EDMONTON — Alberta’s electric grid operator issued a Level 2 energy emergency alert Wednesday afternoon.

The Alberta Electric Grid Operator’s (AESO) needed to use reserve power to balance the system from about 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.  

“This is due to unplanned generator outages, low wind and a reduction of import capability,” the province’s power grid operator tweeted. “Supply is tight, but still meeting demand.”

AESO asked Albertans to conserve power use between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Last week, Alberta saw record-breaking summertime power consumption as the province dealt with a historic heat wave.

And on June 29, the AESO declared a Level 1 energy emergency alert.

EDMONTON — Bruce Gladue wants to begin searching.

He hopes to find nothing – but that’s perhaps a natural instinct when your task is to seek out unmarked graves.

Along with his team, the president of St. Albert’s Métis Nation of Alberta (MNA) chapter is preparing an application for federal and provincial funding to scan former residential school land, near Edmonton, using ground-penetrating radar.  

That’s the same technology that was used to find 215 unmarked graves near a residential school in Kamloops, B.C., and then 751 more on the grounds of the former Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan.

Since then, similar discoveries have been made in other parts of the country.

“It’s beholden on us,” Gladue told CTV News Edmonton from the former site of the St. Albert Youville residential school for Métis children. 

“This is our responsibility if we’re going to tell our story, the Métis Nation story,” he said.

The St. Albert Youville residential school operated just north of Edmonton from 1863 to 1948. It’s one of the two major sites the Métis Local 1904 is proposing to search.

“As well we’re looking at the Riverlot 56,” said Gladue. “Métis Riverlot 56 has a huge historical significance to the Métis.”

Riverlot 56 is located next to what is now known as Poundmaker’s Lodge.

Now an Indigenous treatment centre, Poundmaker’s Lodge sits on land that was used for the former Edmonton Indian Residential School, which operated from 1924 to 1968.

On Tuesday, one of that residential school’s survivors told CTV News Edmonton that he and other students were paid to dig graves there.

“We never did know anybody that we buried. There never was a preacher, no relatives, not even supervisors from here. A truck would literally throw them on the ground and it was up to us,” said Muldoe.

Muldoe said he was 15 years old when he and other residential school students dug a grave in freezing cold January weather.

CITY OF ST. ALBERT COLLABORATION

According to Gladue, the Métis Local 1904 has also been in talks with the City of St. Albert about using ground-penetrating radar at several upcoming construction sites. 

“They have different projects close to this proximity,” he said. “They’re doing their due diligence to ensure that there’s no unmarked graves on their project sites.”

St. Albert’s MNA chapter is partnering with the University of Alberta’s Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology Professor Kisha Supernant, who specializes in ground-penetrating radar technology.

The U of A professor, who is Métis, has used the technology on former residential school sites in the past.

Supernant’s grandfather attended a residential school. Last month, she told CTV News Edmonton the work of locating unmarked graves can be emotionally painful.

“We don’t actually fully understand the scope and scale of loss associated with the residential school system,” said Supernant. 

“The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation has their missing children registry which has over 4,100 names on it,” she said, “but there are so many other stories of children who never came home who aren’t on that list.”

‘WE HOPE WE FIND NOTHING’

Last month, the Government of Alberta created an $8-million fund to help search for unmarked graves linked to residential schools in the province.

And that’s money Gladue hopes to tap into for the search, but first he wants to make sure the work is done properly. 

“Someone has to tell the Métis story here,” he said. “It’s all been advised by our knowledge holders and our elders. That’s very important to us.

“This is going to be huge going down the road in terms of reconciliation and how Canada deals with it, and also how the Indigenous folks deal with it.”

Within a few weeks, the St. Albert Métis community plans to hold a prayer ceremony near the former Youville residential school before the search for unmarked graves begins.

“If you find any unmarked graves and you just think of those little souls in there,” said Gladue. 

“We hope we find nothing, but if we do we want to make sure they’re honoured.”

If you are a former residential school student in distress, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419

Additional mental-health support and resources for Indigenous people are available here.

EDMONTON — Some 1.9 million Albertans have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, meaning more than half of the province’s eligible population is as protected from the disease as they can be.

Alberta Health announced the milestone Wednesday. Vaccinations done Tuesday pushed the rate to 50.7 per cent, exactly.

Altogether, 4.6 million doses have been given to 2.8 million Albertans, or 73.6 per cent of the eligible population.

Premier Jason Kenney thanked those who got vaccinated for doing “the right thing,” and the health-care professionals who helped with vaccine rollout.

“Thanks to their diligence, we have been able to open for summer. As our vaccination rate continues to climb, so does the prospect of Alberta being open for good,” Kenney said in a statement.

“The more Albertans who are vaccinated, the stronger we all are against COVID-19,” added Health Minister Tyler Shandro.

2 LAMBDA VARIANT CASES: HINSHAW 

On Wednesday, the province reported 67 new cases of COVID-19 found in some 6,000 tests done on July 6. Its active case count fell from 763 to 745.

Two of those cases are the C.37 strain, also known as the Lambda variant, and connected to travel, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw announced on Twitter. 

“Right now, C.37 is designated a Variant of Interest. We don’t yet know if it will become a Variant of Concern but are monitoring it and all variants closely. This is part of the work we do every day,” she wrote. 

All positive COVID-19 cases in the province are also screened for Lambda variant. 

There were 140 Albertans in hospital with the disease, of whom 30 are in intensive care, according to the latest data.

Since the first case of COVID-19 was detected in the province, 2,307 people have died from the disease.

Both Shandro and Hinshaw urged people to continue to get vaccinated.

“It is important for Albertans to get the added protection of a second dose for themselves and those around them. Please take the earliest second-dose appointment available, regardless of brand,” the top doctor said.

EDMONTON — Residential school survivors gathered at Poundmaker’s Lodge Tuesday, where a search is set to begin for unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school.

The Edmonton Indian Residential School operated just north of the city between 1924 and 1968. According to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, children from reserves in Alberta, B.C, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon and the Northwest Territories were taken to the school.

George Muldoe, from the Gitxsan First Nation in northern British Columbia, attended the school. He said he was nine years old when he was brought to Alberta.

“The residential schools in B.C. were full, so they sent us here,” said Muldoe.

Since the bodies of 215 children were found in an unmarked grave at the former residential school in Kamloops were discovered, hundreds more have been at school sites across the country.

“We heard stories of graves being discovered and this site wasn’t different than other residential schools,” said Brad Cardinal, the executive director of Poundmaker’s Lodge.

According to Muldoe, he and other students at the school were paid to dig graves while they were students there.

“We never did know anybody that we buried, there never was a preacher, no relatives, not even supervisors from here, a truck would literally throw them on the ground and it was up to us,” said Muldoe.

Muldoe described how he and a few other students spend three days digging a grave in January. He was 15 when that happened.

“It’s one thing you never forget. The body was laying there for three days, literally.”

During his interview, Muldoe pointed out several spots where he said bodies are buried.

“I don’t think they’ll ever find everybody… some of the people, especially the fetuses, were put in furnaces,” said Muldoe

Indigenous people who died at the Charles Camsell Hospital were often brought to the grounds of the former school.

It’s a familiar thing, to know where bodies are, for Deborah Lloyd, the daughter of another survivor from the school. Lloyd remembered bringing her mother to the Poundmaker’s Lodge Treatment Centre, it was the first time her mother had been back to the site of the school since she left.

“As we rounded the corner… she pointed and she said, ‘Over there, there’s bodies,’” said Llyod. “So I knew trauma then, but it wasn’t until a number of years later, when she actually sat down with me that she went through a lot of the hurt and trauma that she’d been through.”

HEALING STILL NEEDS TO HAPPEN

On Monday and Tuesday, Poundmaker’s Lodge hosted a gathering of survivors. People came and told stories of their time at the school.

“The past two days have been really important towards the healing of our indigenous peoples,” said Cardinal. “I’ve been very overwhelmed, hearing the stories of the deaths that occurred on the site.”

The gathering also held ceremonies to bring the spirits of those who are buried at the school home.

“I was just so moved by the fact that they had come to take their spirits home and then I realized, that’s why I had to come here, to take my mom’s spirit home,” said Lloyd.

Lloyd is joining a healing committee at Poundmaker’s Lodge, with the goal of helping the Indigenous community heal as a search for bodies is set to begin.

“There will be a radar-penetrating search of the site, we had a major corporation offer to pay for the search, they don’t want to be named because they don’t want the publicity,” said Hal Eagletail, with Poundmaker’s Lodge.

Lloyd believes that one of the biggest steps that needs to happen is education on the subject of residential schools.

“So that this doesn’t happen again,” said Lloyd.

“We need to educate the next generations and also we need to heal the individuals who are still dealing with the traumas, and that’s a huge mental health undertaking,” said Eagletail.

“The survivors out there still have stories to tell, still have a healing journey ahead of them, but we also have a lot of allies in our non-native communities.”

There is no exact timeline on when the search for bodies will begin. It will depend on several factors, including vegetation growth and whether identified sites need to be cleared first, according to Eagletail.

“This is certainly not over, this is a starting point for these conversations,” said Cardinal.

After searching the sites of seven former residential schools, 1505 bodies have been found, according to Eagletail. He added there are still 497 school sites to search.

“The next steps are going to be, not cancelling culture, but calling out culture and making recognition of the wrongdoings and historical trauma that still plagues our people today,” said Eagletail.

“This is an opportunity to come forward and work in harmony and unity together.”

If you are a former residential school student in distress, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419

Additional mental-health support and resources for Indigenous people are available here.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Touria Izri

EDMONTON — A 24-year-old man was expected to survive a shooting in northwest Edmonton Tuesday afternoon.

Police say shots were reported around 4 p.m. at a commercial complex near 113 Street and 132 Avenue.

Officers were told a male walking outside one of the businesses had been shot at.

A short while later, a 24-year-old man was dropped off at a nearby hospital with injuries police described as not life threatening and consistent with a gunshot wound.

“The shooting victim isn’t cooperating with police, and a motive for the shooting has yet to be determined,” Edmonton Police Service spokesperson Scott Pattison told CTV News Edmonton.

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