Lac La Biche – Ft McMurray's Homepage

Debate in La Biche is Dominated by Economic Concerns

The recent Lac La Biche all candidates debate was dominated by economic concerns, current taxes, and the oil industry. Only 4 of the 6 candidates for the riding attended the debate. Scott Berry, the Libertarian candidate, and David Yurdiga, the Conservative incumbent, were not able to attend the debate. Liberal candidate Kyle Harrietha, NDP candidate Melody Lepine, Christian Heritage Party candidate Roelof Janssen, and Green candidate Brian Deheer all showed up for the debate ready and eager to let their voices be heard. A lot of the debate questions centered on the economy, the oil industry, and the tax situation. Most of the candidates repeated their party lines, and the debate did get quite serious at times. There was discussion about rail transport for bitumen and other oil industry products versus pipeline transport, and talk about how the taxes are affecting communities and people in the area.

After the Lac La Biche debate and the economic concerns that many of the candidates heard from people who attended Harrietha discussed the plan that the Liberal party has with local media. “I think we communicated clearly the Liberal Party’s platform to invest in infrastructure in order to jump start the economy. We believe that it will create jobs and help grow the economy and prepare our communities for the next time when the economy booms and oil goes up. The Liberal party believes that the time to invest is now.” The stance that the Liberal party has taken on corporate taxes was not very popular with the crowd though.

RCMP Makes Arrests in Lac La Biche Attempted Murder

An attempted murder in Lac La Biche has led to the RCMP arresting two individuals in connection with the crime. The incident involved occurred on Friday close to Plamondon, Alta. The Lac La Biche RCMP reported that the crime happened at around 1:30 am Friday when a man was shot and wounded during an argument that occurred alongside the road. The small community is situated around 3 hours north of Fort MacMurray. RCMP Sgt. Henry Van Dorland “Two males approached another male in their vehicles, they were side-by-side basically. A bit of an argument ensued and there was a gun shot at the victim. The victim sustained injuries to the head.” The victim was a male from Plamondon estimated to be around 50 years old, was taken from the scene to the University of Alberta hospital for surgical removal of pellets from his head.

The Lac La Biche RCMP said that two shots were fired during the incident, and two men have been arrested on charges of attempted murder as a result of the police investigation. 24 year old William Conrad Ingram has been charged with attempted murder with a firearm, careless use of a firearm, and unauthorized possession of a firearm. 20 year old Markian G. Kuznetsov has been charged with one count of attempted murder with a firearm and breach of condition charges. So far the reason for the argument that led to the shooting has not been determined by law enforcement. Van Dorland stated “That part of the investigation is still ongoing. We don’t know if it was a party gone sour, or if there was drugs involved or if it was over somebody’s wife or anything of this nature at this time.”