Home Care In Royal Oak, AB

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London Drugs has begun a gradual reopening of stores after an April 28 cybersecurity incident forced the company to temporarily close all of its locations across Western Canada.

Phone lines were also initially shut down as part of an investigation into the incident by cybersecurity experts. London Drugs phones began working again on May 1.

Pharmacy staff remained on site for the duration of the closures to assist with urgent pharmacy concerns. Canada Post outlets within London Drugs stores also remained operational.

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Due to the complexity of the store systems, the company is unable to open all stores at the same time. “We are only turning on systems after we and our external third-party cybersecurity experts have taken all recommended steps to ensure we have full confidence that the systems being used are safe and secure,” the retailer said in a news release Monday.

London Drugs is “taking the time with each store to ensure systems are working and ready to serve customers.”

The company maintains that no customer data has been compromised. If the investigation determines that personal information was affected, it will notify individuals in accordance with privacy laws.

The company said 40 of 79 stores reopened as of Monday, but some pharmacy services remain unavailable. Connectivity issues are preventing the stores from being able to fill new prescriptions. Pharmacy staff remain at all stores to assist with questions or urgent needs.

The Insurance Services Call Centre is open and helping customers with insurance needs and Autoplan transactions.

All Optical locations are expected to be operational by the end of Monday.

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London Drugs expects all of the affected stores to be open by the end of Tuesday. The list of reopened stores is being updated online here.

“We are grateful for the patience and support of our customers and suppliers as we work to bring all services and systems at our stores back to full operation following this cybersecurity incident,” Clint Mahlman, president and chief operating officer of London Drugs, said in Saturday’s statement.

— With files from The Canadian Press

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Thinking About Our Future Today

The CBE has a considerable legacy of leadership and success in environmental education and energy management on both an individual school and system level. The CBE's commitment to environmental sustainability is laid out within the following Operational Expectations (OE) and Results: OE-9 Facilities and Results 3 Citizenship.

The CBE’s Sustainability Framework 2030 supports a formal commitment to a sustainable future.

As Calgary’s public school system, we have a responsibility to contribute to a sustainable future.

Sustainability encompasses the social, economic and environmental components of our world.

As a leader in environmental education and energy management on both an individual school and system level, our staff and students have demonstrated a significant commitment to environmental stewardship since 2007. This is an important component of sustainability, but as we move forward we will work on all aspects of sustainability.

Our Sustainability Framework 2030 ​was presented to the Board of Trustees in April 2022. It was created with input from staff, students, parents and public and ​is aligned with the Results policies and the Education Plan.

In addition to the need to care for local and global environmental and social systems, there are also financial benefits to adopting and implementing a Sustainability Framework 2030.

Financial benefits and savings will be achieved through continued implementation of energy management projects, energy retrofits, alternative energy installations and waste minimization and diversion strategies.

Sustainability fosters holistic thinking about operations. Assessing the total cost of materials, equipment and infrastructure and investing in higher quality and less impactful products, reduces operating costs, extends product service life, and reduces waste costs.

Other sustainability initiatives will encourage collaboration and resource sharing between schools and departments.

Our sustainability measures will contribute to an improved organizational reputation, the recruitment and retention of staff and a student population that values sustainability.

Sustainability Projects​

Buildings for the Future​

All of our new buildings are designed to meet industry minimum standards for energy efficiency and environmental design.

LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is an internationally recognized green building rating system that provides building owners and operators a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.

To achieve certification, project teams choose which credits within the system are right for their project. Teams first decide what is most important for their community and local environment and then apply strategies to earn points across five basic areas: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, and Indoor Environmental Quality.

Based on the number of points achieved, a project receives one of four LEED rating levels: Certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum. Since 2006, all new CBE schools have been designed and built to a minimum LEED Silver rating.

LEED Schools

LEED Gold Certification

LEED Silver Certification

For more information on the LEED rating system and certification process, visit the Canada Green Building Council website.

Steven was already buzzing by the time I arrived.

Hour Detroit’s junior art director, Steven had agreed to join me at Body20, a fitness studioin Royal Oak that offers a new type of workout in which clients don superhero-style suits that electrically stimulate muscles during a workout, intensifying the results over less time — 20 minutes, to be exact. It’s called electrical muscle stimulation (or EMS), and it’s not easy.

Steven and I were in the midst of a colleague fitness challenge, which involved several Hour employees logging our workouts and scoring points.

Steven is in his mid-20s and I just turned 40, but I was crushing the younger competition and feeling smug. I had dropped almost 10 pounds, and my diet was dialed in. Steven’s diet, from what I could gather from watercooler convos, consists mostly of Red Bull, vodka, and Panda Express. His workouts include dancing till 2 a.m. and walking home from the bar.

Body20 manager Cynthia Gleich works with clients in her Royal Oak studio, one of many Body20 franchise locations around the country.

When I walked in, I saw Steven fully suited up, looking like a male Black Widow with Iron Man flourishes. The suit’s electrified pads correspond to the large muscle groups, causing the muscles to contract 36,000 times in a single workout. Steven was sitting on a stool and extending his legs straight in front of him, and he was struggling. Leg extensions don’t make for the hardest workout, unless you have electricity surging through your quadriceps.

And that’s the whole Body20 philosophy: more intensity, and more results, in less time. The idea that electricity can stimulate muscles is not new.

In the 1970s, Russian athletic coaches were using EMS technology, claiming it almost doubled their athletes’ muscle strength. Today, companies like Body20 are opening studios throughout the country following the Food and Drug Administration’s approval and regulation of EMS training. Gleich says it’s a safe way to get an intense workout.

“The electric current hits the muscles deeper than any weight workout can,” Gleich says. “It’s the equivalent to four to five workouts in a traditional gym. There’s no stress on the joints. We’re not putting heavy weights in their hands or a barbell on their back,” she says, adding that it’s a workout “for everybody.” (That means everyone over 18 who is not pregnant, is not chronically ill, and does not have a pacemaker.)

The FDA limits EMS training to eight times per month. Clients change into a lightweight underlayer; get suited up with the custom-fitted, electrode-padded suit; do the workout; and leave.

I wondered if it would hurt. I’ve been zapped by electricity doing house projects — an experience I’m loath to repeat — yet here I was, putting on an outfit that plugged into its own special outlet (never exceeding 60 volts). After spraying the electrode pads with water to promote conductivity, Gleich strapped and buckled my upper and lower body into the suit as tightly as possible. It reminded me of having a parachute strapped to me when I’d tried skydiving a couple of years ago. I was a little less nervous here.

There was no mirror, but I hoped I looked like a superhero. I sure didn’t feel like one, even less so when she gave me a stress ball for each hand. The stress balls are intended to make it easier to contract your muscles, thus increasing the effectiveness of the workout.

Gleich activated the electrodes hooked up to my back muscles, biceps, triceps, quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and abs. The sensation was less of a bare-wire shock and more of a full-body tingle. She led me through a series of leg raises, lunges, squats, push-ups, sit-ups, and biceps curls, always calibrating the intensity, telling me she’d stop when I couldn’t handle any more.

It wasn’t too bad. As the intensity ramped up in my legs and glutes, I felt the increased flexing and tension in my muscles that went far beyond a normal workout. She wasn’t lying — by the end of 20 minutes, I felt like I’d worked out hard with heavy weights for an hour.

As a fitness hobbyist, I was glad to try something new. Maybe I’m old-school, but I still prefer running under the trees, hitting weights in the basement, or my longtime martial arts hobby. But I understand the appeal and how Steven became a convert, planning to sign up after we finished. It’s certainly a better workout than walking home from the bar.

Body20 offers memberships at four, six, and eight 20-minute sessions per month. Go to body20.com/royal-oak/ for more info. Body20 has studios across the U.S. More Michigan locations are planned for Birmingham, Troy, and Bloomfield.

This story is from the September 2023 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. Read more in our digital edition.

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Last fall, Rajan Sawhney was one of UCP Leader Danielle Smith’s sharpest critics, warning Albertans of the danger she posed to Alberta.

In February, a few months after Smith was chosen to head the party, Sawhney — who had also sought the UCP leadership — announced she wouldn’t seek re-election in 2023 in her then-riding of Calgary-North East.

So it was to the surprise of many that she re-emerged in early April to carry the UCP banner in Calgary-North West after the riding’s MLA, Sonya Savage, said she was bowing out.

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Savage said in March she wouldn’t run again after serving as both energy and environment minister following her first and only election in 2019.

“I made a very difficult choice back in February not to run for re-election and there were a number of personal considerations that I won’t get into,” Sawhney told reporters on April 3.

“But I was reminded of the reason why I came into public service in the first place . . . here I am as the candidate for Calgary-North West and I’m going to work very hard to earn the trust of the voters.”

While the manager of her UCP leadership campaign, prominent Conservative strategist Ken Boessenkool, has become a vocal critic of the party, Sawhney said she was inspired by Smith to contest the riding in the city’s far northwest that’s proven a reliable Conservative stronghold.

Recommended from Editorial

Savage captured 57 per cent of the vote in 2019 compared to the runner-up NDP, who took 31.8 per cent in the riding that now covers Rocky Ridge, Royal Oak, Tuscany, Scenic Acres, Rockland Park and Lynx Ridge.

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That share of the vote didn’t change much since 2015, when the Progressive Conservatives and Wildrose Party collectively garnered 59.4 per cent of ballots cast, two years before the two parties merged.

But NDP challenger Michael Lisboa-Smith said he’s convinced that equation no longer holds, with considerable numbers of voters turning away from the UCP.

“I’ve spent the last seven or eight months canvassing the neighbourhood and there’s a large number of voters eager for change,” said Lisboa-Smith, a middle school teacher who’s planning to move into the riding.

As the campaign entered its final 12 days, Lisboa-Smith said he has received nearly 1,100 lawn sign requests, “four times that (of the NDP campaign there) in 2019.”

Polling results website 338Canada.com suggests the riding is a “toss up” between the UCP and NDP.

On the doorsteps, the NDP candidate said he’s hearing concerns over UCP plans for health care that are heard in other ridings.

Another worry, he said, is the lack of spots in public schools for complex, special-needs students that’s driving some parents to enrol their children in costly private schools.

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A concern more specific to Calgary-North West, said Lisboa-Smith, is the UCP’s designs on protecting the Rockies’ Eastern Slopes from coal mining and other activities.

“They value their drinking water and the environment,” he said.

Lisboa-Smith also said the NDP would eliminate the UCP-government-instituted $90-per-year park pass for K-Country.

Sawhney’s campaign office said their candidate’s schedule wouldn’t permit an interview.

On her campaign Facebook page, the former oil and gas executive who lives in Springbank, just west of Calgary-North West, said she’s eager to work with Smith’s team and cited her previous varied cabinet roles.

“This has given me a deep understanding of the needs of Albertans from all walks of life, and I am committed to using my experience to make a positive impact in your lives,” she states, describing the UCP as a “big-tent party.”

“Having worked with Premier Danielle Smith on initiatives related to multicultural engagement and diversity, I am committed to advocating for the needs of all members of our community.”

Lisboa-Smith said questions about Sawhney’s sudden candidacy have come up among constituents.

“Traditionally, conservative voters are put off that she’s not being held to account (in her former Calgary-North East) and been parachuted in here,” he said.

To her surprise, the riding’s Alberta Party hopeful, Jenny Yeremiy said she’s heard little about Sawhney’s sudden candidacy in her travels but neither is there much discussion anywhere in the campaign of climate change and the need for an energy transition.

One reason the candidate — one of only 19 fielded by her party — said she chose to contest Calgary-North West was to use her oil and gas past to counter one-time competitor Sonya Savage’s petroleum sector background.

“I’m not seeing a plan for the energy transition I can get behind,” said Yeremiy, a petroleum geologist who’s been working on evolving Alberta’s energy mix when she’s not campaigning.

She is hearing concerns over affordability and what the future holds for young people, said Yeremiy, 45.

“This is a population that should be financially secure, but what I’m hearing is people have trouble paying the bills,” she said.

“And a lot of people acknowledge the future of their children looks different than it was for them, that the good jobs are going to people with tonnes of experience.”

But Yeremiy said she’s under no illusions the Alberta Party will be making any breakthrough in the riding, despite many voters voicing frustration over the two main choices.

“Most people are still open to conversation but the split vote conversation comes up a lot,” she said.

Other candidates in the riding are independent Serena Thomsen and Alain Habel of the Solidarity Movement of Alberta.

[email protected]

Twitter: @BillKaufmannjrn

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Local News

A couple of friends from the Royal Oak Village in Lacombe have come together to publish a book. The book is titled ‘The Prairie Pilot Who Flew For God’ and delves into the newly married life of Keith and Yvonne Kerr and their work as missionaries.

Keith Kerr was a young pilot training to work with an international airline when his goal was interrupted by God. He and Yvonne began a lengthy career with the Wycliffe Bible Translators. The organization had a goal of bringing the Work of God to tribal groups in their native languages. Keith and Yvonne were flying personnel and materials to the translators into the jungles of Bolivia and Ecuador. They spent 35 years with the Wycliffe Bible Translators and gathered many stories during that time which are featured in the book.

Keith Kerr has now passed away. Yvonne Kerr has been living at Lacombe’s Royal Oak Village for the past two years. At the residence, she met Keith Clouten who authored the book.

“When Keith Clouten introduced himself, my Mother told him that her late husband had the same first name and explained a bit of their story of being missionaries. Keith Clouten exclaimed that their life sounded like a story that needed to be told. It wasn't until a year later that he offered to write it,” explained Arlene Waddell, Yvonne’s daughter.

Keith Clouten is passionate about sharing stories and has authored nine books in his life.

“I am a writer with several published books. I was impressed with the Kerr story, so offered to write up the story for them,” said Clouten.

Yvonne was able to provide a bit of source material for Clouten to work from that she saved over the years.

“Over our 35 years as missionaries, I sent out newsletters quarterly to keep in touch with family, friends, and the many who supported us financially. I saved all of these letters, some pictures and pertinent articles. I gave these to Keith Clouten, who was able to extrapolate from all that information and develop the book from this,” explained Yvonne.

Throughout all their adventures together, Yvonne has one favoured story in the book.

“My favourite story throughout our 54 years of marriage was to share how we met and it is still my favourite part of the book,” she added.

Arlene believes her dad would have been proud to see their lives come to print.

“Any time my dad could talk about flying or airplanes was a great day for him as this was his passion. The bonus would be to share and perhaps inspire others to consider being involved with Bible translation and helping people from all walks of life. I think he would be pleased with the resulting book,” added Arlene.

You can find the book online by doing a quick search and purchase it online or rent it out at the Mary C. Moore Public Library. All of the royalties from the from book sales are being donated to Wycliffe Canada.

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