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Alberta

Red Deer Regional Airport expansion takes flight

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Alberta’s government will provide a $7.5-million grant to expand infrastructure and services at the Red Deer Regional Airport.

An $18-million airport expansion project will include widening the runway and constructing a terminal to support new low-cost passenger services.

These improvements will help the Red Deer Regional Airport attract new passenger and cargo services and offer a wider range of travel options to area residents, increasing the region’s tourism potential. More than 100 jobs will be created during construction.

Quick facts

  • Construction tenders will be issued this month. Work is schedule to begin this spring and conclude in fall 2022.
  • Airport improvements include widening the main runway from 30 to 45 metres, strengthening existing taxiways and aprons, and constructing a terminal to support low-cost passenger services.
  • The anticipated total cost of the airport expansion is $18 million – with $7.5 million from Alberta’s government.
  • Alberta’s aviation, aerospace and logistics industries employed nearly 71,000 people in 2020. These industries contributed $7.2 billion to the province’s GDP in 2020.
  • Alberta’s aviation industry has been ranked third in Canada by company size, fourth by number of companies and fourth by GDP contribution in aerospace and defence.
  • Alberta’s government created the Strategic Aviation Advisory Council in 2020 to provide expert advice to government on how aviation and aerospace can increase economic development opportunities, expand markets and create jobs in the province.
  • Expanding the aviation sector is a key goal of Alberta’s Recovery Plan.
  • Three low-cost Alberta based-carriers – the recently created Lynx Air, along with new routes added by Swoop and Flair Airlines – are strong signs of the province’s growing aviation industry.

This investment in Alberta’s aviation industry helps the province further diversify the economy and create more jobs, growth and prosperity. The industry employed more than 71,000 people in 2020, and it continues to grow thanks in part to the Alberta Recovery Plan.

“Central Albertans need a modern, expanded airport that will serve businesses, create jobs and give travellers more choice in airline options. Alberta’s government will make this project happen through this $7.5-million Budget 2022 investment.”

Jason Kenney, Premier

“The aviation sector is a vital part of Alberta’s Recovery Plan and this project will be a great boost to the Red Deer and central Alberta economy. This airport funding will attract more investment and new opportunities for residents and businesses.”

Rajan Sawhney, Minister of Transportation

“My optimism around economic opportunities in central Alberta is growing, thanks to this commitment to our airport. We will be able to diversify our economy while creating good-paying jobs and tourism potential.”

Adriana LaGrange, Minister of Education, and MLA for Red Deer-North

“Alberta is an economic powerhouse and the Red Deer airport is strategically centred in the dynamic Calgary-Edmonton corridor. This investment will position our airport to leverage its natural competitive advantages as Alberta and central Alberta prospers and grows.”

Jason Stephan, MLA for Red Deer-South

“Being able to expand on the airport’s rich history will improve economic opportunities across the region, attract investment and put people back to work. This grant shows everyone that central Alberta is a key contributor to our economic recovery.”

Devin Dreeshen, MLA for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake

Garett Couples, Board Chair, Red Deer Regional Airport

“Now more than ever, aviation and aviation-related businesses are actively looking for alternatives to the ever-increasing costs associated with operating out of large airports. With low lease rates, free parking and no airport improvement fees, the Red Deer Regional Airport is well-positioned for future growth.”

Garett Cupples, board chair, Red Deer Regional Airport

“This expansion will provide huge economic benefits to central Alberta. Red Deer County is appreciative of this important investment from the Alberta government and the continuing commitment to build economic prosperity.”

Jim Wood, mayor, Red Deer County

“The Red Deer Regional Airport is a regional amenity that supports the whole of Alberta. This investment translates to not only potential for increased passengers, revenues and regional economic development, but also opportunities to generate employment at a time when the economy and travel industry needs it most.”

Ken Johnston, mayor, City of Red Deer

This is a news release from the Government of Alberta.

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Alberta

Sylvan Lake high school football coach fired for criticizing gender ideology sends legal letter to school board

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

The letter on behalf of Alberta high school volunteer football coach Taylor ‘Teej’ Johannesson mentions ‘workplace harassment’ while demanding his job back.

A Sylvan Lake high school football coach who was fired for sharing his views opposing transgender ideology on social media in a video discussing his Christian faith sent a legal demand to his former school board demanding he get his job back.

H.J. Cody High School volunteer coach Taylor “Teej” Johannesson, as reported by LifeSiteNews, earlier this month was fired by his school’s principal because he spoke out against gender-confused youth who “take their hatred of Christians” to another level by committing violent acts against them.

School principal Alex Lambert fired Teej, as he is known, as a result of a TikTok video in which he speaks out against radical gender ideology and the dangers it brings.

In a recent update involving his case, local media with knowledge of Johannesson’s issues with the principal at H.J. Cody High School in Sylvan Lake, Alberta, confirmed a legal demand letter was sent to the school.

The letter reads, “From his perspective, this opposition is consistent with the Alberta government’s position and legislation prohibiting prescribing prescription hormones to minors and providing care to them that involves transition surgeries.”

In the letter, the school board’s “workplace harassment” procedure is mentioned, stating, “Any act of workplace harassment or workplace violence shall be considered unacceptable conduct whether that conduct occurs at work, on Division grounds, or at division-sponsored activities.”

The legal demand letter, which was sent to school officials last week, reads, “Given that Mr. Johannesson’s expression in the TikTok Video was not connected to his volunteer work, the principal and the division have no authority to regulate his speech and punish him by the Termination decision, which is ultra vires (“beyond the powers.)”

Johannesson has said, in speaking with local media, that his being back at work at the school as a volunteer coach has meaning: “It’s about trying to create some change within the school system.”

He noted how, for “too long,” a certain “political view, one ideology, has taken hold in the school system.”

Johannesson has contacted Alberta’s Chief of Staff for the Minister of Education about his firing and was told that there is a board meeting taking place over the demand letter.

According to Teej, Lambert used his TikTok video as an excuse to get rid of someone in the school with conservative political views and who is against her goal to place “safe space stickers” all over the school.

Teej has been in trouble before with the school administration. About three years ago, he was called in to see school officials for posting on Twitter a biological fact that “Boys have a penis. Girls have a vagina.”

Alberta’s Conservative government under Premier Danielle Smith has in place a new policy protecting female athletes from gender-confused men that has taken effect across the province.

As LifeSiteNews previously reported, the Government of Alberta is currently fighting a court order that is blocking the province’s newly passed ban on transgender surgeries and drugs for children.

Alberta also plans to ban books with sexually explicit as well as pornographic material, many of which contain LGBT and even pedophilic content, from all school libraries.

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Alberta

Parents group blasts Alberta government for weakening sexually explicit school book ban

Published on

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

The revised rules no longer place restrictions on written descriptions of sexual content.

Some parental rights advocates have taken issue with the Conservative government of Alberta’s recent updates to a ban on sexually explicit as well as pornographic material from all school libraries, saying the new rules water down the old ones as they now allow for descriptions of extreme and graphic sexual acts in written form.

As reported by LifeSiteNews last week, Alberta Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides of the ruling United Conservative Party (UCP) released revised rules outlining the province’s ban on sexually explicit content in school libraries.

The original ban included all forms of sexually explicit as well as pornographic material. However, after a large public school board alleged the ban applied to classic books, the government changed the rules, removing a clause for written sexual content that has some parental rights groups up in arms.

Tanya Gaw, founder of the conservative-leaning Action4Canada, noted to media that while she is happy with Premier Danielle Smith for the original book ban, she has deep concerns with the revised rules.

“We are very concerned about the decision that no longer places restrictions on written descriptions of those acts, which is problematic,” she said in an interview with The Epoch Times.

Gaw noted how kids from kindergarten to grade 12 should “never” be “exposed to graphic written details of sex acts: incest, molestation, masturbation, sexual assaults, and profane vulgar language.”

According to John Hilton-O’Brien, who serves as the executive director of Parents for Choice in Education, the new rule changes regarding written depictions “still shifts the burden onto parents to clean up what should never have been purchased in the first place.”

He did say, however, that the new “Ministerial Order finally makes catalogs public, and what we see there is troubling.”

Alberta’s revised rules state that all school library books must not contain “explicit visual depictions of a sexual act.” To make it clear, the standards in detail go over the types of images that are banned due to their explicit pornographic nature.

As reported by LifeSiteNews in May, Smith’s UCP government went ahead with plans to ban books with sexually explicit as well as pornographic material, many of which contain LGBT and even pedophilic content, from all school libraries.

The ban was to take effect on October 1.

The UCP’s crackdown on sexual content in school libraries comes after several severely sexually explicit graphic novels were found in school libraries in Calgary and Edmonton.

The pro-LGBT books in question at multiple school locations are Gender Queer, a graphic novel by Maia Kobabe; Flamer, a graphic novel by Mike Curato; Blankets, a graphic novel by Craig Thompson; and Fun Home, a graphic novel by Alison Bechdel.

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