Strathmore

Stéphan Perreault and his team have been helping restore power in North Carolina since Hurricane Helene hit in late September, and they don't expect to be heading home any time soon.

They are some of the hundreds — possibly thousands — of Canadian line workers who have been called into service to help rebuild power grids after Helene and now Hurricane Milton have left millions of Americans in the dark.

Former public safety minister Bill Blair told a federal inquiry Friday he had no knowledge about delays in approving a spy service warrant in 2021 that may have included references to people in his own government.

A commission of inquiry into foreign interference has heard that it took 54 days for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service warrant application to be approved by Blair.

The average turnaround time for such applications is four to 10 days.

Here's a look at some of this week's top news photos as selected by editors.

This drone image provided by Kairat Kassymbekov shows flooding from Hurricane Milton in Tampa, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (Kairat Kassymbekov via AP)

A former public safety minister says he is very worried the unfolding conversation about some parliamentarians being complicit in foreign interference is becoming a "kangaroo court." 

Marco Mendicino told a commission of inquiry into foreign meddling Thursday it is important to follow due process under the law before jumping to conclusions about the conduct of parliamentarians. 

Strathmore's town council went over this year's snow report at the Wednesday (Oct. 9) council meeting.

The report was presented by Donna McCallum, operations manager for the town. She began the presentation with statistics from last year's winter.

"This past season from October to March we dedicated over 1,700 hours to snow maintenance activities. Keep in mind, public works have seven people, and parks have five," said McCallum. "We had 33 days that it snowed, with a total accumulation of 182 centimetres."

RCMP says a recent partnership helped clear the streets of crime.

Officers from Drumheller, Strathmore, the Alberta Sheriff Highway Patrol, and peace officers from Drumheller, Kneehill County, and Wheatland County helped with the initiative.

According to an RCMP news release, it was meant to find wanted people with warrants, conduct court condition checks on previously charged criminals, help deal with crime, and increase traffic enforcement.

Cody Miller is an avid fan of all things miniature figure painting.

Miller says he's been painting for over eight years and got into the hobby when he was out of work at the time.

He says he played Dungeons and Dragons for a while and added that people can buy the generic figures, but he ended up finding unpainted ones of the characters he was playing.

"I started by watching some YouTube videos, kind of learning from there." 

While there are many ways to celebrate Thanksgiving, many people will have enjoyed sitting down to a nice juicy turkey.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are the two biggest seasons for turkey consumption,  but over the last few years, the industry has launched a campaign to broaden that reach.

Chair of the Turkey Farmers of Canada  Darren Ference says more and more people are now eating whole turkeys or turkey parts throughout the year.

With temperatures reaching into the minuses overnight, harvest season has been winding down over the last few weeks.

James Agnew, a local producer with Mullen Farms, spoke about this year's harvest.

"We grow wheat, barley, oats, and canola, and cow-calf commercial herd," said Agnew. "We seed in the first part of May and harvest in September."

According to Agnew, there were a few setbacks throughout the season, including the extreme heat over the summer.

Strathmore's old RCMP station still stands to this day.

The building, which was used by the RCMP between 1961 and 1995, is located on Glendale Street. The old station is visible while driving on Highway 1.

Back then it was used by the True North Society before being taken over by Step One Housing, which provides affordable housing for those with mental illnesses.

"We work closely with landlords in Strathmore, and we've been in the building for about 18 years, give or take," said John Bland, board chair with Step One.