FortSask

Premier Danielle Smith’s wood-panelled third-floor legislature office is bereft of bric-a-brac. 

There are no pictures, mementoes or books — only a small stack of Alberta sovereignty act bills perched on her desk. 

The décor is less by design and more by default.

“If I was spending a lot of time in the office, I wouldn’t be doing my job. I’ve got to meet a lot of people offsite and do a lot of work out there,” Smith said in a year-end interview. 

She laughed when recalling her attempts at personal touches.

Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville MLA Jackie Armstrong-Homeniuk has commented on the most recent closure at the Fort Saskatchewan Community Hospital. 

Earlier this month, Alberta Health Services (AHS) announced that the obstetrics unit at the hospital would be closed between December 18 to 29 due to staff absences. 

This forced expecting parents to travel to the Sturgeon County Community Hospital in St. Albert. 

The New Year is just around the corner, and you can ring it in with some free family-friendly activities and entertainment.

On New Year's Eve (Dec. 31) from 4 to 8 p.m., Strathcona County is hosting its annual New Year's Festival at Festival Place. 

The festival starts with snowshoeing, crafts, and shinny hockey, with performances from fire dancers, figure skaters, and even an aerial artist.

Other festivities include hot chocolate and smores along with a classic winter treat, cabane a sucre.

A perfect new year's resolution has arrived for Strathcona County residents. 

The county was recently selected to host L'Ètape, a cycling event hosted by the Tour de France. 

The event is meant to help bring the experience of the Tour de France to everyday people. 

Michael Brown, the CEO of MB events, helped bring the event to the area. 

Fort Saskatchewan residents should expect a slight tweak to how they receive their property tax assessments. 

Last Wednesday (Dec. 21) the city sent out a notice that outlines a few changes to the property tax assessment and notification schedule. 

"It will be mid-February that property owners will receive the assessment notice for their property," said Trish Norman, revenue service coordinator with the city. "In the middle of May, they will receive the actual property tax notice." 

This is a change from the combined notices the city sent out in previous years. 

Utility crews in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick are still working to restore electricity to thousands of customers who have been in the dark for days after last week's fierce winter storms knocked out their power.

As of Tuesday morning, power is still out for nearly 33,000 Hydro-Québec customers and more than 13,000 Hydro One customers.

New Brunswick Power has restored electricity to a majority of customers who were impacted by the storm, which it has said was one of the largest provincewide outage events of the last 25 years.

Canadian Blood Services says it's in need of blood and plasma donors after the winter storm disrupted donations over the holidays. 

Severe wind, snowfall and icy conditions that hit many parts of the country meant that about 10 per cent of expected blood and plasma donations did not happen. 

There's a critical need for platelets for patients undergoing cancer treatments and O-negative blood for newborns and emergencies. 

Canadian Blood Services says it has lost thousands of regular donors since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Fort Saskatchewan Food Bank is celebrating after surpassing its Christmas Hamper fundraising goal. 

On December 17, 94 community volunteers helped to deliver Christmas and toy hampers to families in need around Fort Sask. 

Kassandra Gartner, the executive director of the food bank, says hamper delivery day went as well as it could have gone. 

"We provided 280 holiday food hampers to 280 residences in Fort Saskatchewan and 431 toy packages for children," said Gartner. "[This helped] bring Christmas to more than 900 people in Fort Saskatchewan." 

A Fort Saskatchewan woman is safely at home recovering from a nasty fall earlier this month. 

On December 9, Rebecca Collins, 31, was out walking her dog near Woodbridge and Chestnut when she slipped on the ice. 

"I was about five minutes from home and slipped on the ice and fell in between two streets," said Collins. "I couldn't really move because I heard something happen in my leg." 

Funnily enough, Collins's first reaction wasn't necessarily about how hurt she was. 

Four people died and dozens of others were injured when the bus they were travelling on rolled over on an icy highway in the British Columbia Interior on Christmas Eve, provincial RCMP said Sunday.

The Mounties said they received multiple calls on Saturday shortly after 6 p.m. regarding the crash on the Highway 97C Okanagan Connector east of Merritt near the Loon Lake exit.

The force confirmed on Sunday afternoon that four people were found dead at the scene, but provided no details about the victims' ages or identities.