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Terrific performances featured on the Ross Street Patio

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Kick off Family Day weekend with a show by Red Deer’s own Ten02

Music fans won’t want to miss out on a range of terrific performances coming up on the Ross Street Patio.

‘Music on the Ross Street Patio’ continues Feb. 18 with popular Red Deer-based band Ten02. “The performance is a kick-off to the Family Day weekend,
so we will also have the hot chocolate out again, and the photo booth. It will be a really great evening of family fun,” explained Chelsey Ward, special events coordinator for the Downtown Business Association.

The Patio’s music season was officially launched on Feb. 11 with a special Valentine’s Day event featuring tunes from Simon Donovan and Amanda Mitchell, free Valentine’s hot chocolate, a ‘Date Night’ giveaway valued at $100 and a themed-photo booth.

Visitors could cozy up by one of the fire tables under a canopy of sparkling lights while listening to superb local talent.

Folks could also check out the ‘Locks of Love’ installation and add one of their own to celebrate the occasion with their significant other.

“It was great!” said Ward of the Feb. 11 event. “The Ross Street Patio really provides such a romantic ambience to begin with under that canopy of light and the fire tables. It’s really beautiful. We also had the trees decorated with hearts, and of course the Locks of Love was decorated. “The weather was also just right – cold enough to be cozy! The businesses’ patios also filled up with attendees and spectators, too. So, the words to describe it would be ‘vibrant’ and ‘thriving’ – there was a lot of excitement on the patio that evening,” she added.

Music on the patio has been an exciting feature for several years through the warmer months with performances running Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. and Wednesdays from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. This year marks the first time performances have been scheduled in the winter season, which falls in line with the current ‘year-round’ nature of the Ross Street Patio.

And there is no doubt that residents are loving it.

“Feedback from last Friday’s performance showed a great deal of appreciation from both residents and businesses,” explained Ward. “The Ross Street Patio is such a loved feature of the downtown, so it’s very exciting to be able to celebrate it year-round. There’s a lot of excitement, and people are happy to be there.” Another goal is to just generally increase traffic and overall awareness about all that downtown Red Deer has to offer, she said.

“The downtown is just such a great place to take a walk, explore and come across really unique small businesses, and to enjoy the roots and the culture of our historic downtown, too. Then you can stop by the Ross Street Patio for a live musical performance – there is just so much to see and do. “Right now is also a great time to visit the downtown – we have our ‘ShopDowntown2Win’ promotion going on,” she said.

ShopDowntown2Win is an exciting promotion involving a weekly $1,000 draw – $500 to keep and $500 to share with a local business, Ward explained. “All shoppers need to do is submit a picture of any receipts of $25 or more from any business in the downtown or Capstone area to www.shopdowntown2win.com.” Draws take place every Tuesday until March 8th when there will be a draw for a $1,500 grand prize!

“If shoppers can’t make it downtown every week, they can also participate by writing glowing google reviews about downtown and Capstone businesses,” she added. “It’s a great time to check things out and then enter to potentially win a great prize!”

As to the ongoing music series, folks can check out The Red Hot Hayseeds on March 17. Additional shows feature Jaydin Vonkeman on April 1, Jeremy Doody and Dom Benzer on April 7, and Stephen Scott and guests on April 14.

More exciting performances down the road include Kayla Williams on April 21, Jay Bowcott and Syd Zadravec on April 28 and heading into May don’t miss The Rebecca Raabis Family Band on May 5, James Adams (May 12) and Dean Ray on May 19.

‘Music on the Ross Street Patio’ is a free event and is open to all ages. All performances run from 4:30 – 7:30 p.m. on show nights.

Also, according to the DBA, dates that fall on or near holidays will also feature giveaways, themed-décor, photo booths as well as free hot chocolate and/or activity booths along with the regular performances.

For more about the Downtown Business Association and all that is planned for the Ross Street Patio, find them on Facebook or visit www.downtownreddeer.com.

Born and raised in Red Deer, Mark Weber is an award-winning freelance writer who is committed to the community. He worked as a reporter for the Red Deer Express for 18 years including six years as co-editor. During that time, he mainly covered arts and entertainment plus a spectrum of areas from city news and health stories to business profiles and human interest features. Mark also spent a year working for the regional publication Town and Country in northern Alberta, along with stints at the Ponoka News and the Stettler Independent. He’s thrilled to be a Todayville contributor, as it allows him many more opportunities to continue to focus on the city and community he not only has a passion for, but calls home as well.

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PBO report shows cost of bureaucracy up 73 per cent under Trudeau

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From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

By Franco Terrazzano

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on the federal government to rein in the bureaucracy following today’s Parliamentary Budget Officer report showing the bureaucracy costs taxpayers $69.5 billion.

“The cost of the federal bureaucracy increased by 73 per cent since 2016, but it’s a good bet most Canadians aren’t seeing anywhere close to 73 per cent better services from the government,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “Taxpayers are getting soaked because the size and cost of the federal bureaucracy is out of control.”

Today’s PBO report estimates the federal bureaucracy cost taxpayers $69.5 billion in 2023-24. In 2016-17, the cost of the bureaucracy was $40.2 billion. That’s an increase of 72.9 per cent.

The most recent data shows the cost continues to rise quickly.

“Spending on personnel in the first five months of 2024-25 is up 8.0 per cent over the same period last year,” according to the PBO.

“I have noticed a marked increase in the number of public servants since 2016 and a proportional increase in spending,” said Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux. “But we haven’t seen similar improvements when it comes to service.”

The Trudeau government added 108,793 bureaucrats since 2016 – a 42 per cent increase. Canada’s population grew by 14 per cent during the same period. Had the bureaucracy only increased with population growth, there would be 72,491 fewer federal employees today.

The government awarded more than one million pay raises to bureaucrats in the last four years, according to access-to-information records obtained by the CTF. The government also rubberstamped $406 million in bonuses last year.

“The government added tens of thousands of extra bureaucrats, rubberstamped hundreds of millions in bonuses and awarded more than one million pay raises and all taxpayers seem to get out of it is higher taxes and more debt,” Terrazzano said. “For the government to balance the budget and provide tax relief, it will need to cut the size and cost of Ottawa’s bloated bureaucracy.”

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Can’t afford Rent? Groceries for your kids? Trudeau says suck it up and pay the tax!

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Watch Canada’s Prime Minister tell an anti-poverty group, your ability to buy “groceries for my kids” is less important than sacrificing to pay his carbon tax.

In case you still thought there might be even the tiniest chance Justin Trudeau might come around.. well this settles it. He is as they say, ‘beyond the pale’.

Sure we’ve pieced this together over the last number of years, but it’s still SHOCKING to see him say it directly, proclaim it proudly. This week Trudeau received applause from an audience of the intellectually suffering at something called the “Global Citizen Now” panel discussion on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Rio.

Much appreciation for the first short video below to Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre who shared his ferocious reaction to Trudeau’s anti-human comments, challenging the current PM to call an immediate election.

Or course there will be no quick election call. To Justin, it’s more important to cling to the undercarriage of a taxpayer funded jet so he can fly the globe stunning audiences unfortunately already stunned by their utter terror of losing the planet.

In their horror at their inability to turn the switch off and let us all freeze/starve to death this winter, they applaud lovingly for their intellectual leader/sock model as he describes how hard it is to convince angry, hungry people they really need to suck it up.

If only he read a history book.. any history book.. apologies, any book at all. Truly even spending some time with the literary version of an Al Gore video rant would at lest keep JT occupied so he couldn’t speak for a few moments. I’m pretty sure every time he opens his mouth, the temperature in Canada rises as millions of frustrated hotheads (hello there) explode, spewing steam high up into the upper atmosphere where water particles do much more damage to our planet than the final exhaling of a non grocery-eating-planet-loving-Canadian.

Watch Pierre Poilievre’s video and assuage the ensuing headache by mapping out your route to a polling booth. If this doesn’t sell a couple of those ‘Axe the Tax’ shirts for the Poilievre team, well.. enjoy your stroll to the foodbank.

Here’s a link to his entire discussion. If you have a strong stomach and 20 minutes of your life to donate to a higher cause… No silly, not the intended cause of the anti-poverty group… But to the intellectual cause of understanding just how twisted the logic has become for those who fly around the world to wine and dine, only to break long enough to tell us they think it’s perfectly fine if we can’t buy groceries for our kids.

By the way, please save a bit of your shock and disappointment for the hapless host of the ‘anti-poverty’ Global Citizen. This was apparently on the sidelines of a G20 Summit.  I would expect this drivel to be called out at a respectable middle school debate. Apparently the ‘anti-poverty’ Global Citizen people aren’t overly concerned with poverty. Do we need to say that not being able to afford groceries is in fact THE definition of poverty?  Or course not. It would be much easier for them to change their name to Former Global Citizens.

You were warned.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sits down for a conversation with Michael Scheldrick, co-founder of the anti-poverty group Global Citizen, on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders’ Summit Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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