Before you complain about Alberta’s health care, spend a week in Saskatchewan. Albertans spend a lot of time complaining about our health-care system. We criticize emergency room waits, physician shortages and overcrowded hospitals. Much of that criticism is justified.

A new bulk water station will be constructed at the end of Sparwood Drive after Sparwood council approved a $308,288 contract for the project.

Sparwood council has advanced changes to its fire services bylaw intended to reduce administrative work, allow controlled use of department equipment and improve cost recovery for emergency responses along Highway 3.

The president of the Crowsnest Conservation Society says the region’s limited mountain headwaters and remaining wildlife habitat are central to the organization’s opposition to open-pit coal development.

Crowsnest Pass council has approved a $15,000 contribution toward a regional film and tourism campaign proposed by Blue Squall Media.

Crowsnest Pass council will send a renewed letter supporting continued regulatory consideration of Northback’s proposed Grassy Mountain coal project.

All we ever asked for was a chance.

There are days when a community can feel hope again and last Friday was one of those days.

When Elections Alberta announced the Water Not Coal citizen initiative petition had failed to meet the legal requirements to proceed, I wasn’t celebrating because a mine had been approved.

Residents in the southeast corner of British Columbia are being asked to weigh in on whether the region should continue changing clocks twice a year or move to permanent year-round time observance.

Alberta is investing $100 million in new classroom supports for students with complex learning, behavioural and safety needs, including one new Grades 7 to 12 complexity team for Livingstone Range School Division.

Applications are now open for Alberta’s new $100 Energy Rebate, a one-time payment the province says is intended to help residents with the rising cost of everyday essentials, including fuel.

A small kindness project started by two University of Lethbridge students is encouraging people in Crowsnest Pass to slow down, explore their community and share a little joy with their neighbours.

I read the social media exchange about Crowsnest Pass and the proposed Grassy Mountain project between two Alberta MLAs several times before I decided to write this.

I believe I left off two weeks ago, in my bubble story, with the fact that I was finally on my way home from Calgary, courtesy of my dear friend Herald Kane, overseer of my eyeball surgery journey, with all its tricky twists and turns. The edict from the Mitchell Eye Centre, on leaving there, was that I was not to ride in the passenger seat in case there was an incident with an airbag. Really? Well, I can tell you that riding head down with my face planted in that foam doughnut, in the back seat of his Nissan was pretty damn uncomfortable. When you are able to see ahead while travelling you mentally and physically adjust to the small nuances of a rocking car. But when you can’t see, you don’t know what is coming at any given moment. It is kind of like getting thrown around in a stagecoach. It didn’t help that Herald was used to driving in Los Angeles traffic so weaving in and out is normal.

I love watermelons and dream of making watermelon jam, but that’s a story for another time. Right now I want to tell you about some of the sweetest, juiciest watermelons I’ve ever eaten that came from the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson. These watermelons were so popular that in 1988, a memorial sign, “Gifts of the Kherson Region,” was erected in the Kherson Oblast, better known as the Kherson Watermelon Monument.

The regional library system serving Crowsnest Pass is warning municipalities that flat funding and rising costs are putting pressure on shared library services across southwestern Alberta.

Crowsnest Pass council has approved a land use bylaw amendment allowing two planned units in a Southmore Drive development to be redesignated for residential use.

The Chinook Regional Hospital Foundation is asking Crowsnest Pass council to help advance plans for expanded cardiac care in southern Alberta, saying residents continue to face higher cardiovascular risks while travelling long distances for treatment.

Crowsnest Pass council will debate a proposal next month that would direct administration to prepare 2027 operating budgets with expenses reduced by 10 per cent compared with 2026 levels.

Do some people actually believe in the process, or do they only believe in the outcome they want?

Over the past several weeks, I have listened to the reaction surrounding Corb Lund’s anti-coal petition, watched the media coverage and tried to understand exactly what opponents of Grassy Mountain are asking for.

Elk Valley firefighters responded to a gas leak in Hosmer Wednesday afternoon after a resident struck a gas line while using an excavator.