-quality farmland.
Dick Sheehy, a retired site selection consultant who traveled the world to inspect possible locations for semiconductor makers, told a panel of Oregon lawmakers in January that states are tipping the scales over better-qualified competitors by offering larger incentive packages.
“The money the state is putting up is so large that certain companies can’t afford not to look at it,” Sheehy said.
In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott promised to win passage of “economic development tools” during the current legislative session, saying the state lost out on a massive Micron semiconductor plant because it couldn’t match the $5.5 billion in tax credits offered by New York.
“The CEO of Micron was basically begging me because he really wanted to do business in Texas. He knew Texas was a better place. He said, ‘Please could you come up with some more?'” Abbott told a Greater Arlington Chamber of Commerce crowd in February. “We gave every penny that we could give.”
Asked about Abbott’s assertions, Micron declined to address Abbott’s description of the phone call with CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, but it called New York the most competitive state and listed reasons why it is the “ideal home” for its plant.
Those included a compelling case made by top officials — including Gov. Kathy Hochul and U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer — plus an attractive local workforce, local research and development partners, and a good quality of life for employees.
In Oklahoma, frustration among lawmakers has been bubbling over since the state lost out on a string of projects: first a Tesla plant to Texas, then a Panasonic EV battery plant to Kansas and, just days ago, a Volkswagen EV battery plant to Canada.
That latest loss led state Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat to create a committee to figure out what went wrong in Oklahoma’s bidding for a “megaproject.”
Business-friendly Oklahoma shouldn’t keep losing out to other states, Treat said.
“You never know if you’re being used so they can go to that other state so they can say, ‘Hey, Oklahoma is willing to do this,’” Treat said in an interview. “And they intend on going to that state the whole time.”
___
Associated Press writers Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City and Andrew Selsky in Salem, Oregon, contributed to this report.
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