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Red Deer Advocate THURSDAY, OCT. 30, 2014
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Minimum wage falls short BY SUSAN ZIELINSKI ADVOCATE STAFF Alberta’s minimum wage is by no means a living wage for most people in Central Alberta. The province’s $10.20 per hour minimum wage, or $9.20 for those who serve alcohol, fails to meet basic needs of the majority of residents in a variety of area communities. A living wage report released this month by Central Alberta Poverty Reduction Alliance includes figures for Red Deer, Blackfalds, Eckville, Innisfail, Lacombe, Penhold, Ponoka, Rimbey and Sylvan Lake.
In Red Deer, lone parents with one child have it the toughest. Parents need to bring home $14.75 per hour to reach a living wage, or $4.55 more than the typical minimum wage. The living wage for a Red Deer couple with two children is $13.11 per parent, and for single adults it’s $10.21. Amanda Ens, community facilitator for the City of Red Deer working with CAPRA, said CAPRA pegged Red Deer’s overall living wage at $14.75 to take into account different sizes of families. The living wage was also developed to cover just the bare necessities. For example a single adult would share a two-bedroom apartment and does not
Oilfield worker guilty of drunk driving
have a vehicle. A living wage budget doesn’t include such things as saving for retirement, special dietary needs, credit card or loan payments, pet ownership, parking, life or disability insurance, and more. “There are no extras in these budgets,” Ens said on Wednesday. “Central Albertans, including businesses, said they would have put more things into a decent or dignified life, or living wage, than we did in our report,” she said according to a CAPRA survey.
Please see WAGE on Page A2
DRUMMOND CLOSE FIRE
BY BRENDA KOSSOWAN ADVOCATE STAFF An oilfield worker from Lacombe has been found guilty of two out of three charges laid after a fatal collision near Sylvan Lake in the fall of 2013. Breton resident Randy Pinch, 41, died on Oct. 2, 2013, of injuries sustained on Sept. 12, when his northbound vehicle was struck by a southbound pickup truck attempting to turn left onto the Aspelund Road from Hwy 20. Matthew Lawrence Engelman, now 26, went to trial last month before Justice Monica Bast in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench. He was charged with impaired driving causing death, dangerous driving causing death, and refusing to provide police with a breath sample after causing an injury or fatal collision. Bast returned with her decision on Wednesday, stating that she had found Engelman guilty of the impaired and refusal charges. Bast said the Crown’s evidence was not sufficient to support a charge of dangerous driving, so she would acquit on that count. Reiterating the evidence presented at trial, Bast said Engelman’s driving pattern shortly before the crash supported the impaired driving charge, as did witness accounts from afterward of Engelman fumbling for his driver’s licence, being glossy-eyed and unsteady on his feet and smelling of alcohol. Although some of his behaviour after the crash could be attributed to shock, his actions at the RCMP detachment in Sylvan Lake support the charge of refusal to provide a breath sample, said Bast. Engelman was told at the site that the driver of the other vehicle was in bad shape and he asked the technician at the detachment about the consequences he would face if he chose not to give a breath sample, she said. Sentencing has been postponed until early next year, pending a pre-sentence report estimated to take about eight weeks. A sentencing date is to be set during arraignments in the Court of Queen’s Bench on Dec. 1. bkossowan@reddeeradvocate.com
Photo by ASHLI BARRETT/Advocate Staff
A Red Deer Emergency Services member investigates the damage done in the basement of the home at 12 Drummond Close on Wednesday afternoon. The home went up in flames on Tuesday afternoon and is considered a total loss. The site has been blocked off for investigation.
Emergency services investigating blaze BY PAUL COWLEY ADVOCATE STAFF The cause of a $300,000 fire on Tuesday at a Deer Park home that left a man badly burned remains undetermined, although arson is not suspected. “We were not able to zero in on anything at this point,” said Wes Van Bavel, of Red Deer Emergency Services. A private investigator joined fire department investigators on scene on Wednesday and the investigation continues into the blaze, which is considered accidental. The split-level home was badly damaged in the fire, which happened around 4:30 p.m. A 69-year-old man who lived in a basement secondary suite was airlifted by STARS to Calgary’s Foothills Hospital for treatment on Tuesday. An up-
date on his condition was not available on Wednesday. Another resident, who lives upstairs, was not at home at the time of the fire. Van Bavel said the home was equipped with hardwired smoke alarms, but the damage was too great to the basement alarm to say with certainty that it was working. The fire department plans to go door-to-door today to talk with neighbours and discuss the incident and provide a fire safety message. When the cause of a fire is known, the department will pass that information on to residents to provide a safety reminder. “We want to give them as much (information) as we can and maybe dispel some of the gossip or talk around the neighbourhood (and say) here’s what happened, and here’s what didn’t happen.” pcowley@reddeeradvocate.com
Rig Street project expects to ‘hit the ground running’ next summer BY MARY-ANN BARR ADVOCATE STAFF
OFF-ROAD TRAIL SYSTEM
A project is underway to develop a 120-km offroad designated trail system west of Sundre and Caroline. Sundre resident Cal Rakach said on Wednesday that the Rig Street project received some matching grant funding this week from the federal government, and he expects “to hit the ground running” come next summer. The trail system could be used by people who use off-road vehicles such as quads, plus fish and gamers, campers and so on, he said. The idea is to use existing oil and gas or forestry routes in the forest, and have a trail system that steers people toward better areas and away from certain areas such as on top of pipelines and through creeks.
An area known as Rig Street runs from west of Bearberry northward to west of Caroline. There have been oil and gas and forestry roads there for many years, and it is popular for random camping, snowmobiling and quadding. The Clearwater Trails Initiative came up with the Rig Street project, and once it is mapped out and developed, a body will be established to look after maintaining it, arm’s length from government. Rakach, 56, is a member of the initiative, described as a group that includes community, industry and government working together to reduce conflict, educate people and share ideas. “We have to do an initial inventory to find out what trails are there,” said Rakach. Those current trails would be un-designated, random routes.
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Rakach said a lot of the funding will be spent on preplanning the trail system, having a look at where work needs to be done, determining the number of kilometres involved, and then designing it. There will need to be approvals from government. They hope to begin work next summer. “Most of what we are going to be doing is rehabilitating existing trail ... fixing holes and all that.” Rakach said they have about half the funding they will need. This week’s approval of funding comes from the federally-funded National Trails Coalition. Other groups have also pitched in. Once the trail is designated, it will need to be maintained. There is a push being made to have off-road vehicle users pay an enhancement fee when they register their vehicles. This money could go toward the maintenance of the trail system.
Please see TRAILS on Page A2
Ottawa gunman no terrorist: Mulcair The shooter in last week’s deadly attack in Ottawa was a criminal but not a terrorist — according to NDP Leader Tom Mulcair. Story on PAGE C2
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