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Community papers connect remotely housed Albertans to satellite internet rebate
Eligible Alberta households can claim up to $1,000 for satellite internet hardware and installation.
The target audience for a new rebate in Alberta may need the print version of their community newspaper to first learn that the satellite-facing program even exists.
Rebates worth up to $1,000 are available until March 31 for hardware and installation costs to connect certain households to low-Earth-orbit satellites for internet service.
The challenge is that the 10,000 or so rural and remote households that qualify have, by definition, severely limited or non-existent internet access, a rural media roundtable organized by the provincial government heard Thursday.
The eligible homes are in areas of Alberta deprived of traditional ground-based internet because of distance and topography, Technology and Innovation Minister Nate Glubish told about a dozen rural media representatives.
That makes community newspapers distributed along Alberta’s roads less travelled particularly important, he confirmed.
Glubish said major outlets have given the story little attention and “don’t want to talk to me about it. But I appreciate that it's your readers who are going to be more interested in this anyways.”
The program draws from a joint federal-Alberta fund worth $755 million to blanket the province with broadband. The new rebate addresses rural and remote residents that fell between the cracks because — until now — reaching them hasn’t been affordable, practical or even possible, Glubish said.
The difference today is that satellites in low-Earth orbit have become widely available to internet providers and users in Alberta.
Earlier, the government would have had to entice satellite companies to expand their service, Glubish said.
“We knew they were going to expand here anyway, but it was going to cost us tens of millions of dollars to persuade them to come here first, rather than just allowing them to come here as they normally were going to. And that patience has paid off,” said Glubish, the UCP member representing Strathcona-Sherwood Park.
Alberta published a broadband strategy in January 2022 with the goal to hit 100 per cent connectivity by the end of this fiscal year.
The strategy said then that 67 per cent of rural Albertans and 80 per cent of the province’s Indigenous communities had unreliable internet access at federal target speeds.
But today, according to the minister’s office, the needle has moved dramatically.
An estimated 82.2 per cent of households in Alberta First Nations reserves have access to high-speed internet, up from just 19.6 per cent in 2019, the baseline cited in the strategy.
That represents an increase of about 8,400 on-reserve households, the ministry told The Macleod Gazette in an emailed follow-up to the roundtable.
Of all Alberta households, 98.2 per cent now have access to high-speed internet, said a news release on the rebate.
“I know it's been a long time coming. We've been working hard on this for the last four years,” Glubish told the roundtable.
“But I think we’re coming to the tail-end of an important initiative, and it's nice to see that we are getting close to achieving our goal of universal connectivity."
A “significant portion” of federal-provincial funding has gone towards improving reliable, non-satellite internet in Indigenous communities, he said.
“If there are any First Nations communities that are not yet covered, then absolutely, yes, they would be eligible to participate in this rebate program,” he said.
Affordability remains an issue for some rural Albertans, Glubish acknowledged. Living the remote life can be expensive, and paying a premium for internet service is one of those higher costs.
But “the biggest barrier … is the upfront investment for the hardware and the installation. And that's what this program addresses,” he said.
“So this will go a long way to helping anybody in a low-income scenario to be able to get their connection established.”
Connectivity keeps getting more important in the professional and personal lives of Albertans, Glubish said.
He pointed to education, employment, entrepreneurship, and medical and justice services as cornerstones of modern life that the internet has improved dramatically. “If you don't have connectivity, your options are limited."
Households that qualify for the rebate can purchase their satellite hardware and installation while the program is open, with eligible receipts dating from Aug. 11 of this year onward.
Hardware must be purchased from an authorized vendor to qualify. Rebates apply to satellite dishes, receiver kits and installation services and supplies. Receipts are submitted through an online portal.
Find out more at alberta.ca/alberta-satellite-rebate-program — assuming you have a way to connect to the internet.
“I think it's super important to get this message out to our rural newspapers,” said roundtable participant Lisa Sygutek, president of the Alberta Weekly Newspapers Association and the publisher and owner of the Crowsnest Pass Herald.
Sygutek also wanted to know how the rebate would be rolled out to Albertans who don’t have the connectively yet to apply or submit receipts online.
The ministry is working with organizations like Rural Municipalities of Alberta and with MLAs to share information on the rebate. It will monitor how effective its efforts are before looking at other communications measures, including direct mailing.
“Our goal is to try and make sure it's very clear that anybody who is likely to be eligible for this will know that this is an option available to them,” Glubish said.
Copyright 2026, The Macleod Gazette. All rights reserved.
George Lee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Macleod Gazette.
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Police look to cause of fiery Calgary bus crash, try to identity third person killed
Cause of fiery Calgary bus crash unknown: police
Police are trying to determine the cause of a fiery bus crash in Calgary that killed three passengers and injured 16 others, including a police officer.
Two transit buses were involved in the chain-reaction crash with several other vehicles Thursday on a busy road in the city's northeast.
Police say the three who died were on a bus with natural gas tanks that ignited into flames and, within seconds, intensified and caused an explosion.
They say two of the victims have been identified and work to identify the third is ongoing.
The bus driver was able to escape, the driver of the other bus was taken to hospital with life-altering injuries, and the officer who rushed to help is recovering at home.
Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas has said the officer ran onto the burning bus to save a child.
Police say it's too early to determine whether impairment, speed or distraction contributed to the crash.
By Bill Graveland | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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Joly warns Stelco owner to protect jobs or face forced sale of Canadian assets
Joly warns Stelco owner of potential forced sale
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nick Iwanyshyn
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly says the U.S.-based owner of Stelco must uphold job commitments it made when it purchased the Ontario-based steelmaker or risk being forced to sell its Canadian assets.
In a speech at the Canadian Club in Toronto on Friday, she also raised the possibility of the federal government taking equity positions in strategic industries.
But Joly stopped short of explicitly saying Ottawa was prepared to take an ownership stake in Stelco.
The minister singled out Stelco owner Cleveland-Cliffs, accusing the American company of supporting U.S. tariffs that are damaging its own Canadian operations.
Stelco announced plans on Sept. 28 to lay off up to 500 workers across its Hamilton and Lake Erie facilities, citing the ongoing trade crisis, weak demand and continued import pressure.
Stelco’s Hamilton Works produces cold-rolled and galvanized steel. The company said it would indefinitely idle both operations.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2026.
— By Brett Bundale in Ottawa, with files from Tara Deschamps in Toronto
Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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A Wedding Guest Cut The Newlyweds' Cake Just For Herself & TikTok Is Melting Down Over It
"You have no idea how angry this is making me."
Nothing says "pure chaos" like walking up to a newlywed couple's pristine wedding cake and cutting a slice for yourself — before they even get a chance to taste it.
TikTok user @mediocrehailey sparked a major outcry on the app recently, after posting video of herself cutting the first slice of her friend's wedding cake before the bride and groom could even get their moment with it.
And while that sounds like a major power move, it seems she did it entirely by accident.
"Me! A guest at my friend's wedding," reads the caption over her video of the incident, which has gone viral online. "Ignoring the brownie table and confidently cutting myself a slice of HER WEDDING CAKE, thinking uh-oh! They forgot to serve it to everyone else!"
The video shows her not only cutting a slice for herself, but then licking her fingers and dancing away to the DJ's next song, completely unaware of what she's done.
Yikes.
"I know better now," continued her caption. "I hate myself!"
How do you even recover from that, or begin to apologize to the newlyweds?
People did not hold back in the comments, with many ripping her for somehow not reading the room at the wedding. Others were shocked that she shared the embarrassing video on TikTok, where it now has over 5.8 million views.
The top comment under the video read: "You couldn't pry this information out of me if I did this to someone at their wedding," because some things are just better to keep to yourself.
"You have no idea how angry this is making me," wrote another user.
Many users said they would "no longer be on speaking terms" with someone who did this at their wedding.
Another pointed out that "someone was even recording this instead of running up and stopping you."
"Was this your first wedding??" asked another commenter.
Safe to say that people were angry, but it looks like the bride herself managed to get over it.
The poster apologized to the bride and groom in her caption, and the bride showed up in the comments to accept the apology.
"As the bride whose cake this is - SHE IS FORMALLY FORGIVEN AND HAS LEARNED HER LESSON IN WEDDING ETIQUETTE," she wrote.
Phew!
Despite the bride being over the whole kerfuffle, some people are still trying to wrap their minds around the blunder in the first place.
"Omg, so I see that the bride commented forgiving you, but I still need to go through my own emotional process with this one," wrote one user.
So the next time you're at a wedding, learn from this TikToker's mistake and don't help yourself to a slice of cake!