EDMONTON - Alberta is closing its arm's-length environmental monitoring agency and moving its work back to the government after a critical report called the group a "failed experiment.""Government is responsible for government business, including monitoring, which has an effect on public health and public safety," Environment Minister Shannon Phillips said Tuesday.Phillips pointed to the report done for her office that painted the Alberta Environmental Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting [Read more]

SWIFT CURRENT, Sask. -- Premier Brad Wall promised his brassy, unapologetic advocacy for his province will not flag as his Saskatchewan Party resoundingly delivered another majority election win Monday. "You can expect a government that will stand up for Saskatchewan's interests (in) every sector of the economy every time it's challenged," Wall, his wife Tami beside him, told cheering supporters at his campaign headquarters in Swift Current. "You can expect a government that is proud of [Read more]

EDMONTON - An arm's-length agency created as a world-class monitor of the environmental impacts of Alberta's oilsands is instead a "failed experiment" that should be rolled back up into the government, a review has concluded.A report done for Alberta's environment minister says the Alberta Environmental Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting Agency is needlessly expensive, poorly co-ordinated and split by bureaucratic infighting."It is hard to escape the conclusion that AEMERA is a failed [Read more]

REGINA - Premier Brad Wall is burning up the last few days of the Saskatchewan election by talking about clean power.Wall says the Saskatchewan Party would work with the First Nations Power Authority to develop 20 megawatts of solar power and 20 megawatts of flare gas energy, if the party's re-elected on Monday.The power authority says several First Nations could finance the solar project together and then the province would buy the power.The Flying Dust First Nation, near Meadow Lake, will take [Read more]