Alberta
Happy Halloween! Province gives the go ahead for Trick or Treating
![](https://www.todayville.com/edmonton/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/10/tvrd-tvrd-alberta-halloween-image-2020-10-01-1.jpg)
From the Province of Alberta
Halloween
- Alberta’s chief medical officer of health is not cancelling Halloween.
- Outdoor Halloween activities are lower risk and supported by public health.
- A new tip sheet online will help Albertans of all ages enjoy a safe and healthy Halloween.
- Printable posters will let people know if you are handing out treats.
For more information and to find the printable posters go to Alberta.ca/Halloween
If you want to know what the province says about Trick or Treating this year watch this video starting at the 9:40 mark.
From trick-or-treating to the double feature picture show, you can enjoy your favourite Halloween activities safely by taking some simple precautions. Leave the terror to monsters, ghosts and evil clowns – not the pandemic.
Trick or treating
Don’t go trick-or-treating if feeling ill, even if symptoms are minor
Choose costumes that allow a non-medical mask to be worn underneath – make sure you can see and breathe comfortably
Minimize contact with others: trick-or-treat with your family or cohort, remain within your community, and stay 2 metres apart
Avoid touching doorbells or railings: call “trick or treat” from 2 metres away, knock instead of using doorbells, use hand sanitizer after touching surfaces
Wash hands and disinfect packages before eating candy
Handing out candy
Don’t hand out candy if feeling ill or isolating
Wear a non-medical mask that fully covers your nose and mouth
Ask trick-or-treaters to knock or call out instead of ringing the doorbell
Use tongs to hand out pre-packaged candy to avoid handling treats
Find creative ways to maintain distance from trick-or-treaters:
Hand out treats from your driveway or front lawn, if weather permits
Set up a table or desk to help keep yourself distanced
Make candy bags and space them out on a table or blanket; don’t leave out self-serve bowls of bulk candy
Build a candy slide, candy catapult or other fun, non-touch delivery methods
Halloween parties
Stay home if feeling ill, even if symptoms are mild
Spend time with people you know – the smaller the group the better
Choose games and activities that don’t use shared items and allows people to stay 2 metres apart
Don’t share drinks, food, cigarettes, vapes or cannabis
Host your party outdoors, if weather permits. If you must stay indoors:
- reduce your gathering size
- choose a location that allows for physical distancing between people from separate families and cohorts
- provide hand sanitizer
Wash or sanitize your hands often
![](https://i1.wp.com/www.alberta.ca/assets/images/covid19-halloween-posters.jpg?w=740&ssl=1)
Resources
- Non-spooky tips for a spooky safe Halloween (PDF, 120 KB)
- Poster – Welcome Trick-or-Treaters (PDF, 92 KB)
- Poster – Sorry, No Candy Here (PDF, 90 KB)
- Guidance for indoor events
- Guidance for outdoor events
- Monitor your symptoms
Alberta
Alberta awash in corporate welfare
![](https://www.todayville.com/edmonton/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/tvrd-fi-corporate-welfare-image-2024-07-26.jpg)
From the Fraser Institute
By Matthew Lau
To understand Ottawa’s negative impact on Alberta’s economy and living standards, juxtapose two recent pieces of data.
First, in July the Trudeau government made three separate “economic development” spending announcements in Alberta, totalling more than $80 million and affecting 37 different projects related to the “green economy,” clean technology and agriculture. And second, as noted in a new essay by Fraser Institute senior fellow Kenneth Green, inflation-adjusted business investment (excluding residential structures) in Canada’s extraction sector (mining, quarrying, oil and gas) fell 51.2 per cent from 2014 to 2022.
The productivity gains that raise living standards and improve economic conditions rely on business investment. But business investment in Canada has declined over the past decade and total economic growth per person (inflation-adjusted) from Q3-2015 through to Q1-2024 has been less than 1 per cent versus robust growth of nearly 16 per cent in the United States over the same period.
For Canada’s extraction sector, as Green documents, federal policies—new fuel regulations, extended review processes on major infrastructure projects, an effective ban on oil shipments on British Columbia’s northern coast, a hard greenhouse gas emissions cap targeting oil and gas, and other regulatory initiatives—are largely to blame for the massive decline in investment.
Meanwhile, as Ottawa impedes private investment, its latest bundle of economic development announcements underscores its strategy to have government take the lead in allocating economic resources, whether for infrastructure and public institutions or for corporate welfare to private companies.
Consider these federally-subsidized projects.
A gas cloud imaging company received $4.1 million from taxpayers to expand marketing, operations and product development. The Battery Metals Association of Canada received $850,000 to “support growth of the battery metals sector in Western Canada by enhancing collaboration and education stakeholders.” A food manufacturer in Lethbridge received $5.2 million to increase production of plant-based protein products. Ermineskin Cree Nation received nearly $400,000 for a feasibility study for a new solar farm. The Town of Coronation received almost $900,000 to renovate and retrofit two buildings into a business incubator. The Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada received $400,000 for marketing and other support to help boost clean technology product exports. And so on.
When the Trudeau government announced all this corporate welfare and spending, it naturally claimed it create economic growth and good jobs. But corporate welfare doesn’t create growth and good jobs, it only directs resources (including labour) to subsidized sectors and businesses and away from sectors and businesses that must be more heavily taxed to support the subsidies. The effect of government initiatives that reduce private investment and replace it with government spending is a net economic loss.
As 20th-century business and economics journalist Henry Hazlitt put it, the case for government directing investment (instead of the private sector) relies on politicians and bureaucrats—who did not earn the money and to whom the money does not belong—investing that money wisely and with almost perfect foresight. Of course, that’s preposterous.
Alas, this replacement of private-sector investment with public spending is happening not only in Alberta but across Canada today due to the Trudeau government’s fiscal policies. Lower productivity and lower living standards, the data show, are the unhappy results.
Author:
Alberta
‘Fireworks’ As Defence Opens Case In Coutts Two Trial
![](https://www.todayville.com/edmonton/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/tvrd-fcpp-coutts-blockade-jan-31-2022-facebook-jake-zacharias-image-2024-07-25.jpg)
From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
By Ray McGinnis
Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert are on trial for conspiracy to commit murder and firearms charges in relation to the Coutts Blockade into mid-February 2022. In opening her case before a Lethbridge, AB, jury on July 11, Olienick’s lawyer, Marilyn Burns stated “This is a political, criminal trial that is un Canadian.” She told the jury, “You will be shocked, and at the very least, disappointed with how Canada’s own RCMP conducted themselves during and after the Coutts protest,” as she summarized officers’ testimony during presentation of the Crown’s case. Burns also contended that “the conduct of Alberta’s provincial government and Canada’s federal government are entwined with the RCMP.” The arrests of the Coutts Four on the night of February 13 and noon hour of February 14, were key events in a decision by the Clerk of the Privy Council, Janice Charette, and the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister, Jody Thomas, to advise Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to invoke the Emergencies Act. Chief Justice Paul Rouleau, in submitting his Public Order Emergency Commission Report to Parliament on February 17, 2023, also cited events at the Coutts Blockade as key to his conclusion that the government was justified in invoking the Emergencies Act.
Justice David Labrenz cautioned attorney Burns regarding her language, after Crown prosecutor Stephen Johnson objected to some of the language in the opening statement of Olienick’s counsel. Futher discussion about the appropriateness of attorney Burns’ statement to the jury is behind a publication ban, as discussions occurred without the jury present.
Justice Labrenz told the jury on July 12, “I would remind you that the presumption of innocence means that both the accused are cloaked with that presumption, unless the Crown proves beyond a reasonable doubt the essential elements of the charge(s).” He further clarified what should result if the jurors were uncertain about which narrative to believe: the account by the Crown, or the account from the accused lawyers. Labrenz stated that such ambivalence must lead to an acquittal; As such a degree of uncertainty regarding which case to trust in does not meet the “beyond a reasonable doubt” threshold for a conviction.”
On July 15, 2024, a Lethbridge jury heard evidence from a former employer of Olienicks’ named Brian Lambert. He stated that he had tasked Olienick run his sandstone quarry and mining business. He was a business partner with Olienick. In that capacity, Olienick made use of what Lambert referred to as “little firecrackers,” to quarry the sandstone and reduce it in size. Reducing the size of the stone renders it manageable to get refined and repurposed so it could be sold to buyers of stone for other uses (building construction, patio stones, etc.) Lambert explained that the “firecrackers” were “explosive devices” packaged within tubing and pipes that could also be used for plumbing. He detailed how “You make them out of ordinary plumbing pipe and use some kind of propellant like shotgun powder…” Lambert explained that the length of the pipe “…depended on how big a hole or how large a piece of stone you were going to crack. The one I saw was about six inches long … maybe an inch in diameter.”
One of Olienick’s charges is “unlawful possession of an explosive device for a dangerous purpose.” The principal evidence offered up by RCMP to the Crown is what the officers depicted as “pipe bombs” which they obtained at the residence of Anthony Olienick in Claresholm, Alberta, about a two-hour drive from Coutts. Officers entered his home after he was arrested the night of February 13, 2022. Lambert’s testimony offers a plausible common use for the “firecrackers” the RCMP referred to as “pipe bombs.” Lambert added, these “firecrackers” have a firecracker fuse, and in the world of “explosive” they are “no big deal.”
Fellow accused, Chris Carbert, is does not face the additional charge of unlawful possession of explosives for a dangerous purpose. This is the first full week of the case for the defence. The trial began on June 6 when the Crown began presenting its case.
Ray McGinnis is a Senior Fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy who recently attended several days of testimony at the Coutts Two trial.
-
Frontier Centre for Public Policy2 days ago
Cowering before carbon
-
International18 hours ago
Secret Service Repeatedly Rejected Offers To Use Drones At Deadly Trump Rally, Whistleblower Says
-
Alberta1 day ago
‘Fireworks’ As Defence Opens Case In Coutts Two Trial
-
Business1 day ago
Estonia’s solution to Canada’s stagnating economic growth
-
Bruce Dowbiggin11 hours ago
Garbage In, Garbage Out: The Democrats 2024 Election Coup
-
COVID-191 day ago
Leaked documents: German gov’t lied about shots preventing COVID, knew lockdowns did more harm than good
-
Business1 day ago
Federal government seems committed to killing investment in Canada
-
International1 day ago
Switzerland’s new portable suicide ‘pod’ set to claim its first life ‘soon’