Guilty plea in area murder
A 54-year-old man has been sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 12 years in the stabbing death of a man found in a ditch west of Innisfail in April 2008.
Larry Allen Scott, of Red Deer, pleaded guilty before Justice S.D. Hillier to a charge of second-degree murder in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench on Monday morning and was sentenced Monday afternoon.
The body of Sheldon Mark Hiller, 46, was found dead in a ditch of Highway 54 outside the hamlet of Raven on April 17, 2008.
A second man, Charles Richard Beckett, 50, of Red Deer, pleaded guilty in 2009 to being an accessory to murder after the fact. He received a two year jail sentence.
A third man, Brent William Crouse, 47, of Calgary, faces a charge of first-degree murder and being an accessory to commit murder in Hiller’s death.
$13,000 in contraband seized
Eighty grams of what’s believed to be marijuana was confiscated at the Bowden Institution last Tuesday.
On January 25, staff seized a package of contraband, believed to be marijuana, from a visitor who attended Bowden Institution.
The visitor was arrested and is facing criminal charges, according to staff.
The suspected package of marijuana weighed approximately 80 grams and its institutional value estimated at approximately $13,000.
The seizure was the result of combined efforts by Correctional Officers, Security Intelligence Officers, and the Innisfail detachment of the RCMP.
Correctional Service Canada (CSC) officials say searches of offenders and visitors, ion scanners, drug detector dogs, and searches of buildings and cells are consistently used in efforts to control the flow of drugs into federal institutions. (5).
Gas rates increasing
Regulated natural gas rate customers living south of Red Deer will be charged $1.33 more a gigajoule (GJ) this month compared to last.
The Alberta Utilities Commission verified Direct Energy Regulated Services default natural gas rates for February last week.
South service customers will be charged $4.211 per GJ, up from last month’s rate of $2.881.
The new rate reflects a market price for February supplies of approximately $3.769 per GJ as reported by the NGX, and incorporates an adjustment of 0.442 per GJ for January and prior months.
Direct Energy estimates the typical residential gas bill for February based on an average 17 GJ of consumption would be approximately $147 in the south.
The typical residential gas bill for those living in Red Deer and north, is estimated at $138 for the month of February based on a charge of $3.850 per GJ for that service area. (5)
Corporate income taxes lowered
Last month’s reduction in federal general corporate income tax ahead of its legislated time frame is expected to help boost the economy says the area’s Member of Parliament.
On January 1, the federal general corporate income tax rate was reduced to 16.5 per cent from 18 per cent, in advance of the final legislated reduction to 15 per cent effective January 1, 2012.
“We are making Canada one of the best places to do business, by ensuring that hardworking Canadian entrepreneurs keep more of their hard-earned money. Helping businesses grow and create more jobs is good news for the economy, and good news for Canadian families, especially in our region,” said Red Deer riding MP Earl Dreeshen.
The reduction will lead to further improvements in Canada’s competitiveness and productivity, and ultimately higher standards of living for Canadians, he said.
The economy remains the federal government’s top priority, he said. (6)
