Lacombe

During the March 24 regular meeting, Lacombe City Council discussed red tape reduction, the fire station North Area Structure Plan, and downtown development.  

Here are the meeting highlights: 

Open Forum 

Request to Review Order to Remedy Contraventions - Ian Brown 

Canadian police patrolling corners of the dark web are well aware of the commonly nefarious ways criminals exploit artificial intelligence. 

There's deepfake pornography. Voice impersonation. Romance scams that turn into financial fraud.

But recently there's been a new twist — criminals offering to "jailbreak" the very algorithms that form the architecture of AI's large language models, or LLMs, tearing down their safeguards so they can be retasked for criminal purposes.

Call it tech support for cybercriminals.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney is back in Ottawa today to deal with the fallout of new auto tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump. 

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Carney said he was suspending his campaign plans for the day and would return to Ottawa to hold a meeting of the Canada-U.S. cabinet committee.

It's unclear when Carney will be back on the road to continue campaigning. 

Update:

A snowfall warning has ended for Ponoka County Wetaskiwin County, and Clearwater County.

Snowfall was expected to slowly taper off today.

Storm total snowfall accumulations were expected to range from 15 to 35 cm.

Surfaces such as highways, roads, walkways and parking lots could be difficult to navigate due to snow. Poor weather conditions could cause transportation delays.

Click here for the latest weather updates.

The Sylvan Lake RCMP is investigating an accidental death.

Wednesday morning at 11:18 a.m., RCMP received a request from EMS to assist with a medical emergency on 48 A Avenue and 46 Street in Sylvan Lake.  

An adult male was treated by EMS but succumbed to his injuries.   

A grant of $608,307 was given to Big Brothers Big Sisters to make a lot of changes possible for the Centre for Social Impact (CSI) in downtown Red Deer.  

The group received the grant through the Government of Alberta’s Community Enhancement Program (CFEP) for purposed facility upgrades. 

Individuals have roughly another month to file their taxes to avoid late-filing penalties and interest charges.

The deadline for individuals is April 30, while self-employed individuals have until June 16 this year because the 15th falls on a Sunday.

Jeffrey Zhang, a tax expert with H&R Block, says there’s another hidden deadline people should be aware of.

He notes that anyone who has capital gains on their tax return can automatically get a soft extension to June 2 without penalty or interest charges, provided they pay before that date.

The Town of Sylvan Lake's mandatory water conservation program is coming into effect on April 1.   

The annual program helps the town protect the aquifer and ensure there is enough water.     

Water conservation measures include:   

• All homes: Watering ban every day from 10 a.m. - 7 p.m.  

At École Fox Run School recently, about 150 Grade 8 students and 130 Grade 2 students from C.P. Blakely Elementary School and Beacon Hill School took part in a special science day.

This is the first year Beacon Hill has participated.

The event happens annually and has become a tradition at Fox Run School that students eagerly anticipate.

“It gets us out of class and learning new things,” says Arianna A., a Grade 8 Fox Run student.

The Ponoka RCMP is inviting residents to “Coffee with a Cop,” today (March 26) at 1 p.m.

The event gives residents an opportunity to get to know local officers and discuss policing duties and responsibilities.

RCMP members will be available to discuss policing priorities, concerns, crime in the community, reduction initiatives, and how to keep the community safe.