Oilsands plant production to resume soon, Notley says
EDMONTON—Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says the province and the energy industry are working together to quickly restart oilsands projects that were forced to shut down by the Fort McMurray wildfire.
Notley said May 10 that production is expected to resume in the days ahead once “it is absolutely safe to do so for personnel as well as for the environment.”
“There is an economic consequence to taking production offline,” she said after a meeting with oil company executives. “There’s foregone revenue to both companies and to the Crown.”
Steve Williams, CEO of Suncor, said it’s important for the Canadian economy to get production back on track. He added he doesn’t anticipate any layoffs generally because of the fire.
Government finally moves to create committee on electoral reform
OTTAWA—The Trudeau government is finally getting around to creating a long-awaited special parliamentary committee on electoral reform. A motion to create the committee was placed on the House of Commons order paper May 9.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised during last fall’s election campaign that it would be the last election conducted under the first-past-the-post electoral system. He promised to create a committee to examine alternatives and report back with recommendations within 18 months.
The motion specifies that the committee is to study “viable alternative voting systems, such as preferential ballots and proportional representation” as well as mandatory voting and online voting, and to present its final report no later than December, 2016.
New Brunswick launches strategy to become a world leader in cybersecurity
FREDERICTON—Premier Brian Gallant says New Brunswick is the first province in the country to develop a comprehensive strategy on cybersecurity and cyber innovation.
Gallant made the announcement at the University of New Brunswick where he launched CyberNB, a strategy to create jobs and revenues in the various fields of cyber technology.
Cybersecurity expert Allen Dillon has been hired to head CyberNB. He says the pace of technology has outpaced security experts, and New Brunswick is well placed to be a world leader in the efforts to combat cybercrime.
Dillon says there will be approximately 192,000 information and communications technology jobs in Canada by 2020 and 67,000 of them will be in cybersecurity.
Astronomical odds: Naturally conceived identical quads born to Alberta couple
EDMONTON—Alberta couple Bethani and Tim Webb of Hythe, 500 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, became the parents of four identical baby girls on May 6.
The naturally conceived quadruplets were delivered by caesarean section by obstetric and neonatal specialists at an Edmonton hospital. The Webbs were told by a nurse during the pregnancy that the odds of having natural quads are one in 67 million.
Alberta Health Services says mother Bethani is recovering well from surgery and the babies are being cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit.
The girls have been named Emily, Grace, McKayla and Abigail and weigh between three pounds and four pounds, one ounce.
