Alberta's aging oil patch is forcing the province to take a fresh look at how to save for the future.A commission struck to study the energy-rich province's savings strategy recommended yesterday that Alberta bulk up its Heritage Savings Trust Fund to safeguard its standard of living as revenues from the oil patch decline.

The Alberta government has decided to scale back controversial plans to impose new royalty rates on oil and gas production, citing the risk to jobs in the province after the global financial crisis hammered energy prices and cut companies off from funding.

Several jurors in the trial of an Alberta man accused of killing his 12-year-old girlfriend's parents and younger brother wiped away tears yesterday as they viewed graphic photographs of the crime scene.

A 14-year-old is credited with averting a major tragedy after helping guide the out-of-control school bus he was on safely to a stop north of Edmonton yesterday.

Since our news seems to be awash in pessimism and financial catastrophes these days, I'd like to offer a breath of fresh air from the Prairies to revive spirits.

Court hears recording of confession made during three-hour drive to psychiatric facility

TransCanada Corp. did the seemingly impossible this week, handily raising $1-billion on a depressed stock market to help finance a pipeline from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico. Here's a closer look at the company, and what it plans to do with the money.

Swift Current was announced yesterday as the host city for the 2010 women's world championship by the Canadian Curling Association and the World Curling Federation. The championship is scheduled from March 20 to 28, 2010.

The Saskatchewan government is facing questions about why it paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in moving allowances to political staff.Information obtained by the NDP indicates the Saskatchewan Party government has doled out more than $220,000 in moving allowances to 15 people since taking office last year. In one case, more than $35,000 was paid to move a media-relations officer from Brandon to Regina.

Syncrude Canada Ltd., which operates Canada's single largest oil sands project, has reached a new royalty deal with the provincial government that brings it more in line with a new system that takes effect in January.

Laughing at times, Jeremy Steinke casually recounted to an undercover police officer posing as a fellow prisoner how he and his 12-year-old girlfriend butchered her parents and little brother in their Medicine Hat home, an Alberta court heard yesterday.

Teflon-coated Alberta, long protected from the global economic downturn by its oil and gas wealth, is now feeling the full force of the world's financial panic. Alberta will have a budget surplus of only $2-billion for the financial year 2008-2009, Finance Minister Iris Evans said yesterday. While that's still substantial - especially as other less fortunate economies tumble into recession - it's $6.5-billion less than the province had forecast only three months earlier.

She came to Canada as a Russian orphan in the midst of the Cold War and quickly became a beloved icon for generations of Manitobans.After earning worldwide recognition as the oldest of her kind, Debby the polar bear died peacefully on Monday at the ripe old age of 41. Her keepers and admirers laid flowers by her empty enclosure at Winnipeg's Assiniboine Park Zoo yesterday as they tearfully remembered the majestic, gentle bear.

According to a survey of 208 Canadians, Winnipeg is ''too cold, boring, and far away'' for them to come to see the new Canadian Museum for Human Rights in person (Canada's Cultural Travellers Won't Warm To Winnipeg, Survey Finds - Nov. 17).

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An Alberta man confessed to killing a Medicine Hat couple, but blamed the death of their young son - and the plot to murder all three - on his 12-year-old girlfriend, who wanted her family dead so they could be together, a court heard yesterday.

The credit crunch isn't slowing the continental ambitions of TransCanada Corp., as the pipeline operator defied bear market sentiment by raising $1-billion yesterday in a stock sale.At a time when many companies are scaling back capital spending - U.S. energy plays have slashed capital spending forecasts by 24 per cent and major oil sands developments are being reined back - TransCanada raised cash to build the Keystone pipeline that will connect Alberta's oil sands with Gulf of Mexico refineries.

The Fort Hills oil sands project was going to turn Petro-Canada into a contender. Its 140,000 barrels a day of new crude output would end years of underperformance. No longer would Petrocan's share price lag those of its peers.

Many say they probably will view exhibits at the new $265-million Canadian Museum for Human Rights in the city online rather than in person

Experts say Alberta findings are probably reflective of surgical practice in other parts of the country as well