FortSask

Canada is ready to help in the aftermath of a disastrous earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday, as authorities in those countries reported that more than 3,400 people had died and thousands more were injured.

Rescue workers and residents searched the rubble of toppled buildings for survivors and officials feared the death toll would keep climbing.

Wide-spread service issues are affecting Telus services in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Issues include dropped mobile calls and data, which also include users unable to dial 911 in case of emergencies. 

"We apologize, TELUS Services are currently experiencing a disruption, including impact to mobile devices, which may affect your ability to reach emergency (911) services," reads an online notification from Telus. 

"We recognize how this interruption may impact you, and we appreciate your patience as we work to restore services as quickly as possible."

Three Morinville cheer teams landed themselves first-place trophies over the weekend. 

Teams from Morinville Community High School (MCHS), G.H Primeau (GHP), and St. Kateri Academy (SKT) took part in Cheerfest in Athabasca. 

The MCHS Wolves were among the most successful of the bunch, taking home first-place finishes in four categories including: 

• 1st in All-Girl Advanced
• 1st in Game Day divisions
• 1st in both Cheerfest divisions 

Amanda Bulger helped coach the Wolves and is super proud of how they came together. 

The Gibbons fire department had a very busy 2022. 

In a recent Facebook post, the department revealed every single call they responded to over the year. 

"We had 325 calls total, and that includes town and county," said Eric Lowe, the Gibbons fire chief. "Which is a big year for us." 

The department saw a variety of different calls come in, including a fair amount of structure fires and vehicle collisions. 

Fire chief Todd Martens has given an update on the fire in downtown Fort Saskatchewan last week.

According to Martens, they received the call of the fire at 12:46 p.m. and arrived on the scene within five minutes.

Firefighters arrived to see heavy smoke and flames. They quickly determined that it was an abandoned house and that the extent of the damages was a complete write-off.

Due to the type of building, there were challenges in putting the fire out. An excavator was needed to gain access to hot spots on the roof.

The chief economist with Farm Credit Canada says we are better off in the ag sector with a low Canadian dollar to the U-S.

The lower Canadian dollar makes our products more competitive in the global market.

J.P. Gervais expects to see a decline in the Loonie for the first half of the year before starting to recover/

Fort Saskatchewan's Olen Zellweger keeps making headlines. 

This time Zellweger is in the news for scoring an insane last-minute goal to help the Kamloops Blazers defeat the Victoria Royals by a slim 4-3 margin. 

The goal happened on Sunday (Feb. 5) night with just over 22 seconds left to play in a 3-3 tie. 

You can check out the awesome moment below:

WHAT A GOAL, WHAT A FINISH 🔥🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/Lr2a2jnnMe

Police in Redwater caught someone going 50 kilometres over the limit claiming to be frantically looking for a bathroom.

In early January, an officer was patrolling Highway 63 when they noticed a red Hyundai speed past.

Using a speed gun, the officer clocked the red Hyundai going 152 km/h in a 100 km/h zone. The officer pulled over the vehicle, where the female driver said she needed to use the washroom, and her GPS was saying that the next washroom was over an hour away.

Before the days of waiting for a new Highway 15 bridge to cross the North Saskatchewan River, residents had to rely on a ferry. 

The old Fort Saskatchewan ferry has an interesting place in the community's history, with tales of tragedy and outrage sprinkled throughout its story. 

Things first started around 1874.

"Around the time the Northwest Mounted Police arrived the only way to cross the North Saskatchewan River, if you were coming from Edmonton on the old fort trail, was by a small boat," said Kyle Bjornson, the curator at the Fort Sask Precinct.

Increasing costs, higher interest rates, and inflation may mean more producers may be looking at taking part in the Advance Payments Program for this year. 

The cash advance is available to crop, livestock and honey producers across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.

Under the program, eligible producers can access up to $1 million and receive the first $250,000 interest-free on over 50 different commodities.