Red Deer 1913 — 2013 Create Celebrate Commemorate
FEE KEEPING DISPUTE HER COOL Competition tribunal turns down credit card complaint
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Selena Gomez is rarely in danger of losing her poise C6
CENTRAL ALBERTA’S DAILY NEWSPAPER
BREAKING NEWS ONLINE AT WWW.REDDEERADVOCATE.COM
WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 2013
Icon at the airshow
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
The skies over Rocky Mountain House will be filled with high-flying acrobatics and gravity-defying stunts as the Rocky Mountain House Airshow returns after a two-year hiatus. The Canadian Forces Snowbirds will perform at the airshow. The Canadian Forces Snowbirds (431 Air Demonstration Squadron) are a Canadian icon comprised of serving members of the Canadian Forces. They arrived at the Rocky Mountain House Airport on Tuesday to prepare for today’s show. Gates open at the Rocky Mountain House Airport at 2 p.m., and the evening show begins at 5:30 p.m. The best access to the event will be parking at the Rocky Arena and taking a shuttle bus to the airport. Buses leave every 30 minutes beginning at 2 p.m. See related story on page C1. See related video at www.reddeeradvocate.com.
Royal watchers waiting for a name BY SUSAN ZIELINSKI ADVOCATE STAFF Royal watchers are waiting to put a name to the newest member of the Royal Family. L o r n a W a t - ROYALS SHOW OFF kinson-Zimmer NEWBORN SON C2 said Prince William and Kate Middleton may continue to surprise people. “I just love the fact that they really did fool everybody. Everyone speculated it was going to be a girl because of some of the things Kate did. Good for them,” said the Red Deer woman, who celebrated the 2011 marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with a party. “I wonder if the word Spencer will be part of the name? You know Spencer is a good boy’s name. It could be in there,” she said referring to Princess Diana’s last name. Princess Diana was Prince William’s mother. Middleton gave birth to the couple’s first baby on Monday at 4:24 p.m. On Tuesday, the world got its first glimpse of their son as the couple posed for photos as they left St. Mary’s Hospital in central London. The infant is third in line to the British throne. Watkinson-Zimmer said the modern, young couple may not wait as long to name their son as other royals. Prince Charles and Princess Diana “didn’t name William until five days after and Charles was something like a couple of months. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was just a couple of days.”
SYLVAN LAKE
Census error costs funding 357 HOMES NOT COUNTED BY CRYSTAL RHYNO ADVOCATE STAFF
things happening in the world that are pretty ugly,” said Mulder, who was waiting to see coverage of the couple as they emerged from the hospital.
Sylvan Lake’s population has surged to 13,015 but 357 homes were not counted in the tally, creating a loss in provincial funding. On Tuesday, the town released its initial 2013 census numbers, which showed 1,820 residents moved into the lake resort town since the last municipal census in 2008. It also showed an influx of 688 new residents or 5.6 per cent over the 2011 federal census. But missing out on the dollars associated with 600 to 750 residents is concerning, said Sylvan Lake Mayor Susan Samson. “I think sometimes there is a lack of understanding of how important it is to be involved in a census,” said Samson. “If you are not counted, you are not part of the per capita grants that are coming from the province. That money is lost to us and we cannot get it back until next time we do a census.” The uncounted live in two large apartment complexes in Sylvan Lake. Samson said town staffers made multiple attempts to reach the residents, including door knocking and sending letters.
Please see BABY on Page A2
Please see CENSUS on Page A2
Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Britain’s Prince William carries his newborn son, the Prince of Cambridge, who was born on Monday, into public view for the first time, outside the Lindo Wing of St. Mary’s Hospital, in London, Tuesday. The boy will be third in line to the British throne. Red Deer city Councillor Lynne Mulder was the first to publicly congratulate the couple on the birth at Monday’s council meeting. “We all rejoiced. It’s a good news story at a time when there’s a lot of
Study finds little environmental enforcement of infractions BY THE CANADIAN PRESS
OILSANDS
EDMONTON — A survey of thousands of environmental problems in Alberta’s oilsands attacks the province’s claims to having strict control over the industry’s environmental impact. Fewer than one per cent of likely environmental infractions have drawn any enforcement, says the survey. It also says the province’s records are incomplete and riddled with errors, so there is no way to really understand industry’s impact on the region. And the authors found the same problems recurring time and time again, suggesting environmental improvement in some areas isn’t happening. “When you’ve looked at thousands
of these records, what we’re seeing is the tip of the iceberg,” said Kevin Timoney, a biologist and environmental consultant who is a co-author. The Alberta government disputes the findings. The genesis of the 677-page report — which is not published in an academic journal but has been peer-reviewed — was in 2008, when Timoney was working in Alberta Environment’s data library in Edmonton. He came across shelves of records that appeared to contain details of breaches of environmental regulations and conditions that hadn’t been publicly released. When library staff told him the records were off-limits, Timoney and Pe-
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FORECAST ON A2
ter Lee of Global Forest Watch decided to find out what was in them. Through an epic series of Freedom of Information filings, they eventually compiled a list of 9,262 infractions since 1996 — everything from spills into the Athabasca River to excessive smokestack emissions to the discovery of random waste dumps in the bush. Just as troubling as the quantity of the files is their quality. “It was evident that there were thousands of incidents the public didn’t know anything about,” Timoney said. “(But) it’s exceedingly difficult to do anything with them because they basically just give you a pile of paper.” The files were generated through industry self-reporting and public complaints. Timoney and Lee asked for them in two different formats: one with basic data and one with more detail.
But instead of getting two sets of files with different information on the same events, they received two substantially different sets of incidents. The files themselves are often incomplete and full of mistakes. Some lack information such as what gases were released in an air-related contravention. Others lump together several incidents into a single report. Many are spelled and written in such a way as to be impossible to organize into a database. More than 5,000 such errors had to be fixed before the authors could even start their analysis. “The system does not provide timely and accurate data,” the report concludes. “The number of incidents and the analyses of incident rates should be viewed as minimum estimates.”
CANADA
SPORTS
EMERGENCY RAIL DIRECTIVES ISSUED
JAYS BLOW BIG LEAD
The Lac-Megantic train disaster prompted a flurry of political manoeuvering Tuesday as the Conservative government issued emergency rail directives. A5
Please see OILSANDS on Page A2
Adrian Gonzalez’s three-run home run keyed a four-run eighth inning Tuesday as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 10-9, sending Toronto to its sixth straight loss. B4