FortSask

Alberta has become the seventh province to sign an agreement in principle with Ottawa on health-care funding.

The federal government said in a news release Monday that more than $24 billion is to be invested in Alberta's health-care system over the next 10 years.

It was a sombre day last Friday (Feb. 24), as it marked one year since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Hosting Ukrainians in Fort Saskatchewan (HUFS) held a vigil at Pioneer House to honour all Ukrainians for their bravery.

The vigil featured speeches from Mayor Gale Katchur, MP Garnett Genuis, and even former premier Ed Stelmach. 

"Many of the organizations like HUFS took it upon themselves before governments organized," said Stelmach. 

A Fort Saskatchewan boy has sacrificed his long locks to help support kids with cancer. 

10-year-old Oliver Dahlseide, a fourth-grade student at Saint John XXIII Catholic School, has been raising money for the Kids Cancer Care foundation for the last few weeks. 

Oliver's first idea was to sell cookies at school in a campaign he called 'Cookies For Cancer'. 

"He spoke to managers at both Safeway and Co-op to get cookies donated, and then presented them at the school's parent council meeting," said Shannon Dahlseide, Oliver's mother. 

CN says overall grain shipment performance for the start of 2023 has been strong.

David Przednowek, CN's Assistant Vice-President of Grain says so far in February, they set record shipments for individual grain weeks of 667,000 tonnes in week 27,  589,000 tonnes for week 28 and over 630,000 tonnes moved for week 29.

A Fort Saskatchewan baseball player will be heading to the United States this summer. 

17-year-old Parker Austin will get his college baseball career started in Missouri after accepting a scholarship with William Woods University. 

"I never saw myself going to Missouri, but it's super cool and a dream come true," said Austin. 

The left-handed pitcher's roots are in Fort Saskatchewan, having played hockey for the U15 AA Rangers before deciding to pursue baseball full-time. 

Canada is imposing more sanctions against Iran for what it describes as gross violations of human rights. 

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly announced twelve senior Iranian government and law enforcement officials are being sanctioned for participating in "gross and systematic human rights violations," including through repressing demonstrations in the western part of the country.

The listed individuals will have their Canadian assets frozen and be barred from entering the country. 

Alberta is scheduled to introduce its budget Tuesday — the last before a spring provincial election — with political observers wondering what the province will do with all its billions of extra petrodollars.

“Any budget that’s leading into an election is always one that contains quite a few goodies,” said University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe.

“Combine that with a government with significantly higher resource royalties than planned, and you have a lot of scope for big announcements."

The Fort Saskatchewan RCMP say they caught an impaired driver doing almost double the posted speed limit. 

On Saturday (Feb. 25) at 4:30 a.m., police reported that a Honda car was travelling 185 km/h in a 100 km/h zone on Highway 21 and Township Road 542.

"A traffic stop was initiated and mandatory alcohol screening produced a ‘fail’ result, revealing that the novice driver was impaired by alcohol," the RCMP said in a release.

A local model is on the world stage with the chance of being on the cover of Inked magazine.

Nicole Jade has reached the top 10 in Inked's Cover Girl competition, where models and tattoo enthusiasts enter for a chance to take home $25,000.

Jade, who is from Fort Saskatchewan, says she's been modelling all her life.

"I was on a commercial for the Family Channel, I've modelled for The Bay, I've been in a magazine for kids."

When Jade's not working or modelling she's spending time with her husband and four-year-old child.

The Fort Saskatchewan Hawks are in the quarterfinals of the CJHL playoffs.

After defeating the Leduc Co-op Riggers in the qualifying round, the Hawks are now up against the Beaumont Chiefs, with their first win coming on Friday (Feb. 24), 3-1.

Paul Garbiar, president of the Hawks, says that they'd lost to Beaumont in last season's playoffs.

"All throughout the course of the year we were fighting with Beaumont for second place," Garbiar said. "We've been working hard, and our team is playing consistently, so I feel we'll be a valued opponent this year."