News
Around Red Deer June 5th…..
2:47 pm – Imagine if every Canadian did three things for their neighbourhood, their nation, and their world this year. With Canada celebrating its 150th year of Confederation in 2017, Red Deer Mayor, Tara Veer, has accepted the challenge placed by Calgary Mayor, Naheed Nenshi, to do “Three Things for Canada”. Read More.
1:08 pm – Lab results from Health Canada have confirmed that drugs seized in Red Deer in March were a mixture of Carfentanil, fentanyl and caffeine, making this the first known seizure of the deadly opioid Carfentanil in the Red Deer area. Read More.
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12:56 pm – The Town of Sylvan Lake will celebrate it’s annual summer fair this weekend. 1913 days starts on Friday! Read More.
12:54 pm – Paving work will result in some road closures in Sylvan Lake tomorrow. Read More.
12:43 pm – Police in Lacombe are looking for suspects after some recent graffiti incidents. Read More.
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11:59 am – Lacombe Police say thefts appear to be on the rise in the community. Read More.
11:45 am – High School students can check out their career options at a Career High School Info session at the Penhold Regional Multi-Plex today. Read More.
11:15 am – Find out what Alberta’s new requirements are for children in car seats and booster seats. Read More.
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11:07 am – Red Deer’s School and Playground Zone times are set to change starting August 1st. Read More.
11:02 am – Red Deer City Councillor Lawrence Lee was elected on Sunday to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) board, which develops policy and advocates in the interests of municipalities to the federal government. Read More.
10:55 am – The Town of Blackfalds is gearing up for “Blackfalds Days” later this month. Find out more.
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10:46 am – Ponoka RCMP have arrested 37 year old Mark Carr in connection with an alleged sexual assault on June 2nd. Read More.
10:32 am – Landscaping work will result in some road closures from 39th Street to 37th Street on Red Deer’s south hill on Tuesday. Read More.
10:19 am – Grade 5 students at Red Deer’s St. Teresa of Avila School in Red Deer will perform songs they have learned this school year in a band concert in the gymnasium starting at 1:00 pm. While band and choral students from Ecole Secondaire Notre Dame High School in Red Deer will share their musical talents at a concert at the Red Deer College Arts Centre tonight at 7:00 pm.
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10:04 am – St. Gregory the Great Catholic School in Blackfalds will benefit from a Provincial Grant to help build a playground at the new school set to open this fall! Read More.
9:50 am – An Edmonton-based, door-to-door sales company must pay $15,000 for three tickets it received from The City of Red Deer for operating without a business license. Read More.
9:24 am – Red Deer College celebrated its 53rd Convocation ceremonies on Friday, June 2nd. More than 580 out of 1,900 eligible graduates crossed the stage to celebrate their achievements. Three special award recipients were also recognized. Dr. Bernie Pauly was presented with an Honorary Degree. Red Deer College Foundation Outstanding Student Award was presented to Ben Fleury for his leadership and commitment to RDC. The Governor General’s Academic Medal (Collegiate Bronze Level) was presented by Earl Dreeshen, Member of Parliament for Red DeerMountain View to Kelsie Bakker. Bakker had the highest academic standing of all RDC students this year, as she completed the final year of her diploma-level post-secondary program in Business Administration.
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9:05 am – You can help support the United Way of Central Alberta by dining out at some local restaurants! Read More.
8:50 am – A Rimbey resident has won the lottery after buying a Western 649 ticket in Red Deer! Read More.
8:38 am – Visitors to the Red, Deer, Lacombe and Stettler areas will now be able to get tourism information in more innovative and easier ways. It’s all thanks to some new grants being offered by the provincial government. Read More.
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8:28 am – Red Deerians are taking part in the Commuter Challenge this week. It’s a week-long event that takes place during Canadian Environment Week from June 4-10, 2017 and features free transit services! Read More.
8:13 am – The City of Red Deer is honouring seniors in our community by offering free admission and discounted monthly passes to City recreation facilities this week. It’s Senior’s Week! Details Here.
8:07 am – The Town of Sylvan Lake and the Sylvan Lake Chamber of Commerce have teamed up to host a Customer Service Workshop from 10:00 am – 3:00 pm at the NexSource Centre today. It’s a great opportunity for business owners, managers and front line staff to learn how to improve the level of customer service in your business. Details Here.
Automotive
Ford workers in Canada ratify agreement, set precedent for other automakers
TORONTO — The union representing 5,600 workers at Ford Motor Co. facilities in Canada says workers have voted to accept a deal with the automaker.
Unifor and Ford reached a tentative agreement Tuesday after extending a strike deadline by 24 hours.
The union has said the three-year deal addresses all issues raised by members for this round of bargaining.
With the Ford deal ratified, Unifor can move on to trying to replicate that deal at the other big automakers, Stellantis and General Motors.
The union has said wages, pensions, job security and the transition to electric vehicles were key areas of focus for bargaining.
Meanwhile, workers at GM and Stellantis plants in the U.S. have been participating in limited strikes, and on Friday expanded the work action to 38 locations in 20 states.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2023.
Union leader Lana Payne, national president of Unifor, issued a statement today saying the deal will mean tremendous gains for autoworkers.
Payne says the deal will also set the pattern for future negotiations with General Motors and Stellantis.
Unifor and Ford reached a tentative agreement last Tuesday night after extending a Monday strike deadline by 24 hours.
The deal covers more than 5,600 workers at Ford’s plants in Canada.
The Canadian Press
<!– Photo: 20230924120956-65106abdf696d3d4f45d28d9jpeg.jpg, Caption: Unifor national president Lana Payne attends a news conference in Toronto, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023. Unionized workers at Ford Motor Co. of Canada have ratified a three-year agreement. Payne issued a
statement today saying the deal will mean tremendous gains for
autoworkers. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tijana Martin –>
Alberta
Hot rental market makes search ‘stressful’ for many — and it won’t get better soon

Marissa Giesinger is pictured in Calgary, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. On the hunt for a rental home in Calgary over the last six weeks, Giesinger and her boyfriend trawled through listings morning, noon and night, only to find most come along with dozens of applications and a steep price tag. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
By Tara Deschamps in Toronto
On the hunt for a rental home in Calgary over the last six weeks, Marissa Giesinger and her boyfriend trawled through listings morning, noon and night, only to find most come along with dozens of applications and a steep price tag. As an added difficulty, many landlords are unwelcoming to the couple’s brood — dogs Kado and Rosco and a cat named Jester.
“We made the tough decision recently to house our dogs with someone else until we can find a place that’s affordable and we can take both of them,” said Giesinger, a 23-year-old Mount Royal University student.
“It’s definitely been stressful.”
The competitive rental market Giesinger has encountered in Calgary is being seen across the country as multiple factors combine: high interest rates deter buyers and add to rental demand, still-high inflation is squeezing renter budgets, there’s an undersupply of purpose-built rental units and population growth is fuelling demand.
These conditions have left prospective renters feeling even more frustrated than usual by sky-high rents, the frenzy of interest that surrounds any affordable listing and the litany of demands landlords can make when so many people are interested in their home.
Giacomo Ladas, communications director for Rentals.ca, calls it “almost a perfect storm” — and it isn’t likely to ease up any time soon.
“What this does is create such a burden on this rental housing market that even though we’re out of the (busy) summer rental season, there’s so much demand that (these conditions are) going to continue like this until the fall and into the winter,” he said.
Data crunched by his organization and research firm Urbanation.ca shows average asking rents for newly-listed units in Canada increased 1.8 per cent between July and August and 9.6 per cent from a year earlier to reach a record high of $2,117 last month.
Between May and August, asking rents in Canada increased by 5.1 per cent or an average of $103 per month.
When Giesinger rented a two-bedroom basement unit with a roommate a few years ago, the duo paid $1,000 per month, but now she routinely spots “super tiny,” one-bedroom places for $1,350 a month.
“If you want a basement suite or an apartment, you’re looking at minimum $1,200 and that doesn’t include any utilities or anything like that unless it’s a super rare listing,” Giesinger said.
Rentals.ca data show newly listed one-bedroom properties in Calgary priced at an average $1,728 per month in August, up 21.6 per cent from a year earlier. Two-bedroom homes have climbed 17.4 per cent to $2,150 over the same period.
The picture in Vancouver and Toronto is far bleaker. Rentals.ca found the cities had the highest rents in the country.
Newly-listed one-bedroom properties in Vancouver averaged $2,988 in August, up 13.1 per cent from a year earlier, while two-bedroom units hit $3,879, an almost 10 per cent increase year-over-year.
Newly-listed Toronto one-bedroom homes averaged $2,620 in August, up almost 11 per cent from the year before, while two-bedroom properties had a 7.1 per cent rise over the same time frame to $3,413.
It’s numbers like these that have convinced Kanishka Punjabi to abandon her hopes of moving in the near term.
“Two days ago, I gave up on my search because the rental market is that bad,” she said.
The public relations worker has been living in Mississauga, Ont., but felt it was time to find a home in downtown or midtown Toronto, closer to where she works.
However, few of the two-bedroom homes she spotted in her two-month search were within her $2,800 budget.
For example, one apartment she liked at the intersection of Yonge and Eglinton streets had 25 offers in just over a week.
“Some people actually just sent in their offer without looking at the apartment too because there are so many people who are in desperate need of rental units,” said Punjabi. “There’s just not enough.”
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. has projected that the country needs to build 3.5 million additional homes beyond what’s planned before the market reaches some semblance of affordability.
It also calculated that the annual pace of housing starts — when construction begins on a home — edged down one per cent in August to 252,787 units compared with 255,232 in July.
Despite the nudge down, Rishi Sondhi, an economist with TD Bank Group, said it has been a strong year for starts because the industry is responding to elevated prices by building at a robust pace.
But between population growth and rising interest rates, he said, “supply is struggling to keep up with demand” and that’s bound to weigh on renters for quite some time.
“In the short term, it would be unrealistic to expect too much of a reprieve simply because population growth is likely to remain strong through the duration of this year — and that’s really one of the big fundamental drivers,” he said.
“In addition, it’s unlikely to expect affordability in the ownership market to improve too much either because we think the Bank of Canada (key rate) is going to be on hold for the remainder of the year, but there is some risk that they take rates even higher, especially if inflation doesn’t co-operate.”
For renters like Giesinger that message puts even more pressure on her to settle on a place soon.
“Now I’m scrambling to find the money for a deposit and we’re still never really sure like what kind of place we’re going to get,” she said.
“And when you’re battling dozens of other people for a rental it can be super stressful.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2023.
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