Classrooms in Alberta have been hit by a data breach that has affected schools across Canada.

The fate of Canada's largest proposed carbon capture and storage project is even more uncertain after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's resignation announcement this week amplified existing unknowns around the future of energy and climate policy in Canada, experts say.

One of the expert advisors on the province’s MOU with Quebec says that it is the “right time” to make the deal.

Jason Chee-Aloy is the managing director of Power Advisory, one of the groups that advised government as they negotiated the agreement.

He argues that it is “pretty clear” Quebec’s need for power is increasing, so they are looking at different supply options. He says there is a “real opportunity now” for NL Hydro to strike a new deal.

He calls the MOU a “necessary step” to allow for negotiations of agreements. “So, we’ll know if it is absolutely the best deal, I’m sure it will be, with the agreements.”

Toronto-based mining company Barrick Gold has registered a lobbyist in B.C. to push for mineral and infrastructure development in the province. An airline that flies into northern communities wants to discuss federal air travel policies, including the impact of transferring more federal powers to Nunavut. And car-making giants Honda and Toyota are both lobbying the B.C. government about its electric vehicle (EV) law, as the province appears to be ahead of schedule in its EV sales goal while the federal government lags.

Those are just some of the insights from the IJF’s roundup of lobbying registrations at the federal level and in every province across Canada. Each week, the IJF publishes data from our four lobbying databases showing who wants laws changed and who is asking for government money. Think of it as your weekly dose of public policy news before it becomes news.

After assessing whether Ottawa should implement an anti-renoviction bylaw to better protect tenants, city staff say they do not support it for a few reasons.

Statistics Canada estimates that 179,301 people now live on the Island, an increase of nearly 19,000 people compared to 2021.

When Stephanie Harrington started going to bereavement support groups after the loss of her brother, the room was filled with parents who had lost children. But she said the grief parents feel can be much different than what siblings experience.

The deaths of two people whose bodies were discovered by police Sunday at a home in Mahone Bay, N.S., were the result of a homicide-suicide where a man killed his intimate partner, according to RCMP.

A male pedestrian died in hospital Thursday after he was struck by a vehicle in North York, police say. The collision happened just before 7 a.m. on the westbound Highway 401 off-ramp to Keele Street.

This is a collection of photos chosen by AP photo editors.

The Associated Press

RCMP in Harbour Grace are investigating the province’s latest smash and grab bank theft with the use of a piece of heavy equipment.

The latest incident occurred overnight. An excavator was used to smash through the drive-thru at Scotiabank in Carbonear, removing the ATM from the side of the building and leaving a gaping hole where the bank machine once sat.

The excavator was left at the scene.

Meanwhile, RCMP are searching for a pickup reported stolen and believed to have been used during the commission of the crime.

Police are looking for a red, GMC Duramax diesel pickup with a Clay Oates Landscaping logo on the side.

Anyone with information is asked to contact RCMP or Crime Stoppers.

There’s been another deadly incident of intimate partner violence in Nova Scotia.

Southwest Nova RCMP confirms two suspicious deaths in Mahone Bay are the result of intimate partner violence.

Police say they responded to a request to check on the well-being of two people at a home on Long Hill Road in Mahone Bay shortly after 1 p.m. on January 5th.

Responding officers discovered the remains of a 60-year-old woman and a 75-year-old man in the home.

Investigators confirmed the woman’s death was the result of homicide while the man died of self-inflicted wounds and was responsible for the woman’s death.

Police say the investigation is continuing.

Halifax safety advocates are calling for government action to reduce the number of pedestrians injured or killed by cars, after the death of a senior who was hit while walking on a marked crosswalk earlier this week.

For Kingwatsiak Qinguatsiak, as for any grieving parent, the death of his daughter was the end of life as he knew it.

“She was my baby and everybody’s best friend,” Qinguatsiak said Monday at his Iqaluit home. A photo of 20-year-old Elisapi Naluiyuk sits on his dining room table, with a box of tissues placed nearby.

“I loved her to death,” he said.

It’s not just grief. Qinguatsiak is also angry.

RCMP announced Jan. 3 that they are investigating the “sudden death” of a 20-year-old female in Iqaluit. Police didn’t identify the woman or offer further details. On Wednesday, RCMP spokesperson Cpl. George Henrie declined to comment on the ongoing investigation.

But Qinguatsiak said he knows it’s his daughter.

He said Naluiyuk spent Christmas Day with him and the rest of the family. They had their usual turkey dinner and shared gifts.

“Little did I know that this would be our last Christmas,” he said.

The next day, Boxing Day night, Naluiyuk went out with her friends. A few hours later, RCMP officers came to Qinguatsiak’s house.

At first, he didn’t think much of it. That had happened before “once in a blue moon” because of his sons’ minor mischiefs over the years.

Elisapi Naluiyuk, 20, died in Iqaluit on Dec. 26. Her father says she was a kind person who could make anybody smile. (Photo courtesy of Kingwatsiak Qinguatsiak)

It’s when the officers asked to sit down that he knew something was very wrong.

Since Naluiyuk’s death, Qinguatsiak has been searching for answers. Who is responsible for the death of his “baby girl,” a middle child in the family of three sons and two daughters.

While RCMP, including the service’s major crimes unit, continue to investigate, no charges have been laid in relation to Naluiyuk’s death.

Qinguatsiak said he met with Premier P.J. Akeeagok and several territorial ministers on Jan. 2 to tell them the government is failing to protect Inuit women.

“Kids are suffering. Parents are suffering,” he said.

Community values have changed. People used to help and love each other in the past, but it’s not like that anymore, he told the ministers. And they agreed, he said.

Akeeagok’s office confirmed the meeting happened, but did not offer further details on the discussion.

But Qinguatsiak is still angry.

He said that when Naluiyuk returned to Iqaluit from Ottawa about four months ago, she had big plans to change her life. After working odd jobs for years and dealing with a drinking problem, she wanted to get rehabilitation and then, possibly, go to college.

However, her application for rehab dragged on for months, Qinguatsiak said.

“The system has failed me,” he said.

“It failed my daughter. And they [government workers] are still gonna have their jobs. And I’m still gonna be home. Waiting for my daughter that’s never coming home.”

On Dec. 30, the family started a fundraiser on GoFundMe to help cover funeral expenses and flight costs for extended family to attend the service. No funeral date has been set, as the investigation into Naluiyuk’s death continues.

The day after she died, Qinguatsiak said he took down the ornaments from his Christmas tree — all but the one Naluiyuk made in school when she was five years old.

He filled the rest of the space with her baby pictures.

Qinguatsiak didn’t take a photo of the redecorated tree.

“It’s in here,” he said, pointing at his head. “And mostly in here,” he added, with his hand over his heart.

Wednesday, January 15, is the deadline to apply for the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador’s home heating supplement program.

Residents can apply online at the Home Heating Supplement Program.

Applications must include a copy of invoices, which includes the delivery address, for the purchase of at least 250 litres of furnace or stove oil a signature and ensuring that the social insurance number provided is correct.

The supplement ranges between $200 and $500 and is available to residents of the province whose adjusted family income for 2023 was $150,000 or less and who have directly incurred costs for the purchase of furnace or stove oil to heat their primary residence.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Mourners lined the street outside Athens’ central cathedral Thursday for the state funeral for former Prime Minister Costas Simitis, the architect of Greece’s membership of the European Union’s common currency, who died last weekend at the age of 88.

Politicians paid tribute to the late premier known for his low-key style, singling out his role in securing Greece’s entry into the eurozone and helping Cyprus join the European Union in 2004. Greece’s accession to the euro came under criticism from some who considered the country’s finances not sufficiently prepared for the challenge.

“He set the bar high and boldly for a strong, equal Greece in Europe,” Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou said in her eulogy. “The accession to the eurozone and the accession of Cyprus to the European Union were brilliant achievements.”

Current Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis paid tribute to “a fighter against the dictatorship and a worthy servant of democracy, but also a noble adversary with whom our parties managed to agree on two crucial choices: Greece’s accession to the euro and … Cyprus’ entry into the European Union.”

Mitsotakis’ conservative New Democracy party was the long-time main rival to the socialist PASOK party Simitis co-founded in 1974.

Simitis’ funeral, which came after a four-day official period of mourning following his death Sunday, was held with the honors of a sitting prime minister as a sign of respect. After the service in the Metropolitan Cathedral, mourners on foot followed the hearse carrying the former prime minister to Athens’ First Cemetery, the resting place of numerous notable Greeks, including politicians, musicians and artists.

In accordance with the wishes of his family, Simitis’ body did not lie in state, but hundreds of members of the public who wanted to pay their respects gathered outside the cathedral. Streets in the center of the Greek capital were shut to traffic for the funeral and procession to the cemetery.

A committed pro-European, Simitis served two consecutive four-year terms as prime minister from January 1996 to March 2004 — a record for longevity for a Greek administration. He emerged as the leader of a modernizing wing of PASOK who often clashed with the party leader at the time, Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, before eventually succeeding him in 1996.

Simitis considered Greece’s entry into the eurozone in January 2001 as the signature achievement of his premiership, but he also helped secure the 2004 Olympic Games for Athens and presided over a vast program of infrastructure building, including a new airport and two subway lines to help host the games.

Another of his main achievements was helping Cyprus, an island nation divided between an internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north, join the European Union in 2004, overcoming wariness by some Europeans concerned over allowing a divided country into the bloc.

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides was among the mourners at Thursday’s funeral. On Sunday, he praised the late prime minister as an “outstanding leader” who has earned a special place in the history of not only Greece, but also of Cyprus.

Simitis, a low-key pragmatist, often clashed with the charismatic, fiery populist Papandreou. When the profligate first four years of PASOK party government from 1981 to 1985 resulted in a rapidly deteriorating economy, Papandreou elevated Simitis to finance minister to oversee a tight austerity program.

Finances improved and inflation was partly tamed, but Simitis was pushed to resign in 1987 when Papandreou, eyeing an upcoming election, announced a generous wages policy, undermining the goals of the austerity program.

The socialists returned to power with Papandreou still at the helm in 1993, but he was ailing and finally resigned the premiership in January 1996. A tight two rounds of voting among the socialist lawmakers unexpectedly elevated Simitis to the post of prime minister, a post he held until 2004.

Born on June 23, 1936, Simitis was the younger son of two politically active parents. His lawyer father Georgios was a member of the left-leaning resistance “government” during the German occupation from 1941 to 1944 and his mother, Fani, was an active feminist.

Simitis studied law at the University of Marburg, in Germany, in the 1950s, and economics and politics at the London School of Economics in the early 1960s. He later taught law at the University of Athens. His elder brother Spiros, who died in 2023, was a noted legal scholar in Germany.

___

Demetris Nellas in Athens contributed

Elena Becatoros, The Associated Press

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Construction of Yellowknife's Islamic Centre is nearly complete. Learn more about the design, including an intricate dome, and see renderings of how it'll look.

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A Zealand man, through counsel, has denied an indictable charge alleging a sexual offence in late 2022.

Patrick Sewell, 33, of Upper Stoneridge Road, was charged last year with an indictable count of sexual assault, alleging a Dec. 17, 2022, offence in Fredericton.

There’s a court-ordered publication ban in effect protecting the identity of the complainant.

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Operating hours for the Red Deer, Alta., supervised consumption site are now cut in half, as the facility moves to shut down by March.

The recent WELLSTAR acquisition of software company Healthquest follows in the footsteps of other local tech exits, including WinTax and Granify, as it is not a simple financial transaction but instead a move aimed to extend the company's reach.

"Now we've got a national presence with a publicly backed company," Healthquest's president, Brandon Blanck, told Taproot. "Hopefully (we can leverage that) moving forward to grow even further, to get ourselves into other provinces, and truly start making a difference in healthcare — not just in Alberta, but across the whole country."

Healthquest is the name for both a software suite and what the company, originally incorporated as Microquest, is now best known as. The software-as-a-service company was founded by Mike Barth in Edmonton in 1993. The company began by offering billing software but today has a suite of tools that allow health clinics and practitioners to digitize records and perform tasks like appointment scheduling. These tools are used by more than 800 clinics and 3,500 practitioners in Alberta.

Despite the sale, Blanck said he intends to stay with Healthquest and continue the company's mission, which is to allow healthcare workers to focus on care.

Blanck said he could not disclose the financial details of the acquisition due to regulations related to WELLSTAR's publicly traded parent company, Vancouver-based WELL Health Technologies Corp. However, he confirmed that Healthquest is one of the two acquired companies mentioned in a WELL press release. That release details a cumulative "$17.9 million in cash and $3.9 million in WELLSTAR subordinate voting shares" as components of the deals.

"Any of the other competitors likely would have bought us simply to absorb us — buy our clients, essentially," Blanck said. "That was not the case with WELL, and that was one of the things that was absolutely the most appealing (about the acquisition)."

The acquisition comes after some levelling up from Blanck, who succeeded Barth as the company's leader in 2023. Three years ago, Blanck began participating in ThresholdImpact Venture Mentoring Service at his alma mater, the University of Alberta. In 2023, he then enrolled in the GrowthX accelerator with Alberta Innovates. Blanck was mentored by Kristina Milke, a general partner at Sprout Fund, which invests in seed-stage tech companies in Western Canada. Blanck credits Milke's "no BS" style with being "invaluable" to the company.

Milke, who later joined Healthquest's advisory group, said she loved how coachable and willing Blanck was in the GrowthX program. "He was there because he really wanted to get as much as he could out of the program," she told Taproot. "He was very open to difficult questions … I love working with founders like that. To me, that is gold."

Milke said she wants to see more positive stories about tech successes in Edmonton, and that exits like Healthquest's are difficult but possible. She's seen it firsthand, too: EZ Ops, a company that Sprout has invested in, was acquired last year by Detechtion Technologies, and Milke was an investor in Granify before its acquisition by Bazaarvoice in 2023.

"You can do this here," she said. "This is a place where you can build a company, you can find the talent, you have access to customers, and you have an opportunity for an exit when it makes sense."

Here are opportunities to inform municipal decision-making about waste, public engagement, development, and more. Please only answer surveys from the municipality where you live.

• Commercial Waste Engagement — Strathcona County is seeking feedback from business owners and operators as it develops a waste diversion program. Participants can help influence future strategies, incentives, and regulatory requirements by attending engagement sessions on Jan. 15, Jan. 16, Jan. 22, or Jan. 23.
• Building Relationships to Shape Our City — The City of Edmonton is looking to improve its public engagement process for under-heard or culturally diverse communities. Results will inform future engagement processes and communications. A survey closes Jan. 15.
• Land Use Bylaw Update — Parkland County is updating its Land Use Bylaw, last updated in 2017 before the Village of Wabamun dissolved and joined Parkland County. Residents can review the draft bylaw and provide online feedback until Jan. 15.

More input opportunities

• Until Jan. 12: Budget 2025 Consultation (Government of Alberta)
• Until Jan. 12: People's 2025 Budget Survey (Public Interest Alberta)
• Until Jan. 16: Wîhkwêntôwin ᐄᐧᐦᑫᐧᐣᑑᐃᐧᐣ Neighbourhood Renewal (City of Edmonton)
• Until Feb. 28: Engage and Play: Shaping Public Recreation (City of Edmonton)

A day after her client was charged with manslaughter in the death of a newborn, the lawyer for self-styled "childbirth activist" Gloria Lemay was in B.C. Supreme Court claiming $30,000 in damages from B.C.'s College of Nurses and Midwives.

Air Tindi is on the verge of taking over Fort Smith passenger flights from NWAL. The airline's president gave us the latest on its immediate plans.

A youth dodgeball team that started out recreationally is now going to represent Canada in the World Youth Open Championship next month.