FortSask

A local athlete took home silver for Team Alberta at the 2023 Canada Winter Games in Prince Edward Island (P.E.I).

Katie Bajema is a 14-year-old wheelchair basketball player raised in Sturgeon County.

"I grew up northeast of Gibbons...on an acreage," said Bajema.

Bajema grew a love for wheelchair basketball just a year ago. 

"I started in the summer. My friend's sister asked me to come out to practice, and then we did some scrimmaging."

It's going to be a weekend full of basketball. 

In total, eight local teams will be competing in their respective city finals on Saturday (Mar. 4). 

This includes the Salisbury senior girls' team competing for the Division I championship against Jasper Place. 

The girls had a fantastic year, ending their regular season with an 8-2 record and knocking off the league-leading Strathcona team in a 66-49 win in the semi-finals. 

They will be looking to repeat as league champions. 

Strathcona County has officially opened up their new and improved HodgePodge Lodge facility. 

On Wednesday (Mar. 1) Mayor Rod Frank was joined by Erin Wildeboer, the county's waste diversion program liaison, for the grand opening.

"It feels great," said Frank. "People are really enthusiastic about the Hodgepodge Lodge, it fills a real need for reuse in our county."

"In the old days, everything got thrown out. That's no longer the answer." 

The RCMP is not investigating any allegations of foreign interference concerning the last general election, the federal deputy minister of public safety told a parliamentary committee Wednesday.

Shawn Tupper was appearing at the committee on procedure and House affairs, which is looking into accusations of Chinese meddling in the 2019 and 2021 elections.

The Liberal government has come under pressure in recent weeks to explain what Canada is doing about accusations of Chinese interference in the elections following leaks to the media from unnamed security sources.

A 59-year-old man from Wheatland County is facing a long list of charges.

In November of last year, reports came in regarding a man who was slaughtering sick and injured cattle, selling uninspected meat and then unlawfully disposing of the dead cattle.

Alberta Agriculture Inspections and Investigation Section (IIS), Wheatland County and the RCMP Livestock Investigation Unit (LIU) were involved in the arrest and shutting down of the operation.

A few intersections in Morinville could see some changes. 

Over the last few months, town council has been awaiting a report from an intersection planning project to address problems at two local intersections. The intersections in question were 100 Avenue/Grandin Drive and Cardiff Road/100 Street. 

Jordan Betteridge, the manager of infrastructure services with the town, says that residents were particularly concerned with these two locations. 

Gibbons should be paying close attention to Team Alberta's women's hockey team at the 2023 Canada Winter Games. 

Local player Paige Smith has been competing with the team in P.E.I. for the last week. 

Born and raised in the small community, Smith fostered a love for hockey early in her life. 

"I started [playing hockey] when I was super young," said Smith. "My brother and sister played hockey since they were young, and I am the youngest in the family." 

"With them playing I got skates and started playing with them." 

The Alberta government has given a reasoning for the nine emergency alerts.

Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services Mike Ellis, gave the following explanation:

“During the test in Alberta on March 1 of the new national system, a glitch caused multiple test alert messages to be distributed to compatible devices," Ellis wrote in a statement.

"All partners in the National Public Alerting System are working with the Alberta Public Alerting team to identify and resolve the issue that caused these repeat alerts.

Just a day before going into effect, the Alberta government announced that they have delayed changes to the Traffic Safety Amendment Act.

Originally scheduled to come into effect on March 1, the changes would include different laws for passing emergency vehicles. 

Instead, the province has pushed back the changes to September 1. They say their reasoning is to prevent confusion.

A multi-vehicle crash is causing delays on Highway 16.

According to 511 Alberta, just before 5 p.m. on Wednesday (Mar. 1), a multi-vehicle crash happened at the intersection of Highway 16 and Sherwood Drive, near Sherwood Park.

The crash is causing delays as emergency services work to clear the road.

More details to come.