The family of a missing Breton man who disappeared seven years ago are still hoping for help from the public.
Andrew George Nicoll was last heard from on April 21, 2014. His daughter, Bronwyn Taylor, had just been to visit him for Easter the day before.
Taylor says she and her father were very close and had been texting throughout the day. The last text she received from him was at 3:15 p.m. At that time Nicoll was outside working on his deck. At 4 p.m. Taylor sent him another text, but this one was never read.
When the text message went unanswered, Taylor wasn’t initially concerned. Her father lived on a large piece of land near Breton. The area was isolated and the cell service wasn’t always great, so she assumed it just hadn’t gone through.
It was when she received the call that he hadn’t shown up for work the next morning that she knew something was wrong.
As a former member of the Royal Navy, police officer and volunteer firefighter, Taylor knew that her father would not be irresponsible about his work shift. His employer, who also recognized that this was abnormal behaviour, had gone out to his home to check on him, but he wasn’t there.
St. Anthony Catholic Church
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Emmaus Lutheran Church
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Drayton Valley & District Community Learning Association
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Drayton Valley Community Church
DV Community Church. Located at Affinity Funeral Services, officiated by Dwayne Henley.
Taylor called the RCMP immediately and travelled out to his house. She says she can remember some people suggesting he just took off or perhaps killed himself – his wife had died of cancer two years prior – but what Taylor saw told her this wasn’t the case.
Taylor had just been to visit him the day before he disappeared. “He was in really good spirits. No indication of [him] being suicidal. He was not, whatsoever,” she said.
Nicoll had been working on his deck, getting his place ready to be sold. All of his tools were left out and he’d been in the middle of adding oil to his chainsaw.
He’d also put both dogs inside the house, something he only did when there were visitors coming up the driveway. Inside they could see that he’d gone grocery shopping that day, there was chicken thawing for supper in the microwave, and the dog dishes were filled with food and sitting on the countertop.
“The only reason the dogs would ever be locked inside the house would be if someone was coming down the driveway or he was using his chainsaw,” she said.
After a quick search, they also found his keys, wallet and jacket. His vehicle was still in the driveway.
There was no indication that Nicoll had plans to go anywhere at that time. “We were texting for most of the day,” said Taylor.
Seven years later, Taylor says she’s still hoping for answers. “To this date, we still have no idea what happened to my dad,” she said.
Taylor said her first thought when she arrived was that there had been a medical situation. She said there were several areas on his property that he liked to visit and they immediately checked all of those areas.
RCMP searched the property for more than a day. When they didn’t find him, Taylor used her connections as a volunteer firefighter and a peace officer for nine years, to ask for volunteers to complete a detailed search of the property.
“We did an extensive five-month search,” she said.
Unfortunately, nothing was found.
At one point they brought dogs out to the property, and the dogs indicated that there was something at one point in a creek that runs through his property. Because of the level of silt in that area, rescue workers were unable to use ground-penetrating radar technology to check for anything under the creek bed. And despite numerous efforts, they were never able to find what it was the dogs had located.
Opportunity Home’s first Spring Shaker was a success, says executive director Danna Cropley.
“The event sold out within the first few weeks,” says Cropley. “Beyond that, the event went absolutely amazingly.”
The evening had a dance, a catered dinner, and silent auction items to help raise funds for the rehabilitation centre. Cropley says it wouldn’t have been possible without the volunteers who helped put the event together. About 230 people attended.
“Jen Winter, Janice Kupsch, and their crew organized the event. The room was full of energy and community; it was so great,” says Cropley.
One of the reasons for the event, along with raising funds to help run the facility, was to educate the public about what the facility does and how it helps those in need. Opportunity Home opened its doors in February 2023, and has seen numerous people complete the 90-day program during its three years of operation.
Earlier in the week, Cropley also spoke to town council with the same goal in mind.
“Because the council is fairly new… we just wanted to update them on Opportunity Home’s mission, vision, and values, [as well] as the value our project brings, not only to the municipality but also our provincial community and out to our country.”
Cropley says the facility has offered beds to people from across the province, British Columbia, and some from the United States. She says she wanted council to see the reach that they have now and how they are supporting Recovery Alberta’s response to the current opioid crisis.
In her presentation to council, Cropley touched on the community, social, and economic value the centre brought to the community. This included the volunteer work the clients provided, homelessness and poverty prevention, as well as reducing taxpayer costs for emergency, health, and justice services.
She says community investment is a crucial part of the success of the centre, not in terms of dollars, but in terms of interest from the community, volunteers, and feedback.
“I just really wanted to make sure that town council was aware of who we are and what we do,” says Cropley.
Opportunity Home is hosting another event on June 19 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. that is open to the public: a memorial tree planting ceremony, along with a barbecue and tour of the facility. Cropley says they will also have different resources and services at the event for people to connect with if needed.
She says the tree-planting ceremony will be in honour of some community members who have recently passed away. Members of the public are welcome to donate to plant a tree in memory of someone they have lost.
Kiss me I’m Albertan
It seems that those pushing for Alberta independence have enough signatures to force a referendum on the issue. That put me in mind of something I wrote a few years ago that I think still holds water.
If Alberta’s going to ditch the rest of Canada we need to set a few rules. This is going to take a while, so it’s best to start talking about it now so we know where we stand if and when it comes to a vote.
First we have to figure out what an Albertan actually is.
There used to be a guy who lived down the street from me who had a bumper sticker that said, “Canadian by birth, Albertan by the grace of God.” It always struck me as a little odd. That was partly because it was on the rear bumper of the first Toyota Prius I’d ever seen with a gun rack. But it’s also because I’ve lived in this province for well over three decades, and I’ve never been able to figure out what makes an Albertan an Albertan.
OK, so an Albertan is someone who comes from Alberta. That’s according to no less a source than the Oxford Canadian Dictionary so I’m not about to start arguing. But the results of the most recent federal census suggest that’s a pretty broad group. If the number and variety of languages spoken in this province is any kind of a guide, Albertans come from all over the place, both within Canada and from every corner of the globe.
That’s true of other places too of course. Places like London and New York are breathtaking in their diversity. What makes Alberta different is that everything here is so new. We’ve been a province for not much more than a century and have evolved so rapidly in such a short time, with so many waves of immigration from so many parts of the world that it sometimes feels as if we’ve never developed a separate sense of ourselves. At least not in the way you’d find among the societies of Africa, Asia or Europe, or even in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia or Quebec.
So what do we have that binds such a broad group together and sets us apart from the rest of the country? There’s the Flames and the Oilers I suppose. And beef. We like beef and are justifiably proud of both the quality and quantity this province produces. I think it’s also fair to say that we work hard. Not me, obviously, but most of the rest of you. And perhaps most importantly right now, there’s a sense of frustration that we always end up with a federal government that most of us didn’t vote for. But even at the last election, when dislike of Ottawa was probably at its peak, more than a third of us voted either Liberal or NDP and a significant number of us didn’t vote at all. So things are not as black and white as they may appear.
Anyway, as far as things that set us apart from the folks in Toronto or Tuktoyaktuk, that’s about it. Don’t get me wrong. I love this province and I love the people who live here (most of you anyway) but it doesn’t feel like we’ve got much to build a country on. Albertans are good people and we have a lot to offer the world. But at the same time we’re an odd and interesting mixture that doesn’t seem quite sure of its own identity. Sort of like a Prius with a gun rack.
Drayton to host regional one act plays
The Eleanor Pickup Arts Centre will be hosting the Yellowhead Regional One-Act Plays Festival on April 10 and 11 this year.
Ashley Luckwell, the chair of the board for River Valley Players, says the regional festival will have five performances this year. Cast and crew from Leduc, St. Albert, Devon, Beaumont, and Drayton Valley will be participating in the event.
“There are five different groups from the Yellowhead Region that are coming,” she says.
Luckwell says the event is being put on by the Alberta Drama Festival Association (AFDA). This festival is one of several that are occurring across the province, with the winners from each heading on to the provincial festival in Leduc in May this year.
“We’re really excited to have it here,” says Luckwell. “It’s great to show off the EPAC; it’s great to have them come into our community.”
The festival will take place over two days, with each of the plays lasting anywhere from 30 minutes to about 45 minutes. RVP members Leah Sanderson, Sarah Chapman, Katherine De Varennes, and Jan Wright will be performing their play Overtones on Friday night.
Luckwell says the play is one she directed and was written by Alice Gerstenberg in the early 1900s. It was first performed in 1915 at the Bandox Theatre in New York.
The play highlights the difference between what people say and what they are actually thinking. Two of the actors will be playing characters having a conversation, and two younger actors will be playing a younger version of themselves giving voice to the first two character’s inner thoughts.
The other plays will be Steven Goes to Japan to Run a Marathon, Crystal Blue Persuasion, The Crimson Cab Ladies Hit the Beach, and Don’t Mention Hollywood.
Luckwell says there has been lots of support from local businesses for this event, with some giving discounts on food and others sponsoring the festival as well.
“It’s been really great,” she says.
Tickets for the event will be for sale at the doors for $15. Luckwell says cash is preferred as it is not the EPAC that will be taking the funds, but rather volunteers for the AFDA.
Valley Dental
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- HOURS: Mon–Fri: 8:30AM – 4:30 pm Sat - Sun: Closed
- CALL: 1-780-514-7359
- LOCATION: 5205 Power Center Blvd #108,Drayton Valley, AB T7A 0A5
Here come the cobra chickens
Doomscrolling is a terrible habit for sure, and it’s one that I’m guilty of from time to time. It mostly depends on my mood, energy levels, and whether I have to sit and wait for an extended period of time.
The videos that have captured my imagination the last little while are the ones where content creators from other countries react to all things Canadian. That means everything from trying ketchup chips to seeing some of the worst ice storms the Maritimes have experienced.
Some of my favourites are the ones about wildlife. It’s entertaining to listen to the narrator speak about how big a moose is for fifteen seconds while they show a five-second clip of a moose, then five of an elk, and five more seconds of several white tail deer bounding into the distance. No one will ever know which one is the moose.
Another favourite of mine is videos of the Cobra Chicken, or for those of you who don’t speak to teenagers on a regular basis, the Canadian Goose.
The moniker Cobra Chicken is a little odd, but I guess it’s because they’re a big bird with long necks. Thus parts of them look like cobras and the rest looks like chickens.
In any case, anyone who has ever been near a goose in the spring knows they aren’t birds to be messed with. These birds can weigh up to 12 pounds and can reach speeds of 80 km/h on a normal day. With tailwinds, they can reach speeds of 112 km/h or higher.
Last April, a group of college students in Waterloo, Ontario, had to get creative with entering and exiting their house when a pair of geese decided their front yard was the best place for their nest. For several weeks they had to be very careful about when and how they entered their house because they could be attacked.
Of course, calls to any groups who could help with the situation were no help. The Canadian Goose is a protected species, so people aren’t allowed to touch them or their nests, cause injury, or kill the birds.
While the videos are always good for a laugh, people can get seriously injured. Many of the injuries happen as people try to run away from the birds, but a downstroke from a goose can hit like a fist and leave you with some nasty injuries.
I’m saying all of this because the season of the cobra chicken is coming soon. We do have some geese that feel this area is a good place to bring up their goslings. It’s a good time to tell kids that geese shouldn’t be messed with and to start paying attention when we’re walking near any ponds.
I would hate to be the main character in one of the YouTube videos people come across while doomscrolling. I feel like that would be far less entertaining for me, though I’m sure it would give others a good laugh.
First funding for replacement school
Plans to build a replacement for Drayton Valley’s St. Anthony School took a step forward last week.
St. Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic School Division (STAR Catholic) received planning funding from the Government of Alberta to support the future replacement of the school.
The Province will pay $50,000 in value-scoping funding. The school division says the funding will support early planning to ensure readiness for a potential new school build. That includes conducting an initial investigation to confirm project readiness, identify key priorities, and ensure essential planning components are in place.
“This is very encouraging news for our division and for the St. Anthony School community,” said STAR Catholic board chair Henry Effon. “This funding reflects the board’s continued commitment to advocating for our students and allows us to take an important step forward in preparing for a much-needed new school.”
The replacement of St. Anthony School is identified as the number one priority in the STAR Catholic capital plan. Superintendent Laurie Cardinal said the division was grateful for the support received from the province.
“This further strengthens the step in supporting the high-quality learning experience students in Drayton Valley already enjoy,” she said.
The current school dates back to the 1960s and has an enrolment of about 430. The building last had a major renovation in the 1990s.
“I strongly believe that if it had been a suicide or a medical event, we would have found the body on that very first day,” said Taylor.
Since there were no leads, the case eventually went cold. But Taylor never gave up hope. Every year she would post information to social media in the hopes of jogging someone’s memory.
This year she received a call from the Alberta RCMP Missing Persons Unit. They indicated that they were taking a look at the file and hoping to find something that might have been missed. However, since that time the home and land have been purchased by different owners and the situation might be more complicated.
“He was just such an amazing dad,” said Taylor. She says Nicoll originally met her mother in Prince Rupert, B.C. when she was a nurse. The two ended up getting married and living in England for the first eight years of Taylor’s life.
“They were soulmates,” says Taylor.
During that time her father was a police officer.
When they relocated to this country, Taylor says her dad was very proud to call Canada his home. Taylor was an only child, and because there was no family nearby, the three of them were very close.
“He was really just proud to be in Canada. He was so excited to be in Canada and have the opportunity here,” she said.
The family resided in the Edmonton area and Nicoll went into security, originally starting at the Royal Alexandra Hospital. It was there that he made many friends that would soon become his extended family.
“I’m still in contact with all of his friends that he made throughout his career. They’ve become like family to me,” said Taylor. “He just made an impact on everyone he met.”
Marvin Chick was one of the close friends that Nicoll made while working at the Royal Alex. He said he also worked with Nicoll when he started working with Transit, where Nicoll was a peace officer.
Opportunity Home’s first Spring Shaker was a success, says executive director Danna Cropley.
“The event sold out within the first few weeks,” says Cropley. “Beyond that, the event went absolutely amazingly.”
The evening had a dance, a catered dinner, and silent auction items to help raise funds for the rehabilitation centre. Cropley says it wouldn’t have been possible without the volunteers who helped put the event together. About 230 people attended.
“Jen Winter, Janice Kupsch, and their crew organized the event. The room was full of energy and community; it was so great,” says Cropley.
One of the reasons for the event, along with raising funds to help run the facility, was to educate the public about what the facility does and how it helps those in need. Opportunity Home opened its doors in February 2023, and has seen numerous people complete the 90-day program during its three years of operation.
Earlier in the week, Cropley also spoke to town council with the same goal in mind.
“Because the council is fairly new… we just wanted to update them on Opportunity Home’s mission, vision, and values, [as well] as the value our project brings, not only to the municipality but also our provincial community and out to our country.”
Cropley says the facility has offered beds to people from across the province, British Columbia, and some from the United States. She says she wanted council to see the reach that they have now and how they are supporting Recovery Alberta’s response to the current opioid crisis.
In her presentation to council, Cropley touched on the community, social, and economic value the centre brought to the community. This included the volunteer work the clients provided, homelessness and poverty prevention, as well as reducing taxpayer costs for emergency, health, and justice services.
She says community investment is a crucial part of the success of the centre, not in terms of dollars, but in terms of interest from the community, volunteers, and feedback.
“I just really wanted to make sure that town council was aware of who we are and what we do,” says Cropley.
Opportunity Home is hosting another event on June 19 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. that is open to the public: a memorial tree planting ceremony, along with a barbecue and tour of the facility. Cropley says they will also have different resources and services at the event for people to connect with if needed.
She says the tree-planting ceremony will be in honour of some community members who have recently passed away. Members of the public are welcome to donate to plant a tree in memory of someone they have lost.
It seems that those pushing for Alberta independence have enough signatures to force a referendum on the issue. That put me in mind of something I wrote a few years ago that I think still holds water.
If Alberta’s going to ditch the rest of Canada we need to set a few rules. This is going to take a while, so it’s best to start talking about it now so we know where we stand if and when it comes to a vote.
First we have to figure out what an Albertan actually is.
There used to be a guy who lived down the street from me who had a bumper sticker that said, “Canadian by birth, Albertan by the grace of God.” It always struck me as a little odd. That was partly because it was on the rear bumper of the first Toyota Prius I’d ever seen with a gun rack. But it’s also because I’ve lived in this province for well over three decades, and I’ve never been able to figure out what makes an Albertan an Albertan.
OK, so an Albertan is someone who comes from Alberta. That’s according to no less a source than the Oxford Canadian Dictionary so I’m not about to start arguing. But the results of the most recent federal census suggest that’s a pretty broad group. If the number and variety of languages spoken in this province is any kind of a guide, Albertans come from all over the place, both within Canada and from every corner of the globe.
That’s true of other places too of course. Places like London and New York are breathtaking in their diversity. What makes Alberta different is that everything here is so new. We’ve been a province for not much more than a century and have evolved so rapidly in such a short time, with so many waves of immigration from so many parts of the world that it sometimes feels as if we’ve never developed a separate sense of ourselves. At least not in the way you’d find among the societies of Africa, Asia or Europe, or even in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia or Quebec.
So what do we have that binds such a broad group together and sets us apart from the rest of the country? There’s the Flames and the Oilers I suppose. And beef. We like beef and are justifiably proud of both the quality and quantity this province produces. I think it’s also fair to say that we work hard. Not me, obviously, but most of the rest of you. And perhaps most importantly right now, there’s a sense of frustration that we always end up with a federal government that most of us didn’t vote for. But even at the last election, when dislike of Ottawa was probably at its peak, more than a third of us voted either Liberal or NDP and a significant number of us didn’t vote at all. So things are not as black and white as they may appear.
Anyway, as far as things that set us apart from the folks in Toronto or Tuktoyaktuk, that’s about it. Don’t get me wrong. I love this province and I love the people who live here (most of you anyway) but it doesn’t feel like we’ve got much to build a country on. Albertans are good people and we have a lot to offer the world. But at the same time we’re an odd and interesting mixture that doesn’t seem quite sure of its own identity. Sort of like a Prius with a gun rack.
The Eleanor Pickup Arts Centre will be hosting the Yellowhead Regional One-Act Plays Festival on April 10 and 11 this year.
Ashley Luckwell, the chair of the board for River Valley Players, says the regional festival will have five performances this year. Cast and crew from Leduc, St. Albert, Devon, Beaumont, and Drayton Valley will be participating in the event.
“There are five different groups from the Yellowhead Region that are coming,” she says.
Luckwell says the event is being put on by the Alberta Drama Festival Association (AFDA). This festival is one of several that are occurring across the province, with the winners from each heading on to the provincial festival in Leduc in May this year.
“We’re really excited to have it here,” says Luckwell. “It’s great to show off the EPAC; it’s great to have them come into our community.”
The festival will take place over two days, with each of the plays lasting anywhere from 30 minutes to about 45 minutes. RVP members Leah Sanderson, Sarah Chapman, Katherine De Varennes, and Jan Wright will be performing their play Overtones on Friday night.
Luckwell says the play is one she directed and was written by Alice Gerstenberg in the early 1900s. It was first performed in 1915 at the Bandox Theatre in New York.
The play highlights the difference between what people say and what they are actually thinking. Two of the actors will be playing characters having a conversation, and two younger actors will be playing a younger version of themselves giving voice to the first two character’s inner thoughts.
The other plays will be Steven Goes to Japan to Run a Marathon, Crystal Blue Persuasion, The Crimson Cab Ladies Hit the Beach, and Don’t Mention Hollywood.
Luckwell says there has been lots of support from local businesses for this event, with some giving discounts on food and others sponsoring the festival as well.
“It’s been really great,” she says.
Tickets for the event will be for sale at the doors for $15. Luckwell says cash is preferred as it is not the EPAC that will be taking the funds, but rather volunteers for the AFDA.
Add Your Heading Text Here
- HOURS: Mon–Fri: 8:30AM – 4:30 pm Sat - Sun: Closed
- CALL: 1-780-514-7359
- LOCATION: 5205 Power Center Blvd #108,Drayton Valley, AB T7A 0A5
Doomscrolling is a terrible habit for sure, and it’s one that I’m guilty of from time to time. It mostly depends on my mood, energy levels, and whether I have to sit and wait for an extended period of time.
The videos that have captured my imagination the last little while are the ones where content creators from other countries react to all things Canadian. That means everything from trying ketchup chips to seeing some of the worst ice storms the Maritimes have experienced.
Some of my favourites are the ones about wildlife. It’s entertaining to listen to the narrator speak about how big a moose is for fifteen seconds while they show a five-second clip of a moose, then five of an elk, and five more seconds of several white tail deer bounding into the distance. No one will ever know which one is the moose.
Another favourite of mine is videos of the Cobra Chicken, or for those of you who don’t speak to teenagers on a regular basis, the Canadian Goose.
The moniker Cobra Chicken is a little odd, but I guess it’s because they’re a big bird with long necks. Thus parts of them look like cobras and the rest looks like chickens.
In any case, anyone who has ever been near a goose in the spring knows they aren’t birds to be messed with. These birds can weigh up to 12 pounds and can reach speeds of 80 km/h on a normal day. With tailwinds, they can reach speeds of 112 km/h or higher.
Last April, a group of college students in Waterloo, Ontario, had to get creative with entering and exiting their house when a pair of geese decided their front yard was the best place for their nest. For several weeks they had to be very careful about when and how they entered their house because they could be attacked.
Of course, calls to any groups who could help with the situation were no help. The Canadian Goose is a protected species, so people aren’t allowed to touch them or their nests, cause injury, or kill the birds.
While the videos are always good for a laugh, people can get seriously injured. Many of the injuries happen as people try to run away from the birds, but a downstroke from a goose can hit like a fist and leave you with some nasty injuries.
I’m saying all of this because the season of the cobra chicken is coming soon. We do have some geese that feel this area is a good place to bring up their goslings. It’s a good time to tell kids that geese shouldn’t be messed with and to start paying attention when we’re walking near any ponds.
I would hate to be the main character in one of the YouTube videos people come across while doomscrolling. I feel like that would be far less entertaining for me, though I’m sure it would give others a good laugh.
Plans to build a replacement for Drayton Valley’s St. Anthony School took a step forward last week.
St. Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic School Division (STAR Catholic) received planning funding from the Government of Alberta to support the future replacement of the school.
The Province will pay $50,000 in value-scoping funding. The school division says the funding will support early planning to ensure readiness for a potential new school build. That includes conducting an initial investigation to confirm project readiness, identify key priorities, and ensure essential planning components are in place.
“This is very encouraging news for our division and for the St. Anthony School community,” said STAR Catholic board chair Henry Effon. “This funding reflects the board’s continued commitment to advocating for our students and allows us to take an important step forward in preparing for a much-needed new school.”
The replacement of St. Anthony School is identified as the number one priority in the STAR Catholic capital plan. Superintendent Laurie Cardinal said the division was grateful for the support received from the province.
“This further strengthens the step in supporting the high-quality learning experience students in Drayton Valley already enjoy,” she said.
The current school dates back to the 1960s and has an enrolment of about 430. The building last had a major renovation in the 1990s.
“He loved his family and he loved Canada,” he said. Chick said that when the couple moved to the acreage, Nicoll took on his wife’s love of animals and they had quite the menagerie. He said any animal that needed a home found one with the Nicolls.
“He was a friendly guy. He would do anything for anybody,” said Chick. He said that if Nicoll came across someone who was down and out, which he did often in his job, he would go out of his way to buy them lunch or help them out when he could.
Chick said when he first learned that Nicoll was missing he was confused and worried. “He wasn’t a person who would harm himself on purpose,” said Chick. He said that Nicoll loved his daughter too much.
Chick said he helped out with the search. And now he’s just left with questions. He says he has suspicions about what happened, but he doesn’t have any confirmation. “It is a big mystery for me,” he said.
He said that Nicoll had a big heart. He remembers one afternoon when they were going for a walk on Nicoll’s property they came across a porcupine that was drowning in the creek. Nicoll waded out there and rescued the animal, laying it out in the sun so it could warm up. “He went back and checked and it had recovered and gone on its way,” he said.
Tana Vea was another of Nicoll’s close friends, having met him at the Royal Alex. Vea had moved to Edmonton from Hawaii, and since there was little family in the area, they became each other’s family.
Vea said that Nicoll was a stickler for grammar on all of their reports. He said he would bring out his red pen and mark everything up. Vea says there is a man who now works for the Edmonton Police Service who credits Nicoll for his skill in filling out reports. “He said Andy’s teachings with report writing helped him to get the position he has today.”
Vea said he also worked with Nicoll at Transit, where he was Peace Officer. He said Nicoll had eventually gotten promoted through the ranks until he became an investigator, mostly working on internal complaints.
Vea says one thing that makes him sad is that Taylor’s daughter is the same age as his grandson, and he knows that Nicoll and his wife would have loved being grandparents. He said he thinks it’s also hard on Taylor to not have her parents around now that she has children. “[Nicoll and his wife] loved their kid. She was their dream and they treated her as the princess in the house,” he said.
Opportunity Home’s first Spring Shaker was a success, says executive director Danna Cropley.
“The event sold out within the first few weeks,” says Cropley. “Beyond that, the event went absolutely amazingly.”
The evening had a dance, a catered dinner, and silent auction items to help raise funds for the rehabilitation centre. Cropley says it wouldn’t have been possible without the volunteers who helped put the event together. About 230 people attended.
“Jen Winter, Janice Kupsch, and their crew organized the event. The room was full of energy and community; it was so great,” says Cropley.
One of the reasons for the event, along with raising funds to help run the facility, was to educate the public about what the facility does and how it helps those in need. Opportunity Home opened its doors in February 2023, and has seen numerous people complete the 90-day program during its three years of operation.
Earlier in the week, Cropley also spoke to town council with the same goal in mind.
“Because the council is fairly new… we just wanted to update them on Opportunity Home’s mission, vision, and values, [as well] as the value our project brings, not only to the municipality but also our provincial community and out to our country.”
Cropley says the facility has offered beds to people from across the province, British Columbia, and some from the United States. She says she wanted council to see the reach that they have now and how they are supporting Recovery Alberta’s response to the current opioid crisis.
In her presentation to council, Cropley touched on the community, social, and economic value the centre brought to the community. This included the volunteer work the clients provided, homelessness and poverty prevention, as well as reducing taxpayer costs for emergency, health, and justice services.
She says community investment is a crucial part of the success of the centre, not in terms of dollars, but in terms of interest from the community, volunteers, and feedback.
“I just really wanted to make sure that town council was aware of who we are and what we do,” says Cropley.
Opportunity Home is hosting another event on June 19 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. that is open to the public: a memorial tree planting ceremony, along with a barbecue and tour of the facility. Cropley says they will also have different resources and services at the event for people to connect with if needed.
She says the tree-planting ceremony will be in honour of some community members who have recently passed away. Members of the public are welcome to donate to plant a tree in memory of someone they have lost.
It seems that those pushing for Alberta independence have enough signatures to force a referendum on the issue. That put me in mind of something I wrote a few years ago that I think still holds water.
If Alberta’s going to ditch the rest of Canada we need to set a few rules. This is going to take a while, so it’s best to start talking about it now so we know where we stand if and when it comes to a vote.
First we have to figure out what an Albertan actually is.
There used to be a guy who lived down the street from me who had a bumper sticker that said, “Canadian by birth, Albertan by the grace of God.” It always struck me as a little odd. That was partly because it was on the rear bumper of the first Toyota Prius I’d ever seen with a gun rack. But it’s also because I’ve lived in this province for well over three decades, and I’ve never been able to figure out what makes an Albertan an Albertan.
OK, so an Albertan is someone who comes from Alberta. That’s according to no less a source than the Oxford Canadian Dictionary so I’m not about to start arguing. But the results of the most recent federal census suggest that’s a pretty broad group. If the number and variety of languages spoken in this province is any kind of a guide, Albertans come from all over the place, both within Canada and from every corner of the globe.
That’s true of other places too of course. Places like London and New York are breathtaking in their diversity. What makes Alberta different is that everything here is so new. We’ve been a province for not much more than a century and have evolved so rapidly in such a short time, with so many waves of immigration from so many parts of the world that it sometimes feels as if we’ve never developed a separate sense of ourselves. At least not in the way you’d find among the societies of Africa, Asia or Europe, or even in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia or Quebec.
So what do we have that binds such a broad group together and sets us apart from the rest of the country? There’s the Flames and the Oilers I suppose. And beef. We like beef and are justifiably proud of both the quality and quantity this province produces. I think it’s also fair to say that we work hard. Not me, obviously, but most of the rest of you. And perhaps most importantly right now, there’s a sense of frustration that we always end up with a federal government that most of us didn’t vote for. But even at the last election, when dislike of Ottawa was probably at its peak, more than a third of us voted either Liberal or NDP and a significant number of us didn’t vote at all. So things are not as black and white as they may appear.
Anyway, as far as things that set us apart from the folks in Toronto or Tuktoyaktuk, that’s about it. Don’t get me wrong. I love this province and I love the people who live here (most of you anyway) but it doesn’t feel like we’ve got much to build a country on. Albertans are good people and we have a lot to offer the world. But at the same time we’re an odd and interesting mixture that doesn’t seem quite sure of its own identity. Sort of like a Prius with a gun rack.
The Eleanor Pickup Arts Centre will be hosting the Yellowhead Regional One-Act Plays Festival on April 10 and 11 this year.
Ashley Luckwell, the chair of the board for River Valley Players, says the regional festival will have five performances this year. Cast and crew from Leduc, St. Albert, Devon, Beaumont, and Drayton Valley will be participating in the event.
“There are five different groups from the Yellowhead Region that are coming,” she says.
Luckwell says the event is being put on by the Alberta Drama Festival Association (AFDA). This festival is one of several that are occurring across the province, with the winners from each heading on to the provincial festival in Leduc in May this year.
“We’re really excited to have it here,” says Luckwell. “It’s great to show off the EPAC; it’s great to have them come into our community.”
The festival will take place over two days, with each of the plays lasting anywhere from 30 minutes to about 45 minutes. RVP members Leah Sanderson, Sarah Chapman, Katherine De Varennes, and Jan Wright will be performing their play Overtones on Friday night.
Luckwell says the play is one she directed and was written by Alice Gerstenberg in the early 1900s. It was first performed in 1915 at the Bandox Theatre in New York.
The play highlights the difference between what people say and what they are actually thinking. Two of the actors will be playing characters having a conversation, and two younger actors will be playing a younger version of themselves giving voice to the first two character’s inner thoughts.
The other plays will be Steven Goes to Japan to Run a Marathon, Crystal Blue Persuasion, The Crimson Cab Ladies Hit the Beach, and Don’t Mention Hollywood.
Luckwell says there has been lots of support from local businesses for this event, with some giving discounts on food and others sponsoring the festival as well.
“It’s been really great,” she says.
Tickets for the event will be for sale at the doors for $15. Luckwell says cash is preferred as it is not the EPAC that will be taking the funds, but rather volunteers for the AFDA.
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Doomscrolling is a terrible habit for sure, and it’s one that I’m guilty of from time to time. It mostly depends on my mood, energy levels, and whether I have to sit and wait for an extended period of time.
The videos that have captured my imagination the last little while are the ones where content creators from other countries react to all things Canadian. That means everything from trying ketchup chips to seeing some of the worst ice storms the Maritimes have experienced.
Some of my favourites are the ones about wildlife. It’s entertaining to listen to the narrator speak about how big a moose is for fifteen seconds while they show a five-second clip of a moose, then five of an elk, and five more seconds of several white tail deer bounding into the distance. No one will ever know which one is the moose.
Another favourite of mine is videos of the Cobra Chicken, or for those of you who don’t speak to teenagers on a regular basis, the Canadian Goose.
The moniker Cobra Chicken is a little odd, but I guess it’s because they’re a big bird with long necks. Thus parts of them look like cobras and the rest looks like chickens.
In any case, anyone who has ever been near a goose in the spring knows they aren’t birds to be messed with. These birds can weigh up to 12 pounds and can reach speeds of 80 km/h on a normal day. With tailwinds, they can reach speeds of 112 km/h or higher.
Last April, a group of college students in Waterloo, Ontario, had to get creative with entering and exiting their house when a pair of geese decided their front yard was the best place for their nest. For several weeks they had to be very careful about when and how they entered their house because they could be attacked.
Of course, calls to any groups who could help with the situation were no help. The Canadian Goose is a protected species, so people aren’t allowed to touch them or their nests, cause injury, or kill the birds.
While the videos are always good for a laugh, people can get seriously injured. Many of the injuries happen as people try to run away from the birds, but a downstroke from a goose can hit like a fist and leave you with some nasty injuries.
I’m saying all of this because the season of the cobra chicken is coming soon. We do have some geese that feel this area is a good place to bring up their goslings. It’s a good time to tell kids that geese shouldn’t be messed with and to start paying attention when we’re walking near any ponds.
I would hate to be the main character in one of the YouTube videos people come across while doomscrolling. I feel like that would be far less entertaining for me, though I’m sure it would give others a good laugh.
Plans to build a replacement for Drayton Valley’s St. Anthony School took a step forward last week.
St. Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic School Division (STAR Catholic) received planning funding from the Government of Alberta to support the future replacement of the school.
The Province will pay $50,000 in value-scoping funding. The school division says the funding will support early planning to ensure readiness for a potential new school build. That includes conducting an initial investigation to confirm project readiness, identify key priorities, and ensure essential planning components are in place.
“This is very encouraging news for our division and for the St. Anthony School community,” said STAR Catholic board chair Henry Effon. “This funding reflects the board’s continued commitment to advocating for our students and allows us to take an important step forward in preparing for a much-needed new school.”
The replacement of St. Anthony School is identified as the number one priority in the STAR Catholic capital plan. Superintendent Laurie Cardinal said the division was grateful for the support received from the province.
“This further strengthens the step in supporting the high-quality learning experience students in Drayton Valley already enjoy,” she said.
The current school dates back to the 1960s and has an enrolment of about 430. The building last had a major renovation in the 1990s.
Vea said when he heard about Nicoll’s disappearance, he was shocked. “I was just dumbfounded how that could happen.” He said that the disappearance was not in character with Nicoll at all. Especially with the way he left his house.
He also doesn’t believe that Nicoll would have had issues with anyone from his position as a peace officer. “Andy was never one who dealt with the frontline stuff. He was mostly behind the scene as a supervisor.”
Taylor says her dad was an intelligent, kind-hearted man who knew how to stand up for himself. Many times he would work with people that he knew were down on their luck and needed a bit of a hand to get started with life again. “He just treated them all with so much respect, and he ended up really being quite a lot of support for them,” she said.
Eventually, they moved out to an acreage near Breton. That was when Taylor’s mom was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of breast cancer, and she only lived for another six months. She passed away on his birthday, two years prior to his disappearance.
Taylor said it was a devastating time for her father. “He was a little bit lost for some time there, but he was my best friend.”
With still no word on his whereabouts, this year Taylor is working to have Nicoll declared as deceased. She said with his career in the Navy, as a police officer and a firefighter, he deserves to have the full honours given to him, rather than just be a missing person. “No one has been able to pay any respects,” she said.
“My gut is telling me that somebody approached him on the property and something transpired,” she said. “I don’t know who or why.”
Nicoll didn’t like guns, and she believes that he would have gone along with whatever the situation was until he could get to a safe location.
Chick agrees with Taylor’s thoughts. “I think he was offering someone some help and there was some foul play.”
Vea wonders if maybe there was a hunting accident, and perhaps someone tried to cover it up.
“He didn’t have any enemies that anyone knows of, but being in law enforcement for that many years, it’s hard to know,” said Taylor.
Corporal Deanna Fontaine, a media liaison for the Alberta RCMP Missing Persons Unit, said “It can be confirmed that since the initial media release, Andrew George Nicoll, has been entered into the National Missing Persons Database and DNA has been obtained and is on file.”
Fontaine said RCMP are hoping that after this amount of time that someone will provide some answers. Fontaine says that if someone was scared to say something at the time, she hopes they will feel safe in coming forward now.
“If I knew for sure he was out there, I would tell him to come home and see his daughter and what a beautiful young lady she has become. She’s followed in his footsteps in a lot of ways. I wish he could see the eyes of his grandkids, too,” said Vea.
Anyone with information regarding Nicoll’s disappearance is urged to contact the Breton RCMP at 780-696-3520 or your local police. If you wish to remain anonymous, you can contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), online at www.P3Tips.com or by using the “P3 Tips” app available through the Apple App or Google Play Store.
Spring Shaker sells out
Opportunity Home’s first Spring Shaker was a success, says executive director Danna Cropley.
“The event sold out within the first few weeks,” says Cropley. “Beyond that, the event went absolutely amazingly.”
Kiss me I’m Albertan
It seems that those pushing for Alberta independence have enough signatures to force a referendum on the issue. That put me in mind of something
Drayton to host regional one act plays
The Eleanor Pickup Arts Centre will be hosting the Yellowhead Regional One-Act Plays Festival on April 10 and 11 this year.
Here come the cobra chickens
Doomscrolling is a terrible habit for sure, and it’s one that I’m guilty of from time to time. It mostly depends on my mood, energy levels, and whether I have to sit and wait for an extended period of time.
