Beyond Local

Political scientist Jared Wesley, the lead on a recent University of Alberta survey on referendum voting intentions, said the poll suggested the "Yes" side remains in the lead. But he said a disturbingly high percentage doesn’t understand how equalization works (44 per cent); wrongly believes Quebec gets the most per capita (85 per cent); and fails to understand Ottawa does not need provincial buy-in to change the equalization formula (62 per cent).

Canadians are – and will remain – among the biggest consumers of energy over the next decade, even as policies ramp up to make the country more energy-efficient, a global energy forecast suggests.

The federal government is mulling handing responsibility for verifying passengers' vaccination status to airport officers, rather than airlines – which hope to skip the headache.

It's the news nearly four million Canadians have been waiting to hear: people who received doses of two different COVID-19 vaccines will qualify as fully vaccinated when the U.S. reopens its land borders to non-essential travel next month.

Mike Parker, president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta, said the province used to get 1,000 calls for service per day in the province and now they are getting around 1,500 calls for service per day.

"We’re already starting to hear some of our members indicate to our clients, who are the oil and gas producers, that we don’t have any rigs available. And it’s largely due to crew shortages," said Mark Scholz, chief executive of the Canadian Association of Energy Contractors.

Justice Adam Germain opted for a $23,000 fine for Artur Pawlowski and $10,000 for Dawid Pawlowski. The brothers will also have to pay $15,733 in costs, and the pastor an additional $4,758.

Alberta Health said it is on track to spend more than $15 million to directly pay vaccine-hesitant residents to get the COVID-19 shot. The province said more than 152,000 Albertans have signed up to receive a preloaded debit card in return for getting the vaccine.

“Since the onset of the school year we have really seen these explosions of cases around the province and its resulting in a mass amount of absence from schools,” said Support Our Students communications director Wing Li.

Birds of a feather ... large numbers of arctic geese take a local break on their way to Southern US