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Alberta

Airdrie Man Arrested for Firearms “Straw Purchasing”

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2 minute read

May 14, 2020
Airdrie Man Arrested for Firearms
Straw Purchasing

Calgary… An ALERT investigation has resulted in the arrest of a 22-year-old Airdrie man for firearms straw purchasing.

ALERT Calgary’s organized crime team alleges that Brady Fisher lawfully acquired multiple firearms, which were then distributed to the criminal market. Fisher was arrested on May 12, 2020, with the assistance of Airdrie RCMP and the Calgary Police Service.

Fisher purchased seven restricted firearms and at least two unrestricted firearms dating back to November 2016. One of the handguns purchased by the accused was later seized during an Edmonton Police Service drug investigation in June 2019.

This handgun, allegedly purchased by Brady Fisher, was seized during an Edmonton Police Service drug investigation in June 2019.

The Edmonton seizure kickstarted ALERT’s investigation, with Wood Buffalo RCMP also sharing intelligence.

Five of the firearms remain unaccounted for, while three restricted firearms were voluntarily surrendered.

“We have no idea where these firearms may show up, or what crimes they may have been used in. People engaged in firearms straw purchasing are callously putting public safety at risk,” said Insp. Shawn Wallace, ALERT Calgary.

Straw purchasing typically involves someone with a valid Possession and Acquisition License (PAL) but no criminal record obtaining firearms for someone who otherwise could not, or who does not want their name associated with the transaction.

Fisher has been charged with five counts of firearms trafficking and three counts of possession of a firearm in an unauthorized place.

Members of the public who suspect drug or gang activity in their community can call local police, or contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). Crime Stoppers is always anonymous.

ALERT was established and is funded by the Alberta Government and is a compilation of the province’s most sophisticated law enforcement resources committed to tackling serious and organized crime.

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Alberta

Temporary Alberta grid limit unlikely to dampen data centre investment, analyst says

Published on

From the Canadian Energy Centre

By Cody Ciona

‘Alberta has never seen this level and volume of load connection requests’

Billions of investment in new data centres is still expected in Alberta despite the province’s electric system operator placing a temporary limit on new large-load grid connections, said Carson Kearl, lead data centre analyst for Enverus Intelligence Research.

Kearl cited NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s estimate from earlier this year that building a one-gigawatt data centre costs between US$60 billion and US$80 billion.

That implies the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO)’s 1.2 gigawatt temporary limit would still allow for up to C$130 billion of investment.

“It’s got the potential to be extremely impactful to the Alberta power sector and economy,” Kearl said.

Importantly, data centre operators can potentially get around the temporary limit by ‘bringing their own power’ rather than drawing electricity from the existing grid.

In Alberta’s deregulated electricity market – the only one in Canada – large energy consumers like data centres can build the power supply they need by entering project agreements directly with electricity producers.

According to the AESO, there are 30 proposed data centre projects across the province.

The total requested power load for these projects is more than 16 gigawatts, roughly four gigawatts more than Alberta’s demand record in January 2024 during a severe cold snap.

For comparison, Edmonton’s load is around 1.4 gigawatts, the AESO said.

“Alberta has never seen this level and volume of load connection requests,” CEO Aaron Engen said in a statement.

“Because connecting all large loads seeking access would impair grid reliability, we established a limit that preserves system integrity while enabling timely data centre development in Alberta.”

As data centre projects come to the province, so do jobs and other economic benefits.

“You have all of the construction staff associated; electricians, engineers, plumbers, and HVAC people for all the cooling tech that are continuously working on a multi-year time horizon. In the construction phase there’s a lot of spend, and that is just generally good for the ecosystem,” said Kearl.

Investment in local power infrastructure also has long-term job implications for maintenance and upgrades, he said.

“Alberta is a really exciting place when it comes to building data centers,” said Beacon AI CEO Josh Schertzer on a recent ARC Energy Ideas podcast.

“It has really great access to natural gas, it does have some excess grid capacity that can be used in the short term, it’s got a great workforce, and it’s very business-friendly.”

The unaltered reproduction of this content is free of charge with attribution to the Canadian Energy Centre.

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Alberta

Alberta Next: Taxation

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A new video from the Alberta Next panel looks at whether Alberta should stop relying on Ottawa to collect our provincial income taxes. Quebec already does it, and Alberta already collects corporate taxes directly. Doing the same for personal income taxes could mean better tax policy, thousands of new jobs, and less federal interference. But it would take time, cost money, and require building new systems from the ground up.

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