Lacombe

Red Deer Lights the Nights is back to celebrate the holiday season.

Free, family-friendly activities are happening downtown and throughout the community, including:

The Medicine River Wildlife Centre is reminding Central Albertans to be mindful of wildlife when decorating for the holiday season.    

This time of year, common calls to the centre include moose and deer with lights tangled in their antlers.   

Due to dense fog and poor visibility, Red Deer Catholic Regional Division has made the decision to cancel school bus service for the morning only, on Friday, Nov. 15.

The schools will remain open, and bus services will resume as usual for the afternoon session.

This cancellation affects the following areas: Innisfail, Blackfalds, Red Deer County, Rocky Mountain House, Olds and Sylvan Lake.

The Blackfalds Bulldogs have acquired 2006-born forward Antoine Gauthier from the Alberni Valley Bulldogs in exchange for Future Considerations.

Gauthier is an Ottawa, Ontario product who played in nine games with Alberni Valley this season where he recorded one assist. 

Last season, he split time with Berkshire School in the United States High School Prep league, where he scored 21 goals and 50 points in 29 games, and the Springfield Thunderbirds 18U AAA team where he had 3 goals in 7 games. 

Alberta's government said it will engage with education partners to develop a new junior high and career education curriculum. According to the province, this effort will aim to improve student success and align future junior high curriculum with the recently updated elementary curriculum. The government plans to release the draft curriculum in the spring of 2025.

Following that, school authorities will have the option to pilot the new curriculum in classrooms during the 2025-26 school year and provide additional feedback to refine the content further.

Canada Post workers are on strike after failing to reach a negotiated agreement with their employer.

Canadian Union of Postal Workers says approximately 55,000 workers are striking, claiming little progress has been made in the bargaining process.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers issued a 72-hour strike notice earlier in the week, saying it's been asking for fair wages, safer working conditions and other improvements over nearly a year of bargaining.

The RCMP is rolling out body-worn cameras for officers, deploying more than 10,000 cameras across the country in the next 12 to 18 months.

Officers will be expected to turn on their cameras when they answer calls or interact with the public. They will wear the cameras on their chests and they will flash red lights to indicate they are recording.

"The muscle memory that we're training officers to build in is essentially seatbelt off, camera on," said Taunya Goguen, the RCMP’s corporate management officer, at a press briefing Thursday. 

Just before 8 pm, Thursday evening, Environment Canada issued a fog advisory for many parts of Central Alberta.

Near zero visibility is occurring in fog patches. Visibility will remain poor tonight and improve Friday morning.

Visibility may be significantly and suddenly reduced to near zero. Travel is expected to be hazardous due to reduced visibility in some locations.

For the latest road conditions click here

The Red Deer Christmas Bureau is now in its 63rd year of serving Central Alberta, and the need for your help and donations is the biggest ever.

Last year 899 food hampers were needed. Teresa Kutynec, the President of The Red Deer Christmas Bureau says that number will be even bigger this year. 

"We're going to be busier this year for sure. We have lots of new people, that we haven't haven't seen before. I think we'll probably do maybe an extra 100 and be right around that 1000 mark."

On Oct. 31, two Red Deer residents were arrested for their involvement in a stolen vehicle incident.   

The Red Deer RCMP Crime Reduction Unit, with the assistance from Red Deer RCMP General Duty officers, the Downtown Patrol Unit, and Police Dog Services located and apprehended the two individuals.  

At approximately 3:27 p.m., officers identified a stolen vehicle located at a business in downtown Red Deer.