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Last updateSat, 21 Sep 2024 12pm

Watching out for New Year's baby

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Alberta Health Services (AHS) will not be announcing the names of this year’s New Year’s babies however, The Drumheller Mail is confident it will be rewarding the family with the New Year’s baby in Drumheller.

On Wednesday, December 30, AHS announced it will not be divulging the names of the New Year’s Babies this year.

“Given the current restrictions in place at our healthcare facilities and ongoing health system challenges brought on by COVID-19, Alberta Health Services and Covenant Health will not be identifying or announcing this year’s New Year’s babies. We hope to resume this practice in 2022,” An AHS spokesperson said in a release. 

“While we understand this is a traditional news event, it is simply not possible to invite media into our facilities at this time, or facilitate media interviews. In addition, our labour and delivery teams are extremely busy, and priority must be given to patient care in these extraordinary times.”

The Mail understands the extraordinary pressure the health system is under during this pandemic and the reason behind this announcement.

Annually the Mail has a New Year’s Baby contest, where the family of the winner is showered by thousands of dollars worth of gifts from generous sponsors.

We still wish to award the family and are asking if you are the family that delivers the New  Year’s baby in Drumheller, or if you know of them, to please reach out to news@drumhellermail.com or call 403-823-2580 so we can make arrangements to present the prizes. 


Missing Drumheller man located deceased

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RCMP has confirmed that on Wednesday, December 30, Drumheller resident David Lesoway was located deceased.
Mr. Lesoway, 53, was last seen on Thursday, December 17. He would often travel on foot around the town of Drumheller and routinely frequent local businesses.
Last week Badlands Search and Rescue assisted in a search but did not turn up any leads.
According to an RCMP press release on Thursday, December 31, a search on Wednesday led to the discovery of his body. There was police and Fire Department presence along the former railway right of way in the vicinity of the Alberta Registries office.
Police say the investigation will continue, and there is no indication of any criminality involved.

MLA Horner shines light on electricity bills in private member motion

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MLA for Drumheller-Stettler, Nate Horner ended 2020 on a high note by presenting a private member’s motion to the Alberta Legislature to give all Albertans a fair shake on their utility bills.
On December 14, Motion 515 passed unanimously. His motion was that “the Legislative Assembly urge the Government to work with electricity agencies and electric utilities to lower transmission and distribution costs for consumers.”
“Motion 515 is my attempt to address what I believe is a critical issue for Alberta, the egregiously high cost of transmission and distribution of electricity in this province,” he said in his address.
“Unaffordable electric bills hinder growth greatly and make our province less liveable to boot.”
Transmission and distribution costs have been a concern for Drumheller Town Council. Last spring Drumheller sponsored and passed a resolution at the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association. It read that “AUMA advocate for the Province to implement a modernized electrical system that has reasonable and predictable prices in order to support economic development throughout Alberta,” and further “AUMA advocate for the AUC to reduce the disparity in electricity pricing for transmission and distribution charges across the Province.”
Councillor Fred Makowecki was a proponent of the resolution and is grateful for Horner’s support on the issue.
“I am ecstatic it got explained even more,” Makowecki said. “Nate did an exceptional job and who knows where it is going to go. I know we are going to continue our efforts to mobilize other communities in our area of East Central Alberta and Northern Alberta who have the same provider with the same disparity in transmission costs and try to get more people on board with this.”
He says not only is this troublesome for residential consumers, but this puts regions with higher costs at a disadvantage for industry.
Horner said it is a lottery to get selected to present a private member’s motion. While the motion was accepted, it is not binding. Had it not been presented, it would have never been brought forward if the session closed.
“You have to get lucky to even get the opportunity. It was my first chance to direct the conversation in the house somewhere I wanted it to go. I knew right away, I wanted to make it about distribution charges. I settled along making it a non-partisan attempt to urge the government to focus on affordability for consumers, He said, adding he wanted to make it stronger.
“Originally I thought about making it more aggressive by maybe pushing government to equalize distribution across the province. I still think that is the policy choice, but I didn’t know if it would be well received by enough members of the house that it would have a chance at passing.”
He says this is a hot issue for constituents he hears about almost every week. He has not seen movement on this file during the previous government or the current government.
“The lack of seeing anything done on this file prompted me to go in this direction. I wouldn’t say it’s because the government is unaware or doesn’t care. It is very complicated, and there is no silver bullet.”


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