Lacombe

Extreme cold near the start of this year in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan has led to a damage bill that the Insurance Bureau of Canada says is more than $180 million. 

The bureau says about 70 per cent of the insurance claims related to the extreme cold were for personal property and damage caused by frozen and burst water pipes. 

The cold moved in Jan. 12, breaking dozens of daily minimum records, including in Edmonton where there were four straight days of cold ranging from minus 40 to minus 45 degrees.

Former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi came out of political retirement on Monday, announcing a run for Alberta's NDP leadership to challenge what he termed an “immoral” United Conservative government.

"This government is like nothing I've ever seen before,” Nenshi told The Canadian Press in an interview prior to the announcement.

“They're not only incompetent. They're dangerous and they're immoral.”

Nenshi, 52, was elected mayor of Calgary in 2010 and won three terms before deciding to bow out before the 2021 municipal election.

Scientists believe hot magma will erupt under the Pacific Ocean floor in deep waters off Vancouver Island after they detected up to 200 small earthquakes per hour in the area. 

They say the expected rupture about five kilometres deep and 260 kilometres off the coast of Tofino, B.C., will be too distant and small to be cause for concern, but offers a unique opportunity to learn more about how the Earth's crust is formed.

CPKC is seeing an increase in grain movement. 

CPKC's Assistant Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Bulk Elizabeth Hucker says the crop year got off to a slow start as far as grain movement but things are starting to pick up. 

In the last couple of weeks, CPKC has seen an increase in grain heading to the West Coast, Eastern Canada and the U.S. 

The Town of Ponoka is mourning the death of Councillor Ted Dillon who passed away on March 9.

 As spring quickly approaches, many municipalities are closing the outdoor skating surfaces for the season. 

Here are the closed ice surfaces as of March 11.  

Lacombe 

The City of Lacombe has closed all outdoor skating surfaces for the season. 

For the third straight season, the Lacombe AA Generals will be heading to the Vanberg Cup Finals.

After beating the Red Deer Rustlers in just five games of their best-of-seven series, Lacombe was waiting to see who their next opponent would be.

They now have their answer, the Devon Barons. This past weekend Devon defeated the Bonnyville Pontiacs 6-3 in game five of the North Division Finals on Friday. The Barons will advance to the finals for the first time since they lost to Westlock in 2015.

Wolf Creek Public Schools (WCPS) held a board meeting on March 7.  

Here are the highlights of the meeting:  

Honouring Rimbey Students’ Community Achievement 

In July 2017, the Wildrose Party and the Progressive Conservative Party merged to form the United Conservative Party (UCP). A UCP leadership contest followed, which was an internal UCP process with no oversight from Elections Alberta, except as it related to the Alberta Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act (EFCDA).

Canada will join an international effort to deliver humanitarian assistance to Gaza by sea, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly announced on Sunday, as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians continue to go hungry. 

Joly issued a statement saying Canada will join the international coalition that is working together to increase the flow of aid to Gaza through a humanitarian sea corridor originating from Cyprus. Further details have not yet been released.