Matthew Scace, The Canadian Press

Alberta is planning to ditch its long-maligned paper health cards with a new app it has dubbed the "Alberta Wallet."

Holding her own crumpled health card from behind a podium, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Friday the app would allow people to access their health card from their phone.

"We've been trying to get rid of these things," Smith told a news conference in Calgary as she toyed with the small, rectangular card.

She said her own card was dog-eared on both sides and the plastic cover had broken.

The bad news for Alberta's oil-reliant budget is set to get worse.

Finance Minister Nate Horner says softening oil prices mean this year's projected budget deficit is expected to grow by $1.3 billion, and will now finish at $6.5 billion in the red when the fiscal year ends next spring.

That represents a massive multibillion-dollar swing in Alberta's financial fortunes, as it is coming off an $8.3-billion surplus the year prior.

"We are going to have to weather some of this," Horner told a news conference Thursday.

People in Calgary can expect to hear a consistent round of loud bangs for at least another day as police try to disarm an explosive substance in a south-end industrial neighbourhood.

Police say a moving company had been tasked with disposing of several substances, including a package of picric acid.

But that package was mislabelled and had been sitting for about 10 days when it was discovered early Tuesday afternoon. Police were notified later in the day.

The head of the Alberta Energy Regulator has cancelled an application hearing for a potential coal mine, a move that he acknowledged is "without precedent."

The hearings had been scheduled for a proposed underground coal mine in Grande Cache, Alta., owned by Summit Coal Inc., which would produce about 3,562 tonnes of coal per day.

This year, municipal candidates in Calgary and Edmonton face a decision they've never had to make: whether to join a political party.

But the choice represents more than the embrace or rejection of a new political system. It's a decision that will affect the flow of money into their campaigns.

One person was seriously injured after a small plane crashed on a private airstrip in central Alberta.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada says the two-seater was flying Tuesday from Wetaskiwin to Linden, a town about 100 kilometres northeast of Calgary.

The agency says the plane was approaching the rural airstrip when its fixed landing gear hit a fence and flipped.

RCMP say two 82-year-old men were on board.

They say one was airlifted to hospital in serious condition and the other was taken by ground ambulance with minor injuries.

One year to the day a wind-whipped fire forced thousands to flee in the dark of night along one smoke-choked road, the mayor of Jasper acknowledged it was a day of remembrance that some would much rather forget.

After 45 years in their Jasper home, it took mere minutes for Wes Bradford's quaint mountain abode to burn to a pile of ash.

A year later, he and his wife are itching to rebuild. They've hired a contractor and designer, and their insurance will cover the expected $1-million price tag. But they can't start yet — not until their empty lot, currently a flat mound of dirt, has been declared contaminant-free.

"We're up against the wall," says Bradford, after meeting their builder in Jasper the day before.

Canada's new prime minister, best known as a buttoned-down banker, donned a cowboy hat and toured the stables Friday evening at the Calgary Stampede.

Over an hour-long tour winding through the rodeo grounds, Mark Carney crawled into a tank, snacked at food stations and posed for dozens of selfies, marking his first visit to the Stampede as prime minister.

Whether Alberta should withhold social services from immigrants is among the issues Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is tabling for debate this summer when she travels the province to consult citizens on potential referendum questions.

The tour is part of what Smith has dubbed the "Alberta Next" panel. At a news conference Tuesday, she announced details of its work and named its 15 members.

At the same time, six online surveys were launched on the panel's website, which are to help inform what questions the government puts to a referendum next year.