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Alberta

The Halftime Report – News from the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame

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Diane Jones Konihowski Inducted to Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame & receives the Order of Sport Award

On October 3rd, Diane Jones Konihowski was awarded the Order of Sport Award and was Inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2020-2021. Diane has been inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame since 2002 as a Multisport Builder. She was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1978, YWCA “Woman of Distinction” Sport & Recreation Award in 1988, “Great Canadian” Award in 1993, and she was inducted into the Canadian Olympic Sports Hall of Fame in 1995. Congratulations Diane on this well deserved recognition on all you have done for sport in Canada.

Induction Video

The Guys from the Oh, Deer Podcast recap their experience at the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame

Listen to what they said
This newsletter is sponsored by the Innisfail Eagles.

2020 Virtual Induction Ceremony

More information still to come.

Honoured Member Deryk Snelling has Passed

We are saddened to hear of the passing of legendary Swim Coach Deryk Snelling.

Deryk Snelling’s coaching abilities helped place fifty-seven swimmers on Olympic teams with twenty-one of them earning Olympic medals. Alberta Sports Hall of Fame Honoured Members Tom Ponting, Mark Tewksbury, Cheryl Gibson, and Susan Sloan, were all coached by him when competing internationally. Deryk’s swimmers won ten World Championship medals, thirty-eight Pan American medals, sixty-five Commonwealth medals, and twenty-seven Pan Pacific medals. They set seven World Records and won sixty-nine Canadian National Team Championship titles. Deryk was Head Coach of the Canadian Olympic Team four times, the Commonwealth Games Teams five times, and one World Championship Team.

1997 Swimming Builder, Calgary

Swim Swam Article

Provincial Sport Organization: Alberta Equestrian Federation

Our mission: is to assist in creating a positive environment for the enjoyment of equines. Through leadership and a proactive approach we promote, facilitate, and coordinate equestrian-related activities in Alberta.

The Alberta Equestrian Federation strives to maximize a participant/athlete’s potential and involvement in our sport. We are athlete centered, coach driven and administrated, sport science and sponsor supported. By tailoring an athlete’s/participant’s sports development program to enables them to reach their full potential, increase lifelong participation in Equestrian and other physical activities while improving health and well-being.

Honoured Member in Focus: Margaret & Ron Southern

Margaret and Ron Southern had a dream to develop and operate a world-class equestrian facility.  In 1976, their dream became a reality as Spruce Meadows hosted its first tournament.  Over the years, Spruce Meadows has developed into one of the finest show jumping venues in the world.  Spruce Meadows is the locale for four coveted world-class tournaments annually, including “The Masters” — that offers the largest purse of any show jumping event.  Margaret and Ron have prided themselves in showcasing equestrian competitions, and their outstanding efforts have proven positive, as they have attracted competitors from all over the world.

Their daughter Nancy Southern is being Inducted this year along with Ian Allison for the Bell Memorial Award!

Artifact of the month!

Equestrian sports can be divided into 3 main categories: Eventing, Jumping and Dressage.
Eventing is often considered the supreme test of total horsemanship and was originally intended to test military officers for any challenges they could come across on or off duty. Jumping or show jumping features a technical course with a series of obstacles that vary in height and width, including jumps over water and stone walls, parallel rails, and triple bars. Referred to as horse ballet, dressage has been used for over 2000 years starting as a way the Greeks prepared their horses for war.

All nomination packages for the 20201 intake year must be submitted prior to October 31st, 2021 to be considered for the 2021 selection year.
Nomination Information

Give Back Today!

The Alberta Sports Hall of Fame needs your support to continue the ongoing preservation of Alberta’s sports history and the development of museum exhibits. We are grateful and appreciative of the generosity of our supporters and friends.

Donate Now!

Before Post

The Alberta Sports Hall of Fame provides a family-friendly, interactive experience. You will be surprised by what you discover inside! Have fun, laugh, play and discover Alberta sports heroes together. The Alberta Sports Hall of Fame is an interactive, hands-on celebration of Alberta's sporting history. Our over 7,000 square feet of exhibit space includes a multisport area with virtual baseball, basketball, football, hockey, and soccer; an adaptive sports area, including a 200 meter wheelchair challenge; a Treadwall climbing wall; the Orest Korbutt Theatre; the Hall of Fame Gallery; an art gallery displaying works by provincial artists, and much more. Our venue boasts a collection of over 17,000 artefacts of Alberta sports history and showcases many of these items in a number of displays. The Alberta Sports Hall of Fame also offers an education program, group activities, and a unique environment to rent for your birthday party, special event, corporate reception or meetings.

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Alberta

‘Weird and wonderful’ wells are boosting oil production in Alberta and Saskatchewan

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From the Canadian Energy Centre

By Deborah Jaremko

Multilateral designs lift more energy with a smaller environmental footprint

A “weird and wonderful” drilling innovation in Alberta is helping producers tap more oil and gas at lower cost and with less environmental impact.

With names like fishbone, fan, comb-over and stingray, “multilateral” wells turn a single wellbore from the surface into multiple horizontal legs underground.

“They do look spectacular, and they are making quite a bit of money for small companies, so there’s a lot of interest from investors,” said Calin Dragoie, vice-president of geoscience with Calgary-based Chinook Consulting Services.

Dragoie, who has extensively studied the use of multilateral wells, said the technology takes horizontal drilling — which itself revolutionized oil and gas production — to the next level.

“It’s something that was not invented in Canada, but was perfected here. And it’s something that I think in the next few years will be exported as a technology to other parts of the world,” he said.

Dragoie’s research found that in 2015 less than 10 per cent of metres drilled in Western Canada came from multilateral wells. By last year, that share had climbed to nearly 60 per cent.  

Royalty incentives in Alberta have accelerated the trend, and Saskatchewan has introduced similar policy.

Multilaterals first emerged alongside horizontal drilling in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Dragoie said. But today’s multilaterals are longer, more complex and more productive.

The main play is in Alberta’s Marten Hills region, where producers are using multilaterals to produce shallow heavy oil.

Today’s average multilateral has about 7.5 horizontal legs from a single surface location, up from four or six just a few years ago, Dragoie said.

One record-setting well in Alberta drilled by Tamarack Valley Energy in 2023 features 11 legs stretching two miles each, for a total subsurface reach of 33 kilometres — the longest well in Canada.

By accessing large volumes of oil and gas from a single surface pad, multilaterals reduce land impact by a factor of five to ten compared to conventional wells, he said.

The designs save money by skipping casing strings and cement in each leg, and production is amplified as a result of increased reservoir contact.

Here are examples of multilateral well design. Images courtesy Chinook Consulting Services.

Parallel

Fishbone

Fan

Waffle

Stingray

Frankenwells

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Alberta

Alberta to protect three pro-family laws by invoking notwithstanding clause

Published on

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Premier Danielle Smith said her government will use a constitutional tool to defend a ban on transgender surgery for minors and stopping men from competing in women’s sports.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said her government will use a rare constitutional tool, the notwithstanding clause, to ensure three bills passed this year — a ban on transgender surgery for minors, stopping men from competing in women’s sports, and protecting kids from extreme aspects of the LGBT agenda — stand and remain law after legal attacks from extremist activists. 

Smith’s United Conservative Party (UCP) government stated that it will utilize a new law, Bill 9, to ensure that laws passed last year remain in effect.

“Children deserve the opportunity to grow into adulthood before making life-altering decisions about their gender and fertility,” Smith said in a press release sent to LifeSiteNews and other media outlets yesterday. 

“By invoking the notwithstanding clause, we’re ensuring that laws safeguarding children’s health, education and safety cannot be undone – and that parents are fully involved in the major decisions affecting their children’s lives. That is what Albertans expect, and that is what this government will unapologetically defend.”

Alberta Justice Minister and Attorney General Mickey Amery said that the laws passed last year are what Albertans voted for in the last election. 

“These laws reflect an overwhelming majority of Albertans, and it is our responsibility to ensure that they will not be overturned or further delayed by activists in the courts,” he noted. 

“The notwithstanding clause reinforces democratic accountability by keeping decisions in the hands of those elected by Albertans. By invoking it, we are providing certainty that these protections will remain in place and that families can move forward with clarity and confidence.”

The Smith government said the notwithstanding clause will apply to the following pieces of legislation:

  • Bill 26, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2024, prohibits both gender reassignment surgery for children under 18 and the provision of puberty blockers and hormone treatments for the purpose of gender reassignment to children under 16.

  • Bill 27, the Education Amendment Act, 2024, requires schools to obtain parental consent when a student under 16 years of age wishes to change his or her name or pronouns for reasons related to the student’s gender identity, and requires parental opt-in consent to teaching on gender identity, sexual orientation or human sexuality.

  • Bill 29, the Fairness and Safety in Sport Act, requires the governing bodies of amateur competitive sports in Alberta to implement policies that limit participation in women’s and girls’ sports to those who were born female.”

Bill 26 was passed in December of 2024, and it amends the Health Act to “prohibit regulated health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors.”

Last year, Smith’s government also passed Bill 27, a law banning schools from hiding a child’s pronoun changes at school that will help protect kids from the extreme aspects of the LGBT agenda.

Bill 27 will also empower the education minister to, in effect, stop the spread of extreme forms of pro-LGBT ideology or anything else to be allowed to be taught in schools via third parties.

Bill 29, which became law last December, bans gender-confused men from competing in women’s sports, the first legislation of its kind in Canada.  The law applies to all school boards, universities, and provincial sports organizations. 

Alberta’s notwithstanding clause is like all other provinces’ clauses and was a condition Alberta agreed to before it signed onto the nation’s 1982 constitution.

It is meant as a check to balance power between the court system and the government elected by the people. Once it is used, as passed in the legislature, a court cannot rule that the “legislation which the notwithstanding clause applies to be struck down based on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Alberta Bill of Rights, or the Alberta Human Rights Act,” the Alberta government noted.

While Smith has done well on some points, she has still been relatively soft on social issues of importance to conservatives , such as abortion, and has publicly expressed pro-LGBT views, telling Jordan Peterson earlier this year that conservatives must embrace homosexual “couples” as “nuclear families.” 

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