🏛️ Government & Politics
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City council voted to list secondary suites as a permitted use, removing the development-permit step. Council made the decision after administration warned Calgary’s Aug. 4 repeal of citywide rezoning would create 16 different zoning districts, and administration noted 98.9% of secondary-suite applications were approved last year with 6,232 registered suites in 2025. Mayor Jeromy Farkas said permitted status will let suites proceed directly to a building permit, saving up to six weeks.
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A June intelligence assessment says Canadians detained for alleged ISIS links would “highly likely” pose a threat if they return. The Integrated Threat Assessment Centre report followed Iraq’s transfer of an unspecified number of people from Canada to custody, and cited risks of direct violence or radicalizing others; the report referenced a recent Berlin attack that killed one and injured 29 as an illustrative incident.
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Alberta psychiatric patients waited an average of more than 33 hours in ERs last year for an inpatient bed. Recovery Alberta reported the 33-hour average was about 24 hours longer than the overall hospital-admission wait of roughly nine hours, and the story cited extreme outliers of 16-day and nine-day ER waits in Alberta and B.C. that experts say highlight worsening demand outpacing mental-health funding.
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The Canadian Football Hall of Fame announced Jim Evenson and coach Frank Ivy as posthumous 2026 inductees. The Hall listed Evenson’s CFL totals (7,060 rushing yards; led the league with 1,237 yards in 1971) and Ivy’s 50-14 regular-season record with a .781 win percentage; the formal induction will be Sept. 17 in Hamilton.
🌦️ Weather & Roads
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Environment Canada issued yellow severe-thunderstorm and tornado watches for a large swath of central and northern Alberta. The watches cover areas from Innisfail to the Peace River region and from the foothills to the Saskatchewan border, with a tornado watch for territory west, south and north of Edmonton including Edson and Swan Hills, and warnings mention possible strong wind gusts, large hail and heavy rain in late-afternoon to evening periods.
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Edmonton has recorded 580 mm of rain from June through July 27, making 2026 its wettest summer on record so far. Meteorologist Brian Proctor said the 580 mm exceeds the 1953 June–August total of 417 mm, and the region reported June rainfall of over 260 mm, breaking a 112-year-old June record and contributing to Edmonton’s third-wettest year-to-date total.
📰 Also Today
- Rural county councillors bordering Calgary voted to pause new data-centre approvals.
- Alberta again allows black-bear hunting with dogs this year.
- Federal government removed the cap on online passport renewals.
- Cowboys Dance Hall in Calgary is closing after 30 years.
- Alberta’s renewable-energy industry is still recovering from a 2023 decline, experts say.
- RCMP charged two more people in the 2020 death of a Chestermere man.
- As of Friday, Albertans can pay for MRIs and other tests without a doctor’s referral.
- A Calgary hiker died after falling from Mount Temple in Banff National Park.
