FortSask

Consolidation is happening more and more in the ag sector from farm input companies to equipment dealers and grain elevators.

Agricultural commentator  and farmer Kevin Hursh thinks the farm reaction to the merger will be fairly muted as there are many delivery choices for farmers.

Environment Canada has issued a Special Air Quality Statement for the area.

The areas covered by the statement include Fort Saskatchewan, Bruderheim, Lamont, Gibbons, and Sherwood Park, and Edmonton.

Wildfire smoke is causing poor air quality and reduced visibility at times. Wildfire smoke can be harmful to people's health, even in low concentrations.

Children, pregnant people, and those who work outdoors are at a higher risk of experiencing health effects, along with those who suffer from heart or lung disease.
 

Strathcona County has moved from a fire ban to a fire advisory as of Thursday (June 15).

When the fire ban was in effect, all types of open fires and burning were prohibited. Any kind of fire permits were also suspended. However, residents were still permitted to use propane barbecues.

Now that the fire ban has been moved to a fire advisory, all outdoor fires and burning are now permitted, even on public land.

However, fireworks and exploding targets are still prohibited without the written permission of a forest officer.

Chris Hadfield says he's been working with King Charles on a space sustainability plan dubbed the Astra Carta.

The Astra Carta will explore how humans can use space and settle the moon in a different way than they have settled on Earth, the Canadian astronaut said Tuesday.

“We have a clean slate with the moon,” he told The Canadian Press on the sidelines of the Super Session, a Toronto conference held by the Creative Destruction Lab, a non-profit helping science and tech firms.

“There's no life on the moon, so we're not disrupting an ecology.”

Strathcona County RCMP has located a missing man deceased. 

On June 14, 55-year-old Grant Wozny was reported missing. 

Police say he was last spoken to on June 8 and was believed to have last been seen at the Flying J gas station in Sherwood Park at the beginning of the month. 

On Tuesday (June 20) RCMP released that they had found Wozny dead. 

Police do not currently believe the circumstances of his death to be suspicious. 

A man who went missing over a year ago has been found deceased by the Fort Saskatchewan RCMP.

Trent Milligan was last seen in July of 2022 in Fort Saskatchewan. Police received reports of him missing in January of 2023.

Milligan's remains were found by police during a search of a rural area back in April. His identity has been confirmed through DNA testing.

An investigation into Milligan's disappearance is still ongoing.

Are dogs and other kinds of pets allowed at the Fort Saskatchewan Farmers' Market?

According to Karen Collins with the Fort Saskatchewan and Lamont Regional Chamber of Commerce - yes, they are.

"In 2019, the chamber changed its policy. The park is city property. It's a public park, it's public land. It's not in an enclosed arena, like other farmers' markets," said Collins.

However, all dogs and other pets must be on a leash and can't approach any food vendor unless given permission by the vendor themselves.

A Strathcona County cat shelter pilot project has released some statistics on its first seven months in operation. 

Sheltered Paws, which is run by the Greater Edmonton Animal Rescue Society (GEARS) opened up in the county on October 1 as part of a one-year cat shelter pilot project. 

In a report to the council, the shelter said that as of May 14, 87 cats were brought to the shelter (50 male and 37 female) of which just 11 were spayed or neutered upon intake. 

36 of those cats were kittens under a year old. 

With some communities deciding to lift fire bans while others are reinstating fire bans, what is happening where can become confusing. 

As of Wednesday (June 14), there are not a lot of regions that are still under a fire ban with recent wet weather prompting the implementation of a fire restriction in its place. 

A Sherwood Park family was displaced after a fire broke out in their home last week. 

Firefighters received word of a structure fire on Alder Avenue last Wednesday (June 7).

According to Devin Capcara with Strathcona County Emergency Services, the fire was in a single-family residence.

"Crews were able to bring that one quickly under control," said Capcara. "Some pretty extensive smoke damage to the interior of the house, but fire damage was contained to the kitchen."