Okotoks

The Alberta RCMP are on the lookout for Dustin Edward Wood for various crimes.  

Wood was included in this week's edition of Wanted Wednesday.  

His last known location is Calgary, with areas of activity including Okotoks, Black Diamond, Brooks, Langdon, and Strathmore.  

The Town of High River is warning residents about the presence of a noxious but pretty weed.

Creeping Bellflower, a perennial plant with purple, bell-shaped flowers, has been spotted around town. Despite its beauty, it spreads aggressively and is tough to get rid of.

Each stem can produce up to 15,000 seeds, and the plant is resistant to some herbicides, making it difficult to control. It typically blooms between June and September.

Because of its rapid spread and resistance, Creeping Bellflower can damage gardens, crops, and local ecosystems.

The RCMP will be moving to a new location in Nanton.

Currently, the RCMP detachment is at 2501 21 St, but will be moving to 1907 - 21 Ave, which happens to be the present location of the Town Office on Highway 2 South.

In a media release about the move, the Town and the Alberta RCMP state that this move will provide a strong, visible, and accessible police presence in Town.

The Town is leasing the RCMP the space the Town Administration is in for 20 years, but this move will not affect the Nanton Library.

Administrators say federal government needs to build more trust into the Advance Payment Program

Administrators of the Advance Payments Program say Ottawa should stop treating farmers as if they are going to default on repayments.

They said the application process should be streamlined and the program made simpler and more consistent.

Dave Gallant, vice-president of finance and APP operations at the Canadian Canola Growers Association, said the CCGA administers about $2.5 billion in advances each year on behalf of the federal government.

One person was seriously injured after a small plane crashed on a private airstrip in central Alberta.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada says the two-seater was flying Tuesday from Wetaskiwin to Linden, a town about 100 kilometres northeast of Calgary.

The agency says the plane was approaching the rural airstrip when its fixed landing gear hit a fence and flipped.

RCMP say two 82-year-old men were on board.

They say one was airlifted to hospital in serious condition and the other was taken by ground ambulance with minor injuries.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service says it's dealing with a growing number of immigration security screening requests — and immigration lawyers say their clients are coping with long delays as a result.

The intelligence agency says in its latest annual report it received over 538,000 screening requests from immigration and border officials in 2024. The agency began to see a significant increase in requests in 2023, when it received over 493,200 requests. Before that, CSIS received roughly 300,000 security screening requests annually over the previous five years.

With harvest approaching, farmers will want to start thinking about pre-harvest intervals (PHI) before applying any pesticides and or fungicides to the crop.

The PHI refers to the minimum number of days between a pesticide application and swathing or straight combining of a crop and reflects the time required for pesticides to break down after being applied.

Research finds agriculture waste could be transformed into biogas and fertilizer using bacteria-based techonology

Canadian farms could significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions while generating renewable energy by converting agricultural waste into biogas, a McGill University doctoral student says.

Anjaly Paul said anaerobic digestion could transform livestock manure and crop residues that would otherwise decompose in landfills into valuable resources.

A Saskatoon-based company has begun field trials of a replacement for granular peat inoculant.

Peat has been used for decades to inoculate crops such as peas and lentils and is a biological that provides consistent benefits, said Dave Greenshields, who founded Insight Plant Health in 2020.

However, customers are looking for a replacement, he told people attending a recent Canada-Saskatchewan Irrigation Diversification Centre field day.

Over 100 charges have been laid against 17 suspects in relation to a string of break-ins across Calgary.

According to the Calgary Police Service (CPS), a task force was created earlier this year in response to a rise in late-night residential break-and-enters, dating back to August 2024.

The investigation culminated in three search warrants executed at southeast Calgary homes, along with six judicial authorizations.