Christmas and the coming of the new year can be a busy time for some and many residents will be taking some time during the holidays to visit family a friends.
    The Drumheller RCMP shared a few tips to help keep everyone safe during the holidays.
    For those leaving for the holidays, there are  few simple ways to help keep your house safe.
    “If you’re leaving, have someone look after your house and keep the appearance it’s being lived in,” said Staff Sergeant Art Hopkins. “If you’re not leaving, help your neighbours out and do the same for them. Clean their sidewalks and check on their house.”
    To give your house the appearance it’s being lived in, arrange to have a friend or neighbour shovel your walks, leave lights on, and arrange for someone to check up on your house periodically.
    “There are lots of things that criminals look at when they are driving through neighbourhoods,” said Staff Sergeant Hopkins. “You want someone to check on your house to make sure it’s secure and anything hasn’t gone wrong.”
    There are also precautions anyone travelling during the holidays should take as well.
    “If travelling, keep a bag of warm survival stuff in your car, because you never know when you’re car will break down,” said Staff Sergeant Hopkins. “In the event your vehicle breaks down, you should have enough to keep you safe until help arrives.”
    Travellers should pack a warm blanket and winter clothing, and give an estimated time of arrival at your destination.
    During the holidays, the RCMP will be out doing random check stops, especially on Christmas and New Years Eve. The penalties for driving impaired in Alberta come into effect at 0.5 blood alcohol content.
    “You’ll always see an increase in check stops. There is an increase in the number of members working and we’ll have check stops set up all over,” said Staff Sergeant Hopkins. “Don’t drink and drive, be safe, think of others using the road, don’t drive tired, and have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.”

    It’s business as usual as far as school divisions in the area are concerned after talks between the Government of Alberta, Alberta School Boards Association, and Alberta Teachers’ Association broke down earlier this month.
    For school divisions throughout Alberta, they have a little bit more work in the months ahead.
    “We had all been waiting to see how the tripartite talks would turn out. It looks like now the local unions will go into bargaining with their local boards,” said Bevan Daverne, superintendent of Golden Hills School Division. “It will be business as usual as we move ahead, but we will be bargaining locally.”
    As far as the classroom is concerned, Daverne did not anticipate there would be any disruption to instruction.
    In a letter to the Alberta School Council’s Association, Minister of Education Jeff Johnson stated he expected “children will continue to benefit from a high-quality teaching workforce...”
    Prior to the provincial agreement between the province and teachers, all bargaining was done at a local level. With the province taking care of bargaining, the local school divisions were able to concentrate more on the classrooms.
    “It has been very good for education, because we [the school divisions]  haven’t had to bargain for some time. A return to local bargaining is unfortunate, so we could have had another few years where we wouldn’t have to worry about it,” said Daverne.
    Golden Hills School Division has already been in contact with the local teachers union.
    “There would have been some items that would’ve been dealt with at a local level. We’ll just be dealing with more items than we had expected to,” said Daverne. “We have shared proposals with our local [union], so we’ll plan our next meetings and continue the process.”