estevan mercury - june 20, 2012

www.estevanmercury.caJune 20

, 201

2WEDNESDAY

Issue 7

WEATHER & INDEX

Thursday

Saturday

Friday

SundayHigh 22 Low 11 High 23 Low 10

High 23 Low 13 High 24 Low 12

Careers .......B18-23Church Dir. ....... B15Classi eds ..B12-17Obituaries ..B15-16Perspective ........ A6

Energy ........A18-19Services Dir. B16-17Sports .......... B1 - 6Community ....... B9

Mai

ling

No.

107

69

New Subdivision for

Estevan A5

Stock Wanders Through Estevan A3

EWGCContinuing Towards Recovery B1

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Runnin Back To Estevan Canadian musical icon, Burton Cummings gave over 2,000 people at Spectra Place a night to remember Friday as he performed his collection of hits for roughly two hours. Cummings set list included a number of the Guess Whos many hits as well as his solo hits. For more on Fridays show please see Page B9. Photo by Chad saxon.

The prognosis for any-one hoping to nd rental ac-commodations in Estevan is getting bleaker and bleaker.

According to the latest report from Canada Mort-gage and Housing Corpora-tions spring rental market survey, the vacancy rate in Estevan as of April was one per cent. That was down from 2.5 per cent in April 2011.

Estevans vacancy rate was the lowest among the provinces seven cen-sus agglomerations, a CMHC press release noted. Heightened oil explora-tion and robust job growth fuelled demand for rental units in that region.

Of the few rental prop-erties available, bachelor suites were the most plen-tiful at 3.8 per cent. There was a 1.8 per cent vacancy rate for one bedroom suites.

As has been the case in past surveys, two bedroom rental properties are the most sought after and have a vacancy rate of zero per cent. The prospects for a rental property with three or more bedrooms are a little bit better as the rate has moved from zero per cent in April 2011 to three per cent this year.

Throughout the prov-ince, the vacancy rate also dropped, going to an aver-

age of 2.1 per cent from 2.5 per cent last year.

The recent economic boom in Yorkton has caused that community to expe-rience problems similar to Estevan with their rate plummeting from 4.6 per cent to 1.4 per cent. Swift Current was the other com-munity to have a major decline. North Battleford and Prince Albert were the only two cities where the rate went up.

In the provinces two metropolitan areas Re-gina and Saskatoon the situation is not much better. Regina has the lowest rate among CMAs at .6 per cent while Saskatoon is at 3.1 per cent.

Along with having the lowest vacancy rate among cities outside of Saskatoon and Regina, Estevan can also lay claim to the highest average rental prices for the entire province.

According to the re-port, Estevans average rental price is $1,006 mark-ing the rst time the city has posted an average of over $1,000.

Similar to the vacancy rate, the robust local busi-ness atmosphere has led to increased prices. Estevan is the only community in Sas-katchewan over the $900 mark with A2

Shave It O Roberta Winter of Estevan reacts as her hair is shaved o Friday at Blown Away Hair Studio by Theresa Stregger. Winter had her head shaved to support her friend Nedra Yurkowski and also raised over $1,400 for the cancer program at St. Josephs Hospital. For more on this story see A7.

Vacancy rate dips, rental prices rise

Inside

Annual Bass Fishing

Tournament Held B2

InsideClass of 2012The Graduating

A2 June 20, 2012 Estevan Mercury

Thank you for your continued support! 634-3444This space is sponsored by this community minded business

The Estevan Humane Society reserves the right to refuse any adoption.

My name is Patches. I was born in November, so Im about 7 mounths old. I am a Border Collie, Australian Shepherd Cross. I look like a Border Collie, black & white female. Im a very pretty girl. Us Border Collies are very intelligent, we love children and of course, excerise because we are working dogs, after all.

My name is Zipper or Zippy for short. I am a young male, Whippet Cross. I am under one year. I was found at the four way stop on Bannatyne and Henry St. Do you know who I am?

My name is Duke. I am a male Lab Gorgi Cross. I am a very handsome guy with tan and cream colours. I am a large to medium size dog. I tried the farm life and it didnt work well for me. I think being a city dog would be great. I could have my own yard and go for walks.

We would like to thank Keira and Kade Philips. Instead of getting birthday gifts for themselves, they asked for treats, toys and food for the animals at the Humane Society. A

wonderful donation for our four legged friends. Thank you Keira and Kade!

We would also like to thank the Grade 4 girls from Carnduff. Their bake sale, organized by McKinley Stinson, raised $375.00 for the Estevan Humane Society.

A BIG THANK YOU to all the Grade 4 girls!!!!

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Poll Results

This poll was posted on www.estevanmercury.ca from June 12-19

Do you agree with City councils decision to raise property tax mill rate by one point?

This weeks poll question:Were you happy with the quality of the

2012 Estevan Fair?

A1 Saskatoon in sec-ond place at $891.

In the breakdown, the report noted that bach-elor suites are the cheap-est among local rental properties at $544. A one bedroom suite costs an average of $875 while a two bedroom suite is $1,104 the highest in the province by well over $100. The average for three bedroom suites is $1,062 which is third highest in Saskatchewan.

Lloydminster is sec-ond to Estevan at an aver-age of $838 while Prince Albert is third at $817. Not surprisingly no com-munity experienced a de-cline.

Saskatoons average rate has climbed to $891 while Regina has an aver-age of $876.

The CMHC also re-leased its quarterly hous-ing report and it noted that housing starts are up in the province thanks to a recent surge in Regina.

After 4,152 single-detached starts in 2011, housing s tar ts in this segment will improve to 4,500 units this year, fu-elled largely by gains in Regina. Next year, rising new home supply levels, particularly the inventory of completed and unab-sorbed units, will compel builders to temper starts to 4,200 units.

Despite the anticipat-ed moderation in activity in 2013, annual produc-tion this year and next will rank among the highest in over 30 years.

Rent highest in Estevan

In The Pool Without A PaddleSenior students from Pleasantdale and Spruce Ridge participated in their annual cardboard boat race competition. The students tested their vehicles at the Souris Valley Aquatic and Leisure Centre. A number were seaworthy enough to cross the pool, but it was Spruce Ridge that won the day.

An Estevan priest has succumbed to the injuries he suffered in an accident June 10 in Macoun.

Father Joel Rama suf-fered a number of injuries after the car he was driving in was struck on the drivers side door at a railway cross-ing in Macoun. Rama, 43, was the parish priest at St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church and was on his way to morning church service when the accident occurred.

In a press release from

Estevan priest passes from injuries in train-car collisionthe Estevan RCMP detach-ment, it was noted that fol-lowing the accident, Rama was taken by ambulance to Weyburn where EMS personnel were met by the STARS air ambulance which then transported him to Regina.

After battling his in-juries, which reportedly included a fractured skull, for four days Rama passed away at 7:30 Thursday morning.

The RCMP release said all of the safety equipment

at the crossing including lights and whistles were operating at the time of the crash and all signage was in place. The investigation into the accident is con-tinuing and no charges are expected to be laid.

Meanwhile, the local Catholic community and those who knew Rama are reeling at the news of his passing.

Rama has been the ad-ministrator of St Johns for the past five years and also served in a similar capacity

for churches in Bienfait, Midale and Macoun.

He was also very in-volved with both St. Marys School and Sacred Heart School in Estevan.

Mary-Ellen Barreth, principal of Sacred Heart, said they were shocked and saddened by the news of Ramas passing.

It was very tragic, she said but Father Joel was a faith-filled person and such a prayerful person and thats what he taught us and that is what he left with us.

Barreth said teachers were working with stu-dents to help them deal with Ramas passing. The Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division also dispatched counsellors to Estevan to speak with students.

As we work with our

students who obviously knew Father and are feeling it, we also know that we need to handle it in a prayer-ful and faith-filled way.

Barreth said she has fond memories of Rama and will remember him as a kind man who was very strong in his faith.

Any time we were thankful or said thank you to him, he would al-ways give thanks to god or give thanks to the other people involved. He was truly a man that brought our community together and reached out to the com-munity as well.

Barreth said Rama re-cently confirmed roughly 120 local students. Al-though many of them are saddeded by his passing Barreth said they also felt honoured that Rama was

part of that special moment in their lives.

They were very thank-ful that was the opportunity that they had and that Father Joel was the person that was able to do that. Children have an amazing faith and they are sharing that with us right now.

Born in 1969 in Pan-dan, Catanduanes, Phil-lipines Rama was prede-ceased by his father Jose. He is survived by his mother Emerlina and two siblings.

A vigil for Rama has been scheduled for June 26 at St. Johns beginning at 7:30 p.m. A funeral mass will be held on June 27 at 11 a.m.

June 20

, 201

2WEDNESDAY

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by Norm Parkof The Mercury

Its being touted as one of Saskatchewans best summer jobs and Jeff Stock isnt disputing it.

Stock, has the enviable task of being this provinces Saskatchewanderer this summer and hes doing his best to have as much fun as possible, which is pretty well the job description. Uncon rmed rumour has it that he also accepts a pay-cheque for this pseudo job.

So in this pursuit of fun, Stock naturally made his way to southeast Sas-katchewan in the early part of June to check out local fun spots and action and wasnt disappointed in spite of the fact that he was greeted by erce winds and cool temperatures in the Energy City on Sunday and Monday, June 10 and 11.

Stock has learned ear-ly on in his experiences though, that a community and its activities are not to be judged by weather con-ditions or what day of the week he happens to hit it.

The young man from Maple Creek, who is head-ing to Vancouver to study graphic arts this fall, began his so-called job on May 7 with his first road trip back to his home country near Maple Creek where he stayed at a guest ranch.

The job consists of spreading the good news and interesting tidbits of information he uncovers during his travel by use of blogs, tweets and Facebook

entries along with tradi-tional media coverage.

Stock said he expect-ed to travel around the southeast sector for about a week.

Ive been to Roche Percee now, I hope Im pronouncing it correctly (he was) and checked out the coal mining operations and Boundary Dam, he told The Mercury in a late Mon-day afternoon interview.

Stock was accompa-nied by Kevin DSouza of Estevans C of C tour-ism arm during this foray into these major coal and power generating sites. And although the weather was far from perfect, that didnt diminish his enthusiasm for the local offerings.

This job seemed to be perfect, and it pretty well is. I dont see any major glitches in it, Stock said with a wide smile.

I get to travel the prov-ince and do cool things. Ill get to see the north for the rst time. Ive never been to the southeast before. I get to meet people, do a video and then blog, tweet and do Facebook, he said. I wasnt a big Twitter user before, but Im getting ac-customed to making regular entries now and Im getting most of the feedback from Facebook followers, gener-ally speaking.

The job Stock has, is a concept developed by the Ministry of Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport and was launched last summer with someone else in the role as Saskatchewanderer.

I think Ive been able to keep the balance in terms of sorting out activities, weather and dates, Stock said. Every town, every community is different and I look for the things that set them apart. I see similarities too. The Saskatchewan sun-set is great wherever you are. I look for what makes a com-munity beautiful and its not the weather, its the people who make the impression.

Stock said hes usually in any given community for just a day, or for one event and then moves on. A lot of his decisions are based on the length of the drive time in his well marked Saskatch-ewanderer SUV. There is also a mandate to visit areas that last years wanderer was unable to hit.

I get a little bit of di-rection as to where I should go, like visiting places where last years guy didnt get to, but the people in the ministry who develop the schedule do it with me in mind. They look at my interests and travel time for instance and we work together.

Stock said these inter-ests include a lot of outdoor stuff like camping, shing and hiking. He also likes the world of art, thus his interest in pursuing a graphic arts career after hes nished with this gig.

I like this world of art because you can see the beauty in a lot of places.

Stock was slated to spend some time in Weyburn attending a meet and greet session with the Saskatche-wan branch of the Canadian

Automobile Association (CAA), a major sponsor.

I expect to get up to Moose Mountain, hit the wa-terslides and do some kayak-ing and a bit of hiking and other fun stuff in the park. I might get in a round of golf. Again, I hadnt ever been there before, so it should be interesting.

Stock said he was aware of the bass shing opportu-nities offered at Boundary Dam reservoir and won-dered out loud whether or not local shers were trying to keep this low key, or are they willing to spread the word?

The only dif culties he has experienced so far were right at the beginning of the adventure ... like posting his entries on time and doing the necessary editing, but now hes enjoying it all.

I enjoy this time away on the road. I do have a

day or two off every week, thats usually not on the weekend though, he said with a smile, acknowledg-ing that the majority of spe-cial provincial activities are scheduled on weekends, so he wants to be there.

But isnt his whole job sort of a day off kinda thing?

Stock chuckled and shook his head in the af r-mative. But its always good to escape whatever youre doing, even if it is having to have a ton of fun. And when he does, he usually gets back to Maple Creek.

I dont know if theyre doing this in other prov-inces, but I like the idea.

Asked if he would jump at the opportunity to sell Saskatchewan in a neigh-bouring province, Stock said he would.

The rst thing I would talk about are the people. Saskatchewan people are

close knit. Were close knit in our different communities and actually as a province too, yet we easily welcome everyone who comes to stay or just visit. I would tell them about our remark-able skies and our differ-ent ecospheres, and I dont even know if that is a real word, but I use it to describe what Im nding out about Saskatchewan, and Id tell them about some wonderful places and different types of accommodations theyll nd here.

And hes barely one month into the job.

While in Estevan, Stock booked into a local bed and breakfast and was facing a busy schedule the next morning.

Follow Jeff Stock on Twitter at: skwanderer or Facebook (same title) or his blog www.saskatchewan-derer.ca

Hes the happy wanderer all right

Je Stock, the Saskatchewanderer paid a visit to the Energy City and southeast Saskatchewan.

Despite the look on these riders faces, the Super Shot was one of the most popular rides Monday at the Estevan Fair.

These youngsters took advantage of the beautiful weather Monday and attended the annual Estevan Fair.

Business was brisk at the fair on Monday as people showed up for

The big slide was again one of the most popular at-tractions at the fair.

I get to travel the province and do cool things. Ill get to see the north for the rst time. Ive never been to the southeast before.

Je Stock Saskatchewanderer


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EARLY REGISTRATION

NIGHT

A popular Estevan eatery is out of commission after an early morning fire Monday.

The DQ Grill and Chill suffered extensive damage during the blaze which began around 5 a.m. Tony Vanden-hurk, whose family owns and operates the restaurant, said its believed an ice machine overheated and caused the fire.

There is pretty exten-sive damage, he said. The interior is pretty much toast. The structure of the building is not too bad, I dont think, but it is a little too early to tell that for sure.

Vandenhurk said while the fire was devastating to the business, they do plan to rebuild.

Its getting into our busy time of year, its quite a loss. But well get her back going again here as soon as we can I guess.

Fire causes major damage to DQ Grill and Chill

by Norm Parkof The Mercury

Its becoming clearly evident that the South East Regional College is on the move. In fact their entire Estevan campus operations are soon to be housed in the Saskatch-ewan Energy Training Institute facility.

That will mean clo-sure of their activities in the building currently being shared with the Estevan Comprehensive School on Spruce Drive while shifting their stu-dents, staff and furniture to the Bourquin Avenue location.

Its being done in the name of efficiency, said Jody Holzmiller, interim chief executive officer for the college.

Breaking the leasing agreement with the South East Cornerstone School Division after 14 years at the ECS location should not be an issue.

Shelley Toth, vice-president of finance and administration for Corner-

Regional college campus in Estevan shifts to SETI

stone, said that in 2010-11 the college paid just under $90,000 for leasing the 16,000 square feet of space that was being used for college classes and activi-ties in the Comprehensive School building.

The lease is paid monthly and there there is a year-end conciliation. The college used approxi-mately 7.5 per cent of the space at ECS, said Toth,

who added that she didnt think there were any im-mediate plans as to what is going to happen with the additional space at ECS.

Holzmiller said that all college classes and furniture will be gone from ECS by this summer and that means moving the ba-sic education classes and their two faculty members to the SETI building.

We are seeking a

downtown Estevan loca-tion for the Newcomer Centre because transpor-tation can become an is-sue for some. But were moving the English as another language classes to the SETI, we have to split them. Its hard to find space for both of them, so were trying this on a trial basis, said Holzmiller, referring to the EAL and Newcomer Centre split.

Well make changes to that later if need be.

Although the new col-lege facility is now hous-ing much more than en-ergy training courses and activities, the name will remain unchanged, said Holzmiller. It will still be identified as the Saskatch-ewan Energy Training Institute.

Along with basic edu-cation classes and EAL services, there will also be counselling services that will move into the SETI while cosmetology classes were transferred to Weyburn over a year ago. Business and university classes had already made the move to the SETI.

Toth said she believed the current leasing agree-ment between the Cor-nerstone School Division and the regional college would expire at the end of the fiscal year. The college would be required to only pay a percentage portion of the utilities and main-tenance costs according to their actual occupancy and use.

As to what the school division is going to do with the additional 16,000 square feet at ECS seeing as how high school enrol-ments have not been in-creasing in step with gen-eral population growth, is yet to be determined. Toth speculated that once a new school board is elected this October, they will be charged with that duty.

In the meantime, the regional college has signed an agreement to share head office administrative and campus space with a newly renovated and expanded Weyburn Comprehensive School. That project is currently underway.

Holzmiller said that during the transition peri-od, the Cornerstone board and management have been very co-operative and understanding and she said she expected that for all intents and purposes, the transfer of classes and operations in Estevan to the new 44,000 square foot SETI complex should be completed by the end of August.

The entire operations of the Estevan campus of The South East Regional College is moving to the Saskatchewan Energy Training Centre this summer.

The DQ Grill and Chill in Estevan suffered extensive damage from a fire Monday morning. The popular restaurant will be closed while repairs are carried out.

June 20, 2012 A5www.estevanmercury.ca

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The members of coun-cil have cleared the way for a new subdivision in the citys northwest corner.

At the June 11 regular meeting of council, council approved a motion to sell a section of land located behind the homes on the east end of Wellock Road to Trimount Developments Ltd., a Medicine Hat based company that is respon-sible for the Petterson Point condo development in the Trojan subdivision.

The City had initially been considering develop-ing the land themselves as the next phase of the Dominion Heights sudi-vision. However, before taking that step they issued a request for proposals and ultimately selected a submission from Trimount.

Mayor Gary St. Onge said the Trimount proposal was appealing to the city as they have an aggressive timeline and plan to start

New subdivision approved by City council

this summer.They want to go full

blast with this, St. Onge said. They want to really get going by July, August and have things started right away.

Aside from provid-ing some much needed lots for Estevan, St. Onge said going with a private

developer offers a number of other tangible benefits for the City.

First of all we wont have any money tied into it ourselves, so thats an advantage, he said. We have always wanted to have developers develop the whole works really. Regina doesnt develop

any lots themselves, its all developers.

City manager Jim Puf-falt said going with a pri-vate developer also frees up City staff to focus on other pressing matters.

Its a great step for-ward for the city, he said. It takes all the pressure off the City to develop lots, it takes the pressure off of us to finance the lots and it frees up our engineering staff to do other things.

We still have a small (development) coming up this year but this is a lot of money that we are talking and we are able to turn that cost into a revenue item (the land was sold for $4.5 million) and somebody else will be able to provide to the community. Its a win-win for everybody.

Trimount president Ja-son Fleury said the devel-opment will be a mixture of 46 single family lots and multi-family units such as town homes, row homes and four storey apartment style lots.

He said their first foray into Estevan at Petterson Point has been a success and they are looking for-ward to creating a great new community.

We are really excited about it, he said in an in-terview with The Mercury. The city is growing and we are excited to be part of the growth.

As for a t imeline, Fleury confirmed they would like to have lots available by the fall.

The eng inee r ing drawings are being done

as we speak, said Fleury who added there will be some architectural con-trols in place at the new development. We want to continue building and working with the City to develop Estevan.

As for the other pro-posed development in the citys northwest corner, The Meadows, there seems to be little in the way of activity leading many to suspect the project has stalled or may be in jeop-ardy of moving forward. St. Onge admitted he has been disappointed with the lack of activity.

Im not really happy with that one. The guy was so insistent that he was really serious but it just doesnt seem to be hap-pening.

A guy that had brought my dad out actually came up to me and said youre coming to Kinsmen. I said, Well, I dont know if I re-ally want to, and he, No, I didnt ask you. Youre com-ing out to Kinsmen.

I thought Id go to the odd meeting and just be a member. I never once thought Id be governor of Saskatchewan at some point.

Tribiger said he de-cided to get into the admin-istrative side because hed

developed a good under-standing of how everything in the club works.

Ive been around long enough that there are actu-ally people who start to look up to you. People know who you are, and its a lot easier of a role to do when you can walk into a room and every-body knows who you are.

He said the fellowship and the friends hes made have been the best parts of the Kinsmen Club. He even first met his wife through the Kin Club.

Mark Tribiger is pinned by Sandi Barrie, the Kin clubs District 3 governor, during a ceremony electing Tribiger as the new vice-governor for the Saskatchewan district.

Bringing in the next generation of Kinsmen is an important thing, said Tribiger.

That was one of the platforms I had when I was going to run for vice-governor. In my governor year, I want to bring in the youth a little bit more.

He said that is one of the platforms the current governor is advocating so the youth movement for the Saskatchewan Kin Clubs will be in full swing for the next couple of years.

A local Kin member is taking on a big role with the Saskatchewan district, now acting as vice-governor for the provinces Kinsmen clubs.

Mark Tribiger was re-cently elected to the Dis-trict 3 board, which will see him as governor in a year. The ceremony to in-troduce the new governing body for Saskatchewans Kinsmen Clubs was held June 2 in Kerrobert. Thats when Tribiger was formally elected vice-governor. No-body ran against him for the nomination, which he said made the process very easy for him.

Tribiger has been a Kin member for a decade, hold-ing every position, other than treasurer with both the Weyburn and Estevan executives. He was also the deputy-governor of Zone H, the local zone that is part of the Saskatchewan district. Tribiger was most recently the president of the Estevan club before deciding to take his Kinship to the provincial level. His presidential term will be ending any day now.

Kin involvement runs in Tribigers family. His dad is a charter member of the Radville Kinsmen and is now a K40. Hes not an active member but they have their Christmas party where all the old guys get together.

His mom was a Kinette for a number of years as well.

He first got involved when a Kinsman who knew his father encouraged him to come to a meeting.

Kin member new vice-governor

Were going to be going to some of the high schools and trying to recruit from our campus clubs. They are in Regina and Saskatoon.

As vice-governor he will be shadowing the gov-ernor, but will step in any time the governor cant make a presentation or meeting.

I basically oversee all the stuff thats happening within the district, he said. Any big projects that are being chaired, Im the one

they talk to. The deputy governors will look towards me for any advice.

Telemiracle is the pre-mier fundraising effort for Saskatchewan Kin clubs and he will have a role on the board that decides where the funds will go.

I will be sitting on the foundation board, for sure, next year as governor. Our foundation is where all the money we raise at Telemiracle goes, and they disperse it out. Theres a pretty good chance Ill be a member-at-large and sit on the foundations board this year as well.

To some extent, Tribig-er said its starting to sink in that hes now committed himself to Kinsmen in a great capacity for the next three years.

Its a three-year term in a sense because youre vice-governor, governor and then past-governor. Your governor year is your really busy year, your vice-governor year is your learn-ing year and then your past-governor year is kind of just a wind down, where youre just helping fill in all the holes for whats going on.

In November, Tribiger will be heading to Cam-bridge, Ont. for a week-long session, training all the vice-governors from each of the countrys districts.

Basically, Im going to be learning everything I need to know and who I need to contact when prob-lems arise. Its like when you get a new job you get the lowdown on every-thing.

PETER NG: PublisherBRANT KERSEY: General ManagerCHAD SAXON AND NORM PARK: Co-EditorsCINDY BEAULIEU: Advertising Sales ManagerMember Canadian Community Newspapers Association.Member Saskatchewan Weekly Newspapers Association.Audited by Audit Bureau of Circulations.

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EDITORIAL

June 20

, 201

2WEDNESDAY

A6

Murray Mandryk is a political columnist with the Leader Post

MURRAY MANDRYK

Prairie Perspective

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Volume 110 Issue 7

Norm ParkAll Things Considered

The Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority (SLGA) made $442 million in 2010-11, $215 million of which came from pro ts from the sale of alcohol.

Unfortunately, this is about all we know about how booze pricing works in Saskatchewan - a concern for Pro-vincial Auditor Bonnie Lysyk.

In her recent 2012 annual Provincial Auditors Report, Lysyk concluded that the SLGA should develop a more proactive, transparent, customer-focused strategy for buying liquor that is also more transparent.

SLGAs current liquor pricing policy does not provide it with an incentive to negotiate lower costs for liquor prod-ucts, Lysyk concluded in her report. Under the current policy, lower costs reduce SLGAs pro ts, which in turn may result in less money provided to the government. SLGA

Why Sask booze prices are so high

also considers social responsibility in its pricing decisions.It is important that information on pricing be transpar-

ent so that citizens can understand government revenue and related policy decisions embedded in the pricing of liquor.

If youre like me, Lysyks report has con rmed what you have suspected for years - that youve been gouged on the liquor you buy. However, governments, even free-enterprise governments like that of the Saskatchewan Party, dont seem to think theres much wrong with that.

For years now, the debate over Saskatchewan liquor pricing has been about the notion that booze prices are high here because of the cost of the government-owned retail li-quor stores in the province. After all, government liquor store workers do generally receive higher wages than other retail sale employees. (That said, those who buy their booze from private rural vendors in this province already realize theres no break buying from a private outlet.)

However, while Lysyks report doesnt speci cally ad-dress the costs associated with the public component of retail liquor sales in Saskatchewan, she does suggest that what goes into liquor pricing is a lot more complicated than that.

According to the provincial auditor, like most Canadian jurisdictions, Saskatchewans liquor retail pricing is based on a xed mark-up of the wholesale price. Moreover, the mark-up rate is the same for all products within a category and ranges from 40-per-cent to 184-per-cent (with whisky, gin, rum and vodka having a mark-up of about 162 per cent.)

Given this relationship between the wholesale and retail prices, the main ways for the SLGA to increase its revenue is

by ensuring product selection meets consumer demands, and enhance customer service or increase the mark-up percentage, Lysyk wrote in her report. There really is no incentive to negotiate lower wholesale costs as doing so would result in lower retail costs, and, in turn lower pro ts.

Lower pro ts would be contrary to its mandate of generating pro ts for the General Revenue Fund and en-couraging responsible drinking, she wrote.

Saskatchewan retail liquor prices appear to be within the range of those set by other provinces, Lysyk said. However, all Canadian governments have traditionally used liquor pro ts (taxes and mark-ups) to subsidize government programs.

But surely a more free-enterprise-minded government like the Saskatchewan Party that supports free markets and an adult individuals right to make his or her own choices would have a problem with this approach, right? Well, maybe not.

Asked about the Auditors ndings, SLGA Minister Donna Harpauer acknowledged that more disclosure on how liquor pricing worked might be in order, but there will be no policy change that will result in cheaper consumer prices at the expense of provincial coffers.

In a choice between raking in as much money from alcohol sales as possible and raising taxes elsewhere, the government will continue to opt for getting as much money out liquor sales as possible, Harpauer admitted.

And that may be all that you really need to know about liquor pricing, folks. They are high and will remain high because governments see that as the best policy.

It was a few years ago when I was a teenaged do-nuthin know-nuthin growing up in small town Saskatchewan when I began to think ... which was a novel experience for me at the time ... that there was maybe something wrong with my province.

I had learned that the prov-ince I called home was rich in resources, yet for some odd reason instead of being envied by most of the other provinces ... we were constantly being ridiculed. In fact it got so bad that collectively we Saskatch-ewanians adopted the old aw shucks, were just from Sas-katchewan persona while vis-iting other provinces ... even Manitoba for crumbs sake!

At first I chalked it up to the fact that we were a little late getting into that Confederation thing. Most of them had formed up Canada in the mid- to late-1800s whereas we had to be persuaded to join the team in the early 1900s. So maybe that was it? Late to the party.

But Alberta joined at the same time, and nobody was ridiculing them! And of course Newfoundland ... they didnt see the light until the 1940s. Scratch that theory.

Then I had to assume that it was our lack of population that made us the point of deri-sion. You know, every province was growing ... but so were we, although admittedly, not as robustly as the others. Then we

Saskatchewan then and now

went downhill. But was that the real reason for being Canadas joke province?

Perhaps it was our shape? We got carved into pretty

straight unexciting lines for boundaries, but being picked on for that seemed a little lame even to my untested brain.

Guess it was our govern-ment of the day. We were the crazies who decided on medi-care and we had a left-leaning socialist team running the op-eration that nobody else really understood and didnt care to. But that couldnt be it either. Af-ter all, there were some real off-the-wall characters running the operations in Alberta and British Columbia at that time, too. They were even more Monty Python-ish than our off-the-wall group.

Personally, I felt we didnt need a whole bunch more people in Saskatchewan at that time. We had the mandate to keep our fields open for growing crops and mining potash and coal and had a good start on the fledgling oilpatch. We needed that space to do what we did and maybe the rest of Canada didnt under-stand that.

After I moved to Ontario, I began to see where the dispari-ties were. Even in the small city

where I was employed (about 15,000 at the time), I saw where they made shoes, and down the road they built cars and across the river was where they made silver tea services and fancy copper trays and in the next city, just 11 miles away, they made socks by the truckloads.

Now, I look at that area of Ontario and theyre not making any of those things any more. They lost the market, they lost the will and wherewithal to keep making it happen. Except for a few cars, its gone.

Now, non-residents are casting eyes toward the province they used to ridicule. Seems were still pouring out wheat plus a few more internation-ally desired crops. Were still mining coal and turning it into other things including electric-ity and now were going to do it the clean way. Were liter-ally pumping out more oil than ever before, pumping out smart graduates from our schools, shovelling out potash for the rest of the world and finding a few hundred ounces of gold and a few carats of diamonds and other fine things.

Seems no one is laughing at us any more. Even though were just from Saskatchewan.

Going from have not to have province, has its moments. I just hope we dont get arro-gant. I would hate that because that, dear diary, is not what Saskatchewan is about at all, and we should never forget that.

The debate was a good one and our city councillors are to be commended for waging the discussion during a session that was open for public and media scrutiny rather than staging it behind closed doors.

Last week, our elected representatives decided to raise local property taxes by one mill, which will increase civic revenues by nearly $400,000 according to original rough calculations.

When the debate opened, it became clear that our councillors were going to select one of three options on which to base their arguments.

The rst option was to hold the line on the local tax base, the second was to raise it by a one-half mill and the third was a full mill hike. The full mill option won the day but only after alternatives were explored and debated.

Solid arguments were raised for each of the three options and they were presented with conviction, and a solid grounding in facts. There was even a touch of emotion and enthusiasm, which is always good to see in an elected politician, especially at a grassroots level.

The actual tax increase almost appeared to be of secondary im-portance as the discussion rolled to a conclusion and the vote was called by Mayor Gary St. Onge. The call was made only after all councillors had the opportunity to present their complete arguments.

Whether or not the majority of taxpayers (and we are all taxpay-ers if we live in the city) agree with the one mill increase, will be determined later. The fact is, its now a done deal, and its not as if the City will have to go searching for a way to spend the additional cash.

Weve increased our population by about 20 per cent in the past four years and since Estevan is an industrial city, it means we are pretty hard on our local infrastructure. A further fact is that older parts of our city need to be maintained while we continue to build new business and residential sectors in all directions.

The reality of growth requires our civic administration and management to provide us with a whole bunch of not-so-glamorous services, but these are services we expect such as sewer relief, po-table water, paved, well-lit streets and avenues, access to the new areas, curbs, storm drains, parks, trees and sidewalks.

When a city is adding new businesses and new housing on a daily basis and welcoming an additional 3,000 citizens in the course of a year or two ... the local service and supply teams need to be ready and for that; they require cash, equipment as well as additional personnel.

With a local three- to ve-year tax-free incentive in place to encourage some types of construction, residents can be somewhat comforted in the fact that some of these structures built during the rst building surge will soon be coming off the tax-free rolls and added to the tax-paying rolls and more will join them the next year and so on. So perhaps the pressure on the hard-pressed taxpaying public wont be so severe in 2013 and 2014. But then that will be a decision that will be made by a freshly elected council since we go to the polls this October to select them.

We hope that the newly elected team will bring the same type of rational thinking and decision-making capabilities to the table that this current crew brought to the oor last week.

A good move, made publicly

Visit us on the Web: www.estevanmercury.ca

Letters to the EditorJune 20, 2012 A7www.estevanmercury.ca

12064TS00

As Sunday July 1st is Canada Day

The Estevan Mercurys Business Office will be Closed Monday, July 2

to mark the statutory holiday and this will result in

advertising deadline changesfor the

Wednesday, July 4Estevan Mercury

Classified AdvertisingFor THE ESTEVAN MERCURY

The Deadline Will Be Thursday, June 28 at 3 p.m.

* * *

Display AdvertisingFor the Estevan Mercury

The Deadline Will Be Thursday, June 28 at 5 p.m.

EarlyEXPRESSSOUTHEAST TRADER DEADLINES

The Editor:As the home of our

provincial capital, Wascana Centre plays a significant role for citizens all across Saskatchewan. It provides a showcase for our his-tory and traditions, an op-portunity for citizens to celebrate, learn and relax, a place to appreciate our art and culture, and is the seat of government for the province.

This year, as Wascana Centre celebrates its 50th birthday, we are encour-aging all Saskatchewan residents to help shape our capital, and have a say in

Wascanas next 50 years. ourWascana is a vi-

sioning project thats part of a comprehensive review process initiated by the Board at Wascana Centre. On behalf of the board, Id like to invite all Sas-katchewan residents to visit www.ourwascana.ca to an-swer three simple questions about Wascana Centre that will be used to help shape its future.

You can also offer your feedback through Twitter and Facebook, by e-mail to [email protected], or via text.

As citizens of Sas-

katchewan, Wascana Cen-tre belongs to each and every one of us. Today, it is a world-class centre that attracts more than 5 million visitors each year. By offering your vision for the future, you can help protect and enhance Sas-katchewans capital and key provincial landmark, and ensure it is here for future generations to enjoy.

Nelson WagnerChairman, Strategic

Planning CommitteeWascana Centre BoardRegina

Wascana Centre wants inputThe Editor:The Conse rva t ive

government claims that it is making fundamental changes to employment insurance to deal with un-precedented shortages in skilled labour, especially in the West.

However, these re-forms do nothing to help the 28,000 unemployed Saskatchewanians develop the skills and get the train-ing they need to fill those shortages.

Instead, the govern-ments strategy appears to be to force seasonal workers from rural Canada to move, separating them from their families and emptying their communi-ties.

The changes will also force the unemployed to accept work, at up to a 30

per cent pay cut, or else they will lose their EI ben-efits. Under this system, employers will be stuck with employees who dont want to be there and plan to leave as soon as they can. Hardly a recipe for positive workplace moral or productivity.

All of which is not to say that the current system is perfect - it does need im-provements. In fact, some of the current changes are positive, like extending the working while on claim pilot and making the best 14 weeks pro-gram permanent.

Both of those pilot projects were created by Liberals over a half-de-cade ago, to test new, innovative reforms to the EI system. We took a pro-gressive and considered

approach to changing the system. Unfortunately, the current government has created policy on the fly, with no consultation, based on a belief that EI claimants - especially sea-sonal workers in Atlantic Canada - are lazy and need to be forced to work using penalizing measures.

As Liberals, we be-lieve in helping people to find work through in-vesting in skills upgrad-ing and retraining, not forcing people to work lower-skilled jobs for less money. The government should be narrowing the rural-urban divide, not expanding it.

Rodger Cuzner, M.P.Liberal crit ic for

Human Resources & Skills Development

EI reforms not a step forward

Box 730, Estevan SK S4A 2A668 Souris Ave. N., Estevan, SK

e-mail: [email protected]

The Estevan Mercury welcomes letters from its readership. All letters must be SIGNED to be eligible for publication and include your full name and a phone number where you can be reached during the day. All material is subject to editing. We also ask that hand written letters be legible.Send your letters to:

An Estevan woman gave up her hair for a great cause on Friday.

Roberta Winter de-cided to have her locks shaved off to support her friend Nedra Yurkowski who is currently battling cancer.

Along with support-ing her friend, Winter also used the kind gesture to raise some money for the cancer unit at St. Josephs Hospital. To date Win-ter has raised just over $1,400.

I just fel t i t was something I could do, one, to support the hospi-tal here and, two, to help support (Nedra) with what she is going through, said Winter. Thats what moti-vated me.

To raise money, Win-ter said she put a mes-sage out to her friends via Facebook. Before long the money began rolling in.

Local woman gives up her hair to support friend

Roberta Winter and Nedra Yurkowski pose for before and after pictures Friday at Blown Away Hair Studio. Winter had her head shaved to support Yurkowski and raise money for the cancer program at St.Josephs Hospital.

I started May 1 and I hung a poster up at my house, she said. I said in a month and a half if I

could raise $1,000 that was my goal. I surpassed that by the end of May.

Yurkowski said she

was touched by Winters decision to support her.

Its awesome to have peoples support because

youre just going through so much, she said. Its great.

Winter had her head

shaved Friday morning at Blown Away. Asked what her newly shorn head felt like she said, its cool.

Council BriefsNews and notes from the June 11 regular meeting of Estevan city council


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The City received word from the Saskatch-ewan Housing Corpora-tion that their proposal to receive government support for an eight-unit low-rise apartment for student families has been denied.

The building would have been used to house the doctors from the fam-ily medicine residency program that the local community health com-mittee is trying to es-tablish at St. Josephs Hospital.

Although the City was denied under the terms of the rental de-velopment program, the housing corporation said in their letter that they would like to further dis-cuss the idea and have assigned a consultant to the file.

City manager J im

Puffalt was honoured by the Canadian Association of Municipal Adminis-trators for 25 years of municipal service in a management capacity.

CAMA created the long service recognition awards program in Janu-ary to celebrate the dedi-cation of its members.

Puffalt also received

the Distinguished Service Award for having been in the position of chief ad-ministrative office or city manager for 25 or more years. In his letter, CAMA president Jim Toye said Puffalt recently completed 29 years of management in a municipal service.

Council approved a

special events permit for the 2012 Chili Cook-Off fundraiser at the Estevan Art Gallery and Museum.

The event, which be-gins at 4 p.m. on Satur-day, is a major fundraiser for the gallery, support-ing their education and outreach programming. Tickets for the event are $15 in advance and $20 at the door.

A request for fund-

ing of the Saskatchewan Crime Stoppers was ap-proved by council. They agreed to provide $200 for the program which

was the maximum amount requested by the organiza-tion.

A suggestion from

an Estevan resident led council to pass a motion that could help clean up Kensington Avenue.

A letter from Dave Michel was sent to council suggesting that the City should force businesses that have entrances along Kensington to pave at least 200 feet onto their own property.

Michel felt that if the aprons were paved, the dirt and mud from the various businesses would stay on their property and not end up on Kensington. He also suggested that the City should provide tax incentives to encourage businesses to pave their entrances.

Councillor Lynn Chi-pley made a motion to ask the Economic Develop-ment Officer to survey the affected businesses, if they would be interested in some type of incen-tive program. The motion passed unanimously.

In his regular report,

Puffalt noted that Estevan has been in the media spotlight in recent weeks.

As was reported pre-viously, Alberta Venture magazine recently named Estevan as the best com-munity in Saskatchewan to do business in and the sixth best in Western Canada.

Global TVs national broadcast also featured Estevan in a piece that fo-cused on the citys growth and the plethora of avail-able jobs.

The May report from

the Estevan Fire Rescue Service was presented at the June 11 meeting.

The department at-tended to five fires in May and two false alarms. The pair of false alarms is a positive sign as they have been averaging around five a month for much of 2012.

Council gave first

reading to a rezoning ap-plication from the Estevan Shoppers Mall Ltd.

The group is propos-ing to build a new resi-dential subdivision, which would include 15 lots on the southeast corner of land they own in the area.

According to the pro-posal sent to council, 11 of the homes would be fronting Heritage Drive

while the remaining four will front Petterson Drive. The land in question is currently zoned for a com-mercial shopping centre. Now that council has giv-en first reading, residents in the area will have a chance to voice any objec-tions they might have.

T h e m u c h t a l k e d

about Kensington Greens and Torgeson Park land-scaping projects will be going ahead in 2012.

The City had initially called for tenders ear-lier this year and received only one from Wilco Con-tractors Southwest for $361,079. The problem for the City was that ten-der was roughly 80 per cent over their budgeted price of $200,000. After cancelling the tender they decided to approach local company Small Iron Ex-cavating and Landscaping who agreed to do the work for $220,019.

Council passed a mo-

tion to reduce the fines for the public urination bylaw.

The first offence will now carry a $125 fine. The second and subse-quent offences will carry $500 fines.

Jim Puffalt

Saskatchewans con-struction industry is con-tinuing to ride high.

A recent press release noted that April building permits reached their high-est value in Saskatchewan history, according to Sta-tistics Canada. April build-ing permits totalled $254 million (seasonally unad-justed).

Every building permit represents a business space or home where Saskatch-ewan people will be able to work and raise a family, Economy Minister Bill Boyd said. People from around the world are com-ing to Saskatchewan and new neighbourhoods and office buildings are going up across the province to meet that demand.

Saskatchewan residen-tial building permits in April shot up by 52.5 per cent over the previous year (seasonally adjusted). That growth was more than five times higher than the na-tional average increase of 9.6 per cent. On an annual basis, the total amount of building permits were up by 29.7 per cent.

Saskatchewan contin-ues to grow and set records and todays building per-mit numbers reinforce that point, Boyd said.

Building pe rmi t r e c o r d set

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visit us online: www.estevanmerucry.ca


12064DS00

A number of local groups are continuing to benefit from the Women of Today awards luncheon.

Quota International of Estevan and the Estevan Lions Club donated the $15,897 made at this years event to four organizations on Thursday.

The Estevan Family Centre, Envision Counsel-ling and Support Centre, Holy Family Roman Catho-lic Separate School Division and South East Cornerstone School Division each re-ceived cheques for $3,974.

Both the school divi-sions will use the money to purchase FM sound systems for four schools in the city. The sound systems allow students to better hear their teachers which has been proven to improve grades and retention.

The Family Centre will use their money to run sum-mer programs for children while Envision will put the money towards their sup-port programs for men and women.

We know this will help change so many lives thanks to our community support from the 14th annual Women of Today awards, the Lions and Quota said through a press release.

Quota donates proceeds from Women of Today

The Estevan Quota Club and Estevan Lions Club donated the proceeds of the 2012 Women of Today awards luncheon on Thursday. From left to right: Valerie Hall of the Quota Club, Mary-Ellen Barreth representing the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division, Heather Vermeersch, principal of Pleasantdale School, Sheena Wock of the Envision Counselling and Support Centre, Danielle Hanson and Jenna Styre with the Estevan Family Centre, Cindy Zeleny of the Lions Club and Lorna Lachambre and Stacey Drebnicki of the Quota Club.

Construction crews are ramping up repairs and new construction work on several highway projects this week in Saskatchewan.

The wide range of proj-ects includes a $13 million paving project on High-way 4 north of Glaslyn, twinning of Highway 11, a $15.7 million paving proj-ect south of St. Brieux and building a new bridge over the QuAppelle River on Highway 6. These projects are among more than $279 million worth of highway work in Saskatchewan this week.

The new project that could have an impact on lo-cal drivers is the installation of a new culvert near Yel-low Grass which will slow traffic to and from Regina. The project is expected to be completed by June 22.

Efficient transporta-tion corridors are vital to our provinces continued economic development, Highways and Infrastruc-ture Minister Don McMor-ris said. This is why our government has commit-ted to investing a further $2.2 billion dollars into our provinces highways this term.

The weekly construc-tion update is posted to the Highway Hotline Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SaskatchewanHigh-wayHotline and Tweeted @SKGovHwyHotline. Im-ages of various construc-tion projects can be found in a photo gallery on the ministrys website at www.highways.gov.sk.ca/con-structionseason2012.

Additional travel in-formation about emergency road closures due to severe weather and other events, the status of ferries and barges, along with other road activities, can also be found on the Highway Hotline at www.highways.gov.sk.ca/road-conditions.

Highway work continues

Visit us on the Web: www.estevanmercury.ca


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Up for auction 20x50 insulated and lined shop for removal before Oct. 31,2012. Up for auction. Versatile 856 4WD tractor with PTO, Hesston 956 round bale with net wrap and bale kicker, Hesston 856A round baler automatic with net wrap and bale kicker, Case RS 561 round baler automatic with twine tie, JD 4240 2WD tractor, JD 4430 2WD tractor with JD 148 FEL and grapple fork, JD 8440 4WD tractor, JD 8430 4WD tractor, JD 2130 2WD tractor with JD 145 FEL, JD 4010 2WD Diesel tractor with Case 70 FEL, JD 401 C 2WD industrial tractor, JD 544G wheeled loader with quick coupler, Cat 950 F wheeled loader with 4.5 yard bucket needs some work, Elgin 3 wheel street sweeper, Cockshutt 1550 2WD tractor, Versatile 700 4WD tractor with 12 dozer blade and rear mount Allied 895 loader, Case 1370 2WD tractor with clamp on duals, 2005 Dodge Laramie diesel 2500 quad cab 4WD, 2005 PJ gooseneck tandem flat deck trailer, 1996 Lode King 53 Drop Deck triple axle trailer, transport chain and semi tie down straps, 2-200 barrel oilfield drilling tanks on skids, 1999 Chev Z71 LS extended cab 4WD, Belarus 611 2WD diesel tractor with PTO, Gleaner L-2 SP combine, Gleaner 24 straight cut header, MF 24 9024 combine header , Case IH 7200 Hoe Drills with eagle beaks and Bergen transport, Versatile 20 PT swather with Macdon

Pickup reel, Koenders Poly swath roller, SP swather transport, many 3PTH implements, 1986 IH Cargostar 466 diesel 1750 B single axle truck with Case IH 595 manure spreader and automatic transmission, Case 8465 Round baler, MF #12 square baler and stooker, MF 124 square baler, NH 852 round baler, NH 1100 SP haybine, NH hay rake, 5 bundles 1x8-8 windbreak slabs, 4 Ritchie livestock water bowls, Sven roller mill, IH 3PTH snowblower, Minneapolis Moline 3PTH blade, 10x60 Bergen swing auger, 1999 Skyjack 7027 scissor lift with Kubota gas engine, 2007 Polaris Ranger 4WD side by side quad with 332 hours, Polaris 400 4WD quad, 16 Edson open bow boat with 90 HP Johnson engine, 16 car hauler trailer, vintage Honda XL80 trail bike, 1976 440 Sno Jet, 1971 338 Sno Jet Star Jet, 2- JD 400 garden tractors, hard top canopys to fit Polaris Rangers, 2 place snowmobile trailer, 1966 Oldsmobile Cutlass 2 door hardtop car, 1959 4 door Impala 4 door for restoration, Craftsman 15.5 HP garden tractor, 1981 Cargostar single axle grain truck with Allison automatic, 1995 Chev extended cab short box pickup, 1995 Ford 150 4WD truck, 2003 Dodge mini van, 1997 Mercury Marquis car, 1993 GMC Jimmy, 1994 Chrysler Intrepid,1998 Ford F150 4WD extended cab pickup, 1994 Ford F150 4WD extended cab, 1993 Chev 2WD pickup,

1993 GMC Safari mini van, 1993 Freightliner single axle 24 delivery van with ramp, 1985 IHC delivery van with 466 engine,1986 48 Dorsey semi trailer van, 1980 45Trail Mobile semi trailer van, 1986 3 ton gravel truck, 1979 GMC motorhome camper van with 87,000 km,1967 Dodge one ton dually with steel box and hoist, 1974 GMC 5000 grain truck with steel box and hoist, Farm King 7-46 grain auger with Onan engine, Sakundiak 6-33 grain auger, Westfield 7-33 auger with 13 HP Honda engine, Sakundiak 6-36 grain auger, 28 JD 655 air seeder, 33 Allis Chalmers 2600 D Double Disc, 35 IH 55 chisel plow cultivator, 27 IH Vibra cultivator, 12 acreage cultivator, Rockomatic rock picker, 12 rock rake PTO drive, Land Pride 3PTH 5 finishing mower, cement mixer, Leon FEL, 100 Barrel tri axle pup trailer, 2002 tilt 24 trailer flat deck trailer with 7000lbs. winch,Well site mobile rig shack with 10x32 living quarters, shopbuilt 20 hi-boy flatdeck trailer, Arnold Bros storage reefer van, enclosed B train storage trailers with fuel storage and parts shelving, tandem axle dolly convertor, Rhino aluminum tub ATV trailer, Aluminum jet ski lift, Cub Cadet zero turn RZT lawn mower with 40 hours, Eagle gas engine air compressor, slip tanks, 1250 gallon poly water tanks, aluminum ladders and step ladders, Metal Industries 1500 bushel hopper bottom bin.

MACK AUCTION PRESENTS A LARGE EQUIPMENT, YARD AUCTION AND THE

ESTATE OF BRYAN LAWSONAT ESTEVAN MOTOR SPEEDWAY ON THE SHAND ACCESS ROAD, EAST

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612 Railway Ave., OXBOWPh: 483-2696 or 1-888-282-2221www.murrayestevan.com

Brian Carlston

DaveGedak

TerrySte uk

LorneSchlemko

GerryAnderson

(Oxbow)

Ashley Schinck

PeteTait

(Oxbow)

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Prairie Greenhouse

Just 2 miles north of Weyburn on 16th Street

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40% all stock including:

Hanging BasketsPlanters

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OFF

Not everyone in the current population base of Estevan will remember them, but those who do will wel-come the information that a special memorial service for a couple of special former residents of Estevan will be held on June 28.

Charlie and Rose Nich-olson are coming home to Estevan according to their daughter Gloria Fordyce.

The Nicholsons were involved in a number of activities in the Energy City in the earlier years, said Bev McKechney who remembers them both fondly.

They moved to Van-couver to reside with Gloria and they retained their bright-ness and interest in people until Charlie passed away at the age of 102 and Rose, this past February just be-fore her 98th birthday, said McKechney.

Their one constant wish was that they could come home to Estevan so Gloria and her daughters Joyce and Sandra are keeping that

Charlie and Rose coming home

promise. The memorial service

on June 28 will be conducted at the Hall Funeral Services Chapel at 3 p.m. followed by a luncheon at the Elks Hall where the two were lifetime members. Photos and other memorabilia will be on display.

The next morning at 9 oclock there will be the memorial burial service at the Estevan City Cemetery.

All are welcome to at-tend and share memories of these two special people who were so involved in minor hockey, the golf course and the Civic Auditorium. Rose and Charlie operated the food concessions for many, many years as well as at many other Estevan sports and culture venues, said McKechney.

We know many who would like to attend these services, but are probably too far away now, but its probably good for them to know that Charlie and Roses request is being met, said McKechney.

Eight graduating stu-dents from the Estevan Comprehensive School were awarded $400 bur-saries from the Estevan branch of the Royal Ca-nadian Legion on June 12 during a brief ceremony held in the Jubilee wing of the Legion Hall.

It gets tougher each year, said Leo Saccary, chairman of the selection committee, commenting on the quality of the ap-plicants and their high school accomplishments.

There are so many good applicants, it be-comes d i f f i cu l t . The marks are strong and the additional things they do make it hard. Thank goodness I had committee members Bill Kapiczows-ki and John Gulak to call on.

All but one of the award recipients were able to attend the brief so-cial gathering that includ-ed cake and refreshments following the presenta-tions that were carried out by Saccary and Legion president Eileen Rosner.

Garett Earl, John El-

There were eight students from Estevan and area who earned $400 bursary awards from the Estevan branch of the Royal Canadian Legion this year. They received their bursary certificates last week during a brief ceremony held in the Jubilee wing of the Legion Hall. Flanking the award winners are Leo Saccary, chairman of the selection committee and Eileen Rosner, president of the local branch. Student award winners, Back (left) Garret Earl and John Elder. Front: Kayleen Wingert, Halee Pachal, Janelle Gedak, Vijay Shalini, and Tamara Steman. Missing from the photo is Dustin MacCuish.

Eight ECS grads pick up Legion bursaries

der and Dustin MacCuish were the award winners on the male side. All three will be attending the Uni-versity of Saskatchewan.

The young women

accepting the bursaries were Janelle Gedak and Tamara Steman who will be attending SIAST in Regina; Halee Pachal, who is off to the Univer-

sity of Manitoba; Vijay Shalini who is heading to the University of Toronto and Kayleen Wingert who will be attending classes at the University of Sas-katchewan.


12064MC00

A youth was sen-tenced to time in custody after pleading guilty to stealing cars and setting them ablaze.

The 16-year-old Ox-bow youth has been in custody for about three weeks following his arrest for the offences. A week before entering pleas, he was denied bail by Judge Karl Bazin, after a show-cause hearing was held.

T h e d e f e n c e a n d Crown put forth a joint submission to presiding judge Ernie Bobowski, which called for 135 days of custody, 90 of which will be served in secure custody, and 45 in de-ferred custody or com-munity supervision.

The youth also plead-ed guilty to charges of break and enter as well as uttering threats. There were a total of 18 charges, though the Crown stayed some.

The offences were committed over a number of days, with the threats uttered in 2010.

T h e m o r e r e c e n t charges occurred between

May 11 and 18. They be-gan with a break and enter at Oxbow Building Sup-ply, where the youth spent some time as an employee. He and two others entered the store and stole a num-ber of tools, each taking several trips to carry items out to their vehicle.

The youth also broke the safe open with an axe, taking the $600 to $800 inside, and then with the same axe, smashed a cou-ple of computers that he believed were connected to a security system.

After some investiga-tion, police were led to the youths residence and found some of the miss-ing tools. Other stolen items were located under a tarp at the houses of the co-accused, who are also young offenders.

The car thefts and arson charges stem from the night of May 17 and 18. The youth, along with two others, stole a truck in Oxbow and drove it to Alameda. The vehicle got stuck in a slough, and after one of the co-accused ex-pressed an interest in get-

ting back home to Oxbow, the youth stole another car to drive back.

While reading the circumstances, Crown prosecutor Mitch Crumley said, (The youth) was the guiding force to the other youth involved.

Once they arr ived back in Oxbow, the youth thought they left an iPod in the first truck, which could possibly identify them, so they stole another vehicle and headed back to relocate the first truck.

On their way back, RCMP off icers found them and pursued them in a chase. The youth drove through fences, ditches and into fields, eluding the police officers who were unable to catch up with them.

The youth then broke into the Alameda elemen-tary school and went room to room, stealing some money from teachers desks. They broke into a storage shed and took gas, which they used to douse the three stolen vehicles and set fire to them in order to conceal evidence

they may have left behind. The uttering threats

charge comes from two in-cidents in which the youth told his mother he would cut her throat in her sleep, and another he made over Facebook to a girl telling her he would hunt down and kill her if she didnt do what he wanted.

Crumley mentioned two psychological as-sessments wi th the youth were very telling, outlining bad school per-formance, cruelty to animals, drug and alcohol abuse and concerns of psy-chopathy.

Greg Wilson, the youths Legal Aid lawyer, noted that it isnt typical under the Youth Criminal Justice Act to sentence a youth with no pre-vious criminal history to a period of i n c a r -c e r a -tion but recog-n i z e d

these were extraordinary circumstances. He told the judge he wasnt going to agree to the incarcera-tion period, until the youth said it would probably be a good idea.

After the youths re-lease from custody, he will be under an 18-month probation period.

We need to support this young

man so he doesnt come back and re-offend, said Crumley, when suggesting further psychiatric and psychological program-ming during the probation period.

I hope what can be provided for you is going to give you some help, Bobowski told the youth when handing down his sentence in which he ap-proved the joint submis-sion.

Youth to serve jail for theft and arson


Corner of 4th & Souris

634-3629

Family Owned & Operated Since 1937

Estevan Motors Ltd.Family Owned and & Operated Since 1937

Doug SandsSales Manager

Dustin SandsSales Consultant

Kyle CottrellSales Consultant

One StopHeadquarters

409 Kensington Avenue

634-3221Home of the Power Team!

If you havent shopped Power Dodge you may have paid too much!Locally owned & operated

Chris OleshkoFinance Manager

Brad PiersonGeneral Manager

Matt McCormickSales Consultant

Mike KeatingSales Consultant

Trevor KnibbsOwner

Brad BelitskiParts Manager

Laurie KyleFixed Operations

Manager

Travis OlverSales Consultant

Sun Country Health Regionregretfully announces

the temporary suspension of emergency department services at Galloway Health Centre, Oxbow from 8 a.m. Monday, July 2, 2012

to8 a.m. Monday, July 23, 2012

If your condition is urgent, please call 911 for Ambulance Services.

Healthline is also available at1-877-800-0002 and

TTY: 1-888-425-4444 or on the web at

www.healthlineonline.ca Emergency Department Services are available at these locations:

St. Josephs Hospital EstevanArcola Health Centre

Weyburn General Hospital

The Canada Border Services Agency said last week they had two crimi-nal cases concluded in Regina provincial court on June 1.

Alexandre Lartelier plead guilty to one count of failing to appear for ex-amination contrary to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and was sentenced to 30 days of incarceration.

The court heard that on May 26 of this year, CBSA officers at the Mon-chy border crossing wit-nessed a vehicle approach the port from the United States and it did not stop to report as required. Bor-der officers alerted the Ponteix detachment of the RCMP who intercepted the car and driver and charges were subsequently laid against Lartelier.

Richard Squires of Millet, Alta. entered a guilty plea of willfully evading the payment of duties on imported goods contrary to the Customs Act. The judge ordered an $8,000 fine.

The charges stemmed from Squires importation and attempted undervalua-tion of a 2009 motorhome which he imported into Canada at North Portal on May 18 of last year. It

was learned that Squires had paid $190,000 for the motorhome but had de-clared its value as $90,000 when he reported to CBSA agents.

In other CBSA news, it was learned that in May of this year, a total of 77 people were refused entry into Canada at the North Portal border point alone. Fifty-three of them were refused entry due to crimi-nal backgrounds and 11 for other serious criminal actions while the remain-ing 23 were inadmissible for various issues such as lacking proper documents or for not being a genuine visitor.

At the Estevan High-way border crossing, six people were refused entry, two of them for serious criminality.

On May 21, a man applied for a work permit at the North Portal port since he was travelling to a new job in northern Alberta. However, back-ground checks revealed several previous crimi-nal convictions including armed robbery, possession of a firearm, assault and driving under the influ-ence of alcohol. He was refused entry.

On May 24, a resi-dent of Ohio attempted to

enter into Canada to go bear hunting but he was refused entry at the North Portal crossing for trying to smuggle 33.3 grams of what was suspected to be marijuana into Canada. He was arrested and turned over to the RCMP. After they were finished with their investigation, the man was directed back to the port and refused entry into Canada for commit-ting an illegal act upon entry. He now has a July

court date in Estevan. Some lessons in dec-

laration of goods were also learned by several travellers entering Canada as well during the month of May.

On May 8, an Alberta resident was returning to Canada through North Portal. He was coming back following a visit to Ohio where he had pur-chased a 27-foot boat and trailer. He declared the goods as having a value

of US$45,000. However, through further interviews with the traveller, CBSA officers determined the true value was more like $54,600 so the boat and trailer were seized and the importer was assessed a penalty of $6,010. The importer admitted he was attempting to save taxes. If he had been truthful with the declaration at the start, the additional taxes would have amounted to a mere $480.

On May 30 at the Es-tevan Highway crossing, a Saskatchewan resident was returning following a day trip to Minot and declared US$80 in mis-cellaneous goods. CBSA o ff i ce r s conduc ted a more complete examina-tion which revealed an undeclared ring valued at $7,000. The ring was seized and a penalty of $2,153.15 was to be paid before it would be re-turned. If the ring and its value had been prop-erly declared, the traveller would have been required to pay $717 in taxes (GST and PST).

CBSA officials note that the new personal ex-emption laws are now in effect.

After an absence of 24 hours, a Canadian citi-zen may bring back $200 worth of goods duty- and tax-free, however if you are declaring more than $200 of goods after a 24-hour absence, no exemp-tion will be applied. After 48 hours, the personal exemption will be $800.

There is no exemption for same-day travel and return.

I n t h e s u m m e r months, CBSA officers see an increase in the im-portation of fireworks into Canada. They remind all travellers that an import permit is required to bring fireworks into Canada. Fireworks that do not have the necessary permit will be refused entry. To learn how to obtain a permit to import fireworks and addi-tional information, contact the Explosive Regula-tory Division, Natural Resources Canada at (613) 948-5200 or www.erd.nrcan.gv.ca

Undervaluing goods an expensive gamble

For the first time in several months, the num-bers were down.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) reported that in May of this year, there were 29,873 travellers processed at the North Portal customs port in Saskatchewan. This was a decrease of about 10 per cent since 33,138 people reported to that port in May of 2011.

The nearly 30,000 travellers who entered this year arrived in light ve-

hicles (about 8,000) and 11,951 commercial trucks.

The commercial truck numbers remained fairly constant in May of this year compared with May of 2011 when there were 11,508 entering Canada at North Portal.

At the Estevan High-way Port, traf c numbers were also down about 25 per cent compared with the same time period last year. In May of this year, 4,637 travellers in 2,717 light ve-hicles and 535 commercial

trucks were processed at the Estevan Highway sta-tion. This compares with 6,308 travellers in 3,341 light vehicles and 204 com-mercial trucks in May of 2011. About 20 per cent of the travellers entering Canada at these two Sas-katchewan ports were non-residents.

While doing their cur-sory checks, CBSA of cers at North Portal intercepted two suspected impaired drivers including one woman from Estevan who

showed signs of impair-ment when she attempted to return to Canada on May 1. She failed a road-side screening test so was arrested and turned over to members of the RCMP Estevan detachment for further processing.

On May 14, a commer-cial driver from Virginia was suspected of driving while impaired, so he was also subjected to the road-side screening and failed. He too, was turned over to the RCMP.

Border numbers declined in May

www.estevanmercury.ca

MORE WAYS TO STAY UP TO DATE!

Visit us on the web!!


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Counsel argued wheth-er a break and enter should be considered a home inva-sion, and what that could potentially mean for sen-tencing.

The arguments arose in Estevan provincial court on Monday, during a sen-tencing hearing for Dustin Persson, who had been found guilty of break and enter and committing an indictable offence therein. Crown prosecutor Mitch Crumley was asking Pers-son be sentenced to a peni-tentiary jail term of greater than two years, while Lori Dunford, Perssons lawyer, suggested a probation order and no time spent in jail. A pre-sentence report was prepared before Mondays appearance.

Persson was charged after breaking into a house early one morning and as-

saulting a man. Perssons wife, who he was sepa-rated from at the time, was at the residence.

He broke down the front door and the bed-room door before striking the male victim 25 to 30 times in the head. There was about $850 of damage done to the house.

This is a home inva-sion by definition, said Crumley in his submissions to presiding Judge Karl B

estevan mercury - june 20, 2012

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