Red Deer Advocate WEDNESDAY, DEC. 31, 2014
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Pines power line review quashed BY LANA MICHELIN ADVOCATE STAFF The Alberta Utilities Commission will not review its decision to allow larger transmission towers to run through the Pines neighbourhood of Red Deer. About 50 frustrated residents of the Pines subdivision had sought a new Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) hearing on an AltaLink power line project that will see expanded towers erected along an existing electrical right-of-way through the neighbourhood. Residents had instead wanted the towers relocated to a less intrusive location at the bottom of an escarpment. But they felt this alternate route proposal was not considered by the AUC panel that eventually approved the project, or looked at in any detail by AltaLink. That the AUC is now refusing to review its decision to approve the existing right-of-way amounts to “when they make a decision, they don’t like anyone questioning their decision,” said John Wilson, a Pines resident. He disputes the AUC’s determination that running larger towers along the existing route is in the public interest. How can this be, he questions, when his neighbours share a “significant belief” it’s not the right place? The approval body “seems more aligned with the industrial development process than doing what’s right for Albertans,” Wilson added. The AUC concluded there were no grounds for a review. “Applicants did not raise a reasonable possibility that the original panel committed an error, or that previously unavailable facts or changed circumstances could lead the commission to materially vary or rescind the original decision.” Pines residents had argued that AltaLink should have disclosed all internal documents about alternate routes to prove there was no “ulterior motive” in the company’s decision to stick with the existing right of way. But the commission was not persuaded the original hearing panel erred in denying the Pines residents’ request for this information. The AUC accepted that AltaLink’s reasons for its preferred route had been addressed through cross examination, and the disclosure of the sought-for information would not have changed the decision to approve the project. The commission stated many factors were weighed before a route was approved — and AltaLink’s preference was not the only consideration. The AUC accepted AltaLink’s rationale that the Pines neighbourhood “was designed and developed to be integrated with the 80L transmission line and that each of the Pines group members bought their homes and moved to the Pines neighbourhood with the existing facilities in place.” The commission also accepted that keeping most of the project in the existing right-of-way will reduce the project’s environmental impacts. The AUC stated Pines residents had presented “little or no expert evidence” at the hearings that contradicted the environmental arguments presented by AltaLink. But Wilson maintains that, with some tree replanting, there would be no discernible environmental difference between the two routes.
MASS MURDER DOMESTIC TROUBLES BLAMED FOR DEATHS OF NINE PEOPLE IN EDMONTON
Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS
ABOVE: The body of a victim is carried out of a north Edmonton home where multiple deaths occurred in an overnight shooting in Edmonton on Tuesday. BELOW: Police investigate a scene where a car rammed an RCMP truck and damaged restaurant in Fort Saskatchewan on Tuesday. The scene is said to be related to multiple deaths that occurred in a north Edmonton home overnight. BY DEAN BENNETT AND CHRIS PURDY THE CANADIAN PRESS EDMONTON — Police blamed domestic troubles Tuesday for the deaths of nine people, including two young children, in what the chief called a “senseless mass murder.” “This series of events are not believed to be random acts and there is no risk to the broad public,” Rod Knecht told a news conference. “These events do not appear to be gang-related, but rather tragic incidents of domestic violence.” The victims included a woman found Monday night by officers who were responding to a weapons complaint at a south Edmonton home. A young girl and boy along with two men and three women were found a few hours later at a split-level house in the city’s northeast, where officers had checked on reports of a “suicidal male” earlier in the evening. A man matching his description was found dead in a restaurant in the Edmonton bedroom community of Fort Saskatchewan on Tuesday morning, Knecht said. “This morning ... RCMP were able to establish that a male was found deceased at the restaurant location from what appeared to be an apparent suicide.” No names were released, nor did Knecht say how the people were related. But he did say the public was not in any danger and police weren’t looking for other suspects. Knecht said it all started when police responded just before 7 p.m. Monday to a report of a man entering the south-side home, opening fire and fleeing. A middle-aged woman died at the scene. While officers were dealing with that, police
were called to a house in a quiet cul de sac in the northeast to check on the well-being of a depressed and possibly suicidal man, Knecht said. “The male was not located and there was no response, and nothing suspicious was noted at the residence.” But neighbour Moe Assiff said a man and a woman sitting outside the house in a white car seemed very concerned. He said he went up to the car and talked to the man to see if everything was OK. “He looked very shaken up like he had seen a ghost. He paused and he said, ‘No, it’s personal,”’ said Assiff.
Please see MURDER on Page A3
Please see PINES on Page A2
Wildrose defections, killing of two soldiers top turbulent year for Canadians BY BRENDA KOSSOWAN ADVOCATE STAFF
Photo by BRENDA KOSSOWAN/Advocate staff
John Rooke, general manager of the Bower Place shopping mall, says the killing of two soldiers on home soil was the news event that had the most impact on him.
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FORECAST ON A2
INDEX Four sections Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3 Business. . . . . . . . . . . . . B1-B3 Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A5,A6 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . D1-D3 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D4 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . C5 Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B4-B6
A mass defection from the Wildrose Party and the killing of two soldiers on home soil were named the dominant news events of 2014 in an informal poll conducted in Red Deer. It has been a turbulent year for Canadians, from the highs felt after an impressive performance in the Sochi Winter Olympic Games to the horror and sorrow felt after the murders in October of two Canadian soldiers — one in Quebec and the other in Ottawa. Closer to home, the Red Deer region had a turbulent ride as well, including the announcement that the city would host the Canada Winter Games in 2019, along with Premier Jim Prentice’s reversal of an earlier decision to close the Michener Centre. In conversations at Bower Place mall this week, the event that garnered the most comment was Wil-
‘We walked through fire’ A Canadian-born woman and her family conquered flames and fear to survive a Greek ferry fire in the Adriatic Sea. Story on PAGE A5
drose leader Danielle Smith’s decision to cross the floor and join Prentice’s Conservative government. It might not have been as bad if Smith had been the only one to go, said Fort McMurray resident Germain Routhier, a former supporter of the Wildrose Party. What really stung was that she took eight MLAs with her after making some strong comments about the two who crossed two weeks earlier, said Routhier. “You find out that during the time when she was doing this, they were already talking together about moving over. What gives? What’s wrong with people? Either you’re out or you’re in.” Germain said that he voted Wildrose in the last election, but was becoming more confident in the Conservatives under Prentice. However, with Smith’s defection, he doesn’t know who he can support.
Please see NEWS on Page A2
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