EDMONTON – Two vehicles were involved in a crash Thursday evening at the intersection of Terwillegar Boulevard and Rabbit Hill Road. 

CTV News observed a grey SUV and a four-door black sedan were involved.

Edmonton police closed the area for an investigation until after 11 p.m.

No information was available about how many people were involved and if there were any injuries.

EDMONTON – Alberta’s jobs minister says he heard rumours about his chief of staff raising a sexual harassment issue which she alleges led to her being fired by the premier’s office.

“A lot of that information was new to me,” Doug Schweitzer said Thursday.

“When it came to the situation involving Ivan Bernardo, I heard rumblings third- and fourth-hand. By the time I’d heard about it in the legislature, it was already being looked into through the (human resources) process, through the premier’s office.”

Schweitzer was responding to questions about a lawsuit filed earlier this month by his former chief of staff, Ariella Kimmel, against the office of Premier Jason Kenney.

Kimmel alleges the office fostered a “poisoned work environment” and repeatedly failed to address her complaint of sexual harassment involving one of her staff.

None of the allegations has been proven in court.

Schweitzer was moved into the Jobs, Economy and Innovation portfolio in the summer of 2020.

In October that year through to her firing last February, says the statement of claim, Kimmel reached out many times to two other cabinet ministers and multiple senior staff in Kenney’s office on the sexual harassment allegation.

In the document, Kimmel alleges that Ivan Bernardo, a senior Health Department adviser, degraded and humiliated one of her staff at an office drinks get-together at the legislature. Kimmel alleges Bernardo told the employee, “I haven’t seen you on this floor before because with a body like that, I would have noticed you.”

Bernardo, who now works as a lawyer in Calgary, has said in a statement it would be inappropriate to comment on a matter before the courts, but he welcomes a legal review and looks forward to providing his side of the story.

Kimmel, in the statement of claim, says she had been seeking resolution on the Bernardo matter along with a clear public process from the premier’s office on how such complaints should be handled.

She says she was told Bernardo would be leaving by the end of 2020, which he did.

In the meantime, the lawsuit alleges, Kimmel was subjected to anonymous online smears and gossip before being fired. She is seeking back pay and damages.

The statement of claim makes no reference to Schweitzer.

Schweitzer, when asked by reporters why Kimmel would try to resolve the issue by going to others but not him, did not answer directly.

“When she came on as my chief of staff, I had never worked with her before. We built a relationship over time where I came to trust her. I still trust her to this day. She was an excellent staffer,” he said.

“Not one thing was alleged about me, my conduct, my office, the environment of my office,” he added.

“I take great pride in making sure that I put in place a work environment that everybody feels as though they’re empowered.”

Kenney’s chief of staff, Pam Livingston, has said Kimmel’s dismissal was unrelated to the sexual harassment issue.

The Opposition NDP, during question period, sought answers on what Schweitzer knew.

“It’s simply unbelievable that (Schweitzer) didn’t know about these complaints,” Janis Irwin, women’s issues critic, told the house.

“Either the minister is fully unaware of what’s happening in his own office – which is troubling in itself – or he’s intentionally misleading Albertans.

“And why would he stand by and do nothing why his most senior staffer and most trusted political adviser suffered?”

Schweitzer wasn’t in the chamber.

Whitney Issik, associate minister for the status of women, replied that the United Conservative government has brought in mandatory training for all staff on respect in the workplace.

“And we are going to be initiating an independent review of human resources policy for political staff, ensuring that processes are clear and all staff are fully aware of the procedures and policies,” said Issik.

Health Minister Jason Copping told the house that Bernardo’s law firm has a contract to advise Alberta Health Services, which is responsible for front-line health-care delivery.

Copping said the heath provider has asked the law firm to remove Bernardo from any of the agency’s files while the sex harassment allegation is addressed.

“This is a serious issue and we’re taking it seriously,” said Copping.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 28, 2021

EDMONTON – Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw will give a COVID-19 update Thursday afternoon.

Watch her live on CTVNewsEdmonton.ca at 3:30 p.m.

On Wednesday, Alberta reported 645 new COVID-19 cases and 10 deaths.

There are 810 patients in hospital with the disease, 184 of whom are under intensive care.

Alberta has 8,733 active cases and a seven-day daily average of 590 infections.

Among all Albertans, 73.8 per cent have received one vaccine dose and 67.5 per cent have received two or more shots.

The rates among Albertans eligible for a vaccine are 86.8 per cent vaccinated with at least one dose and 79.4 per cent fully vaccinated.

More details to come…

Edmonton – The Alberta government is set to introduce legislative amendments that it says will help municipalities collect unpaid taxes from oil and gas properties.

Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver is expected to introduce the amendments later Thursday afternoon.

Last February, a survey by the Rural Municipalities of Alberta showed the oil and gas industry owes a total of $425 million in unpaid taxes to rural towns.

The group called for the province to close loopholes that made it difficult for communities to collect taxes from energy companies.

Industry spokesmen have said municipal tax rates are too high, given low prices for Alberta’s oil and gas.

The provincial government has given companies tax breaks for new work and for less productive wells, but has put off dealing with the property tax issue until after the next election.

With files from the Canadian Press

EDMONTON – Carter Hart’s eagerness to stand tall in his return to his hometown of Edmonton paid dividends for the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday.

Hart made 34 saves in the Philadelphia net and Cam Atkinson scored a pair of goals as the Flyers prevailed in a 5-3 slugfest against the Edmonton Oilers.

Claude Giroux, Nate Thompson and Sean Couturier also scored for the Flyers (3-1-1).

“He was great,” Flyers defenceman Keith Yandle said of Hart. “Against a team like that, they’re super explosive and they can make plays out of nothing.

“You always have to be on your game defensively and the goaltender is a big part of that. He made a lot of big stops for us and it was a big team effort.”

Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said he was impressed with his group’s fight to the finish.

“I thought we played our best period in the third when the game was on the line and we found a way to get two points in a very tough environment,” he said of his team’s winning in their first foray on the road this season.

Tyson Barrie, Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman replied for the Oilers (5-1-0), who suffered their first loss of the season.

“I thought we played well,” Barrie said. “There are a couple we would have liked to have back. It would have been nice to go 6-0 to start the year, but you are not going to win them all.”

Philadelphia started the scoring seven minutes into the first period as Giroux picked up an errant Travis Konecny shot behind the net and put the wrap-around in for his fourth of the season before Oilers goalie Mikko Koskinen could get across his crease.

The Flyers got a bit of a gift goal midway through the first period when Koskinen coughed the puck up behind the net, leading to Thompson shovelling it in from the goal line.

However, Edmonton got that goal back 35 seconds later as Barrie activated down low and beat Hart with a backhand shot from a sharp angle.

There was a crazy finish to the first period as the Oilers tied the game up on the power play with 18 seconds left when a McDavid pass was inadvertently deflected in by a Flyers defender. However, with less than a second to play, Philadelphia went up 3-2 when Darnell Nurse mishandled the puck and Atkinson batted it in out of mid-air.

Edmonton tied the game less than a minute into the second period as Hyman scored his fifth goal in the last three games out of a scramble in front.

The Flyers surged back in front four minutes into the third frame as Atkinson blasted his sixth of the season past Koskinen.

Couturier added an empty netter in the final minute to put the game away.

Both teams will head to Vancouver for their next game, as the Flyers continue their three-game road trip against the Canucks on Thursday and the Oilers play them on Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 27, 2021.