Brett McKay, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Throughout the pandemic, provincially funded social supports were scaled back in rural Alberta. Services were consolidated. In-person offices closed. And long-running programs abruptly ended.

In October 2020, Alberta’s United Conservative government announced the closure of all remaining Job Corps offices along with job cuts that affected hundreds of provincial employees in social services, agriculture, and wildfire management.

"There's been a spirit in Alberta political culture that we want as many people and as many different types of people voting in elections. That changes with Bill 20."

Using groundbreaking rapid testing devices and an innovative community-involved project, University of Alberta researchers are hoping to bend the curve of syphilis infections.

Alberta's rural leaderships say they are being actively undermined by Bill 20, and vow to "not sit back and take it."

The changes proposed in Alberta's Bill 20 have already created an atmosphere of silence and fear among municipal leaders, and will "fundamentally redraw the blueprint of our local democracy" if implemented, says Alberta Municipalities President Tyler Gandam.

"After a full year of doing MDMA assisted psychotherapy, I currently don't meet the diagnosis of having PTSD anymore."

The Government of Alberta announced a series of sweeping changes today to legislation regulating municipal government and elections, including formally introducing political parties at the municipal level and giving the province more power to overrule bylaws and remove elected councillors. 

"No meaningful progress" in the development and implementation of emissions plan, says Pembina Institute.

Among women aged 15 to 19, however, the rate of stillbirth quadrupled during that same period, from 6.27 in 2012 to 26.32 in 2023, according to data from Alberta Health.