‘We’re all proud of him’: longtime Peter Ballantyne CEO Trevor Ives honoured at Chamber Legacy Brunch

Jason Kerr
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‘We’re all proud of him’: longtime Peter Ballantyne CEO Trevor Ives honoured at Chamber Legacy Brunch

The family of former Peter Ballantyne Group of Companies CEO Trevor Ives expressed their gratitude and thanks after accepting the Prince Albert Chamber of Commerce Legacy Award on Monday.

Ives passed away in 2023 after spending 25 years as the company CEO. On Monday, Ives’ wife, Shauna, said he would have been grateful to receive the award.

“Trevor would have been so proud, and we’re all proud of him,” Shauna said following Monday’s ceremony at the Chamber of Commerce Legacy Brunch. “This is such an honour. I wish he could be part of it.”

In 25 years in business the Ives’ met a lot of people and visited many new places. When Shauna looked back on those 25 years, she said it was the people who stood out the most.

“Through Trevor’s business connections, it was nice to get involved in the Aboriginal community in PA,” said Shauna, who grew up in Saskatoon.

“That was just something I really gained an appreciation for through Trevor’s career and our friends and associates in PA.”

The Ives’ daughter, Kyra, was also on hand for Monday’s award presentation. Although Kyra doesn’t plan on following her father’s footsteps into the business world, she said the lessons he taught will always be useful.

“Dad was just an exceptional role model as a father and as a person,” Kyra said. “He really instilled values of hard work and dedication into myself and my brother and the importance of community and loyalty. (I’m) definitely going to follow in his footsteps in terms of values and how he’s acted as a leader to both of us, but maybe not in the business area.”

In addition to his work in the business world, Ives was an active volunteer. He was recognized for those efforts in 2022 when he received the Queen’s Jubilee Medal award. Ives passed away on Oct. 30 at the age of 57.

Prince Albert Chamber of Commerce CEO Patty Hughes said Ives was a mainstay on the Prince Albert business scene who deserved to be recognized for his leadership.

“He was just so steadfast,” Hughes said. “He was involved in the community as well, and he just quietly did it. (He) didn’t expect any accolades to come from it.”

Barnett, Turcotte, and LeMoal nominated for Business Leader of the Year as Samuel McLeod award finalists announced

Monday’s ceremony also marked the countdown to the 33rd annual Samuel McLeod Business Awards, which will be held on April 12 in Plaza 88.

Nearly 30 businesses in 12 categories received nominations, including Lake Country Co-op, Diamond North Credit Union, and Prince Albert Memorial Gardens, River Park & Grays for Business of the Year.

Diamond North is also up for the Customer Service Award, while Lake Country is up for the Business Transformation Award. Memorial Gardens, and River Park & Grays are up for the Community Involvement Award.

Cody Barnett from the Boreal Healthcare Foundation, Marianne Turcotte from Beau “Lac” Funeral Home, and Shelley LeMoal from E.T. Flooring and Design are all nominated for Business Leader of the Year.

Aaron LeMoal from E.T. Flooring and Design, Aiden Edwards from FamJam, and Tia Furstenberg and Kayanna Wirtz from Lemon Art Studio are all up for the Young Entrepreneur Award.

PAGC Urban Services, the Rose Garden Hospice, and S.H.A.R.E. are all up for Non-Profit Organization of the Year.

–with files from Michael Oleksyn/Daily Herald

‘A little bit of Newfoundland’: The Irish Descendants are always happy to take a piece of their home province out west

Jason Kerr
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‘A little bit of Newfoundland’: The Irish Descendants are always happy to take a piece of their home province out west

The Irish Descendants hit the road for between 70-80 shows each year, but wherever they are in Canada, there are always a few expatriate Newfoundlanders to make them feel at home.

The Canadian folk music group stops in Prince Albert on Tuesday for a performance at the E.A. Rawlinson Centre, and band leader Con O’Brien expects to see more than a few East Coast transplants in the crowd.

“It’s always a treat,” O’Brien said. “We have, especially in parts of the west, so many Newfoundlanders and people from the East Coast who live there and have made their homes there. For us that helps out a lot because we get a little bit of a hometown audience looking for a little bit of back east.”

The Irish Descendants are practically a Newfoundland institution. The group began touring in the early ‘90s, and became so popular they were chosen to perform for the Queen at Newfoundland and Labrador’s 500th-anniversary celebrations.

O’Brien said they started out performing the type of music you’d play with friends and family, and they’ve tried to maintain that intimate atmosphere as the stages and audiences have grown.

Sometimes they do that literally, such as last October when they performed at the Festival of Small Halls in Ontario.

“You get to do something that you really, really, really are proud to do, and that you really enjoy doing: affecting people in different ways with your music,” O’Brien said. “(We) spread the news about where we’re from and talk about our part of the world for a few minutes. That’s really a rewarding thing to do.”

The group’s touring schedule hasn’t returned to the typical 100 or so shows a year they played before COVID hit, but they’re used the extra time to get back in the studio. The Irish Descendants will celebrate 35 years of music in 2025, and plan to commemorate it with a specialized box set of fan favourites.

When they started recording 35 years ago the band would use a friend or family member’s basement. As the band grew, so did the recording studios, but technological innovations mean the band’s recording sessions have gone back to their roots.

“We’ve gone into some of the biggest studios in the country, in Toronto and Halifax and here (Newfoundland) … but nowadays, you can almost record on an iPhone now,” he said. “It’s gone completely back the other way.”

Prince Albert is the lone Saskatchewan stop on the band’s six-city prairie tour. O’Brien said fans will expect to hear certain songs on Tuesday, since the performance falls less than a week St. Patrick’s Day. He said the band looks forward to bringing “a little bit of Irish” to the crowd.

“We’ll do our best to tell our story and make sure that people who are fans of the band are happy,” he said. “People who have never heard us before come out looking for a good time with some great, great musicians and great singers. It’s a little bit of Newfoundland for an evening.”

The Irish Descendants perform at the E.A. Rawlinson Centre on Tuesday, March 12. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available at the box office, or online at www.earc.ca.

Police chief faces flurry of questions about property crime at East Flat Ward Meeting

Jason Kerr
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Police chief faces flurry of questions about property crime at East Flat Ward Meeting

Property crime, drug and alcohol addictions, and homelessness dominated the list of concerns as East Flat residents met for the Ward 4 Town Hall on Wednesday.

The meeting came just days after a string of smashed windows on River Street East where more than 20 vehicles were vandalized between Monday evening and Tuesday morning.

Chief Patrick Nogier was in attendance and spoke for roughly 40 minutes about City-wide efforts to curb crime. Residents peppered Nogier with questions during and after his presentation. Many said they weren’t blaming the police for crime in the area, but were still frustrated with the lack of safety.

“The police do as much as they can,” said local resident Denise Taylor. “These kids or thieves or whatever you want to call them, they go to court and they get nothing.

“I don’t know what the answer is,” she added. “People who do the crimes don’t get a very stiff penalty or anything.”

Taylor was one of several meeting attendees who had their car windows smashed during the recent vandalism streak. She woke up to a text from a neighbour at 4:58 a.m. saying someone had broken into her car and was rummaging around inside.

Taylor said nothing was stolen, but it’s still frustrating to have to deal with the damage. A few residents floated the idea of starting a neighbourhood watch during Wednesday’s meeting. Taylor said that’s something she’d definitely be interested in.

“I think it might help,” Taylor said. “There are things that I heard tonight that I didn’t even know were going on in this end of the city. You get at home, you get inside your own place, and you’re in your own little bubble.”

Finding solutions that lower crime without costing more dollars or further straining the current police force was a common theme during Wednesday’s meeting, although it was one attendees weren’t always happy to hear.

Nogier faced a flurry of questions after saying officers were answering many too calls that were “not criminal in nature.” The police chief told residents some issues were best handled by other agencies, which generated a flurry of questions about who residents could call.

Ward councillors in attendance floated the possibility of including a list of emergency contacts with the next water bill, but nothing has been decided.

Nogier told residents officers were burning out trying to get to every call, and that system wasn’t sustainable. The Prince Albert Police Service has introduced a new priority call response system that Nogier said will give immediate attention to serious emergencies while bumping calls that aren’t as urgent down the list.

In an interview after the meeting, Nogier said East Flat residents had valid concerns about community safety, but stressed they had to take a new approach.

“We knew that it was unsustainable, so we took a second look at it,” Nogier said. “We’ve got the call prioritization that we talked about. We have the alternative call response unit now, and we see that there’s a direct impact where officers have a little bit more time now to do a little bit more thorough job. (They have) a time to breathe, a time to do a little bit of decompression, collect their thoughts, (and) make sure that the investigation is moving in the right direction, rather than just going from call, to call, to call.

“As an administration, we were responsible for setting our members up for failure by just going from call to call to call, not giving them the opportunity to make good notes, not making the opportunity to come back and do a thorough investigation, and just keep pushing, so we’ve made those changes.”

Nogier said Willful Damages Under $5,000 continues to be the most common type of crime in the East Flat. When asked by residents why an officer can’t patrol high-crime areas once every two hours, the chief said Prince Albert doesn’t have enough officers to give one or two areas that kind of attention.

Nogier added that violent crime is down 25.9 across Prince Albert in 2024. Assaults are down 30 per cent, robberies are down 33 per cent, and theft over $5,000 is down 60 per cent. All statistics include crime up until the end of February.

The chief said officers plan to be more proactive about vehicle crime in Prince Albert during the summer. He said there’s a direct correlation between vehicles and crime, so officers will be cracking down on things like speeding and reckless driving.

Nogier said officers will also check up on three different areas as a result of complaints made during Wednesday’s meeting. He also told residents the investigation into the string of smashed windows was still ongoing.

Ward 4 Coun. Don Cody played the role of emcee for Wednesday’s meeting. Like Nogier, Cody said he understands the frustration residents have with property crime, but also said adding more dollars to the police budget wasn’t the solution.

“You can have all the officers you want. If you believe that you’re going to get all the criminals, you’re kidding yourself. That’s not going to happen,” Cody said. “I guess you can curb it with more people, but the City can only afford so much. We have now spent a big pile of money for the police department. I think the police department is doing whatever they can, but I don’t think adding more police officers is necessarily the answer.”

Like many residents in attendance, Cody said he wishes the courts would be a bit more strict with offenders. However, he said it’s up to other levels of government to address that issue.

Ideally, Cody also wants to see more mental health support and addiction recovery centres, which he said would be more effective than hiring more police officers.

“The police can’t handle and aren’t trained for (those calls),” he said. “There’s mental health, addictions, those kinds of things. That’s not police work. That’s mental health. That belongs to the province, and the province should be doing something about it.”

Wednesday’s meeting was the first of two Ward meetings scheduled for this week. The second was held in the West Flat on Thursday evening. The meeting did not finish before the Daily Herald press deadline.

Saskatchewan welcomes inaugural Open Farm Days in August

Jason Kerr
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Saskatchewan welcomes inaugural Open Farm Days in August

Saskatchewan residents looking for an immersive farm education experience can look forward to a new event launching this summer.

The inaugural Saskatchewan Open Farm Days is scheduled for Aug. 10-11. The event gives residents a chance to visit farms across the province for a unique blend of educational, culinary, and hands-on agricultural experience.

“This is something that’s been on the tips of everyone’s tongues for so long,” Open Farm Days coordinator Ashley Stone said. “(It’s) finding that connection from agriculture to the consumer and understanding ag in our province. Everyone we’ve spoken to in our province is very excited about creating an event like this, but also (about) finding ways to have really good conversations about food.”

Open Farm Days allows the public to visit participating farms during the two-day period to learn about how those farms operate. The list of activities depends on what each farm produces.

Stone said the goal is to help residents understand how food is produced in Saskatchewan, and highlight the connection between their work and what people purchase at the grocery store.

“(I) think it’s going to be very inspiring for people to see agriculture in our province because it is so ahead of the game when it comes to sustainability practices, (and) when we come to ethical farming,” Stone explained. “There are some really positive things and stories that will come out of this.”

Province-wide Open Farm Days are new to Saskatchewan, but other provinces have held them for years.

When organizing the event, Stone looked to Open Farm Days in Ontario, Alberta, and Atlantic Canada for inspiration. She said the Alberta Farm Days organizers were especially helpful, which helped smooth out the organizing process in Saskatchewan.

Ideally, Stone hopes to have 30-50 farms participate in the event, and as many residents as possible.

“Alberta has quite a few. Upwards of around 3,000 to 5,000 participate across their province. If we could get half of that, I think for our inaugural year, I think that would be fantastic,” she said.

Although education is a big part of it, so is tourism. Stone came to the project with a tourism background, and hopes the event will give residents a unique, hands-on experience.

“We do a lot of conversations and a lot of work around understanding food with different dieticians and different networks that way, but we needed something that really kind of drove that boots on the ground kind of experience,” she said.

Open Farms Day plans to create an itinerary function in June so residents can start planning their trips. Farms and agri-businesses who want to participate can register at skopenfarmdays.ca. Registration closes on May 31.

Open Farm Days is a partnership between Farm and Food Care Saskatchewan, the Ministry of Agriculture, and Tourism Saskatchewan.

@kerr_jas • jason.kerr@paherald.sk.ca

Community groups sign on to updated Community Threat Assessment and Support Protocol

Jason Kerr
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Community groups sign on to updated Community Threat Assessment and Support Protocol

More than a dozen local and provincial organizations signalled their commitment to community safety on Tuesday by signing the Prince Albert and Area Community Threat Assessment and Support Protocol.

Representatives from each organization met at Plaza 88 over the noon hour for the first signing since 2016. The list includes three new signatories: Catholic Family Services of Prince Albert, YWCA Prince Albert, and the Saskatchewan Indigenous Institute of Technologies.

Prince Albert Catholic School Division trustee Chrissy Halliday signed the agreement on behalf of the division. She said it will help keep students safe by smoothing the lines of communication between the division and various community organizations.

“An agreement of this sort gives us the ability to properly assess and properly help our community members when they need it the most,” Halliday said.

“From a school perspective, when you look at places like Catholic Family Services and police services and the YWCA, they’re servicing, sometimes, the same families and the same students that we are, and so to be able to work collaboratively with them is essential.”

The PA Catholic School Division was a part of the group that signed the original protocol in 2013. The group re-committed to the protocol in 2016, and was supposed to hold another signing in 2020 to update some of the language, but those plans were scrapped due to COVID.

PA Catholic Superintendent of Education Charity Dmytruk said that ended up being a blessing in disguise because it created time for more organizations to jump on board.

Dmytruk also said the signing allowed them to update some of the language in keeping with best practices.

“For us, it is just a maintenance of the partnerships that have already been built to be supportive of those individuals who may need,” she said.

Insp. Lisa Simonson was on hand to sign the protocol on behalf of the Prince Albert Police Service (PAPS). Simonson said the protocol is extremely important for police, who rely on the information sharing portion to help appropriately assess risk and provide intervention if necessary.

“When there is no protocol in place you have agencies that are working within their own silos,” Simonson explained. “We could be working with those same subjects or individuals that may need that intervention and support and wouldn’t even know it, so this provides that sharing of information. It allows us to work together in partnership and provide the resources that are needed.”

As part of the protocol, signees commit to having staff members complete level one and two Violence Threat Risk Assessment (VTRA) training. Simonson said 33 PAPS officers have completed VTRA training, including eight who just finished the course in December.

She said all community groups have a role to play in school and community safety, so it’s encouraging to see so many signing on.

Each signing partner is responsible for assessing what information they share with other organizations. The partner organizations are also responsible for ensuring they comply with any legislation that applies to privacy and the sharing of information.

Signing partners follow three guidelines that determine what information to share. There must be a reasonable expectation of probable harm, the harm must constitute damage and detriment, not mere inconvenience, and there must be a connection between disclosing the information and preventing the anticipated harm.

“The presumption is that all information shared by partners should be treated with a high level of confidentiality,” reads the protocol. “Once sharing of information has occurred, each partner who receives the information will be responsible for ensuring appropriate storage, use, and disclosure.

The protocol is inspired by the work of the Centre for Trauma Informed Practices (CTIP) CTIP Canadian Director of Operations Pat Rivard was in Prince Albert for the signing, and for a two-day workshop at Plaza 88. He said it’s exciting to see so many organizations sign on.

“I have the luxury of a 40,000 ft view of Canada, and Prince Albert is advanced in how they are actually bringing the community together around some really core questions about community violence prevention,” he said. “This is fantastic. It’s a tribute to the leadership of the community.”

Rivard said it’s important to have consistent language for things like threat-making behavior, which improves communication between organizations. He added that having a shared responsibility among all agencies is also a positive.

“It is the heartbeat of violence prevention, quite honestly,” he said.

SIRT rules PA police officer used ‘proportionate and necessary’ force in January 2023 shooting

Jason Kerr
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SIRT rules PA police officer used ‘proportionate and necessary’ force in January 2023 shooting

There are no grounds to believe a Prince Albert police officer committed an offence when shooting and killing a 34-year-old man who was a person of interest in a murder investigation, the Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) ruled in a report dated Feb. 26.

The SIRT released Civilian Executive Director Greg Gudelot’s report on the matter Tuesday afternoon. Gudelot wrote that the established facts show the force applied by the officer “falls within the range that is protected by law” and provides no grounds to believe the officer committed a Criminal Code offence.

Gudelot wrote that the 34-year-old man produced an air-powered pistol while fleeing from police, and the officer had “no reasonable way” to determine the authenticity of the firearm at that time.

“Given the striking visual similarity of the pistol to an actual handgun and the circumstances in which it was presented, the Subject Officer was reasonable in perceiving the item to be an actual firearm, and in believing that it was capable of causing him death or grievous harm” Gudelot wrote. “Both subjectively and objectively, the threat, as perceived by the Subject Officer, was immediate and serious.”

Gudelot added that the officer’s response was “both proportionate and necessary.”

At the time of the incident, the officer was in full duty uniform, operating a fully-marked PAPS vehicle.

The incident began at around 10:20 p.m. on Jan. 16, 2023 when a PAPS K9 unit attempted a traffic stop on a 2000 Honda Prelude on Marquis Dr. in Prince Albert. The driver of the vehicle failed to stop for police, and attempted to evade police by turning into a gas station, accelerating through the lot, and returning to Marquis Dr. in the oncoming lane before crossing the raised meridian.

After stopping in a parking area along South Industrial Drive, the 34-year-old man and a female acquaintance left the vehicle and phoned a taxi. A second woman remained inside the vehicle.

A responding officer saw the man and woman standing outside a business on the 400 block of South Industrial Dr. and stopped to ask what they were doing. The man said they were waiting for a cab, and provided his name to officers when asked. The officer then searched the PAPS database and determined the man was the subject of a homicide investigation, and also had unrelated outstanding warrants.

The officer informed the man he was under arrest, but the man started walking away. Following a brief physical struggle with the officer, the man ran eastbound on South Industrial Dr. The officer radioed in at 10:39 p.m. that he was in a foot pursuit.

The officer pursued the man down South Industrial Dr. until the man turned right into a side parking area enclosed by fences on all sides. The officer observed the man reaching into his pockets during a foot pursuit, so the officer pulled out a Conducted Energy Weapon. However, when the officer observed a pistol in the man’s hands, he holstered the CEW and drew his pistol instead.

Gudelot writes that the man raised the pistol towards the officer, after which the officer fired a single round, striking the man in the torso, causing him to fall down.

The officer immediately notified PAPS dispatch that a shot had been fired and an ambulance was required. Other PAPS units arrived on scene roughly 90 seconds after the incident and provided first aid until EMS arrived five minutes later.

EMS provided care and transported the man to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

‘We’re not giving up’: FNUniv president says university will explore all options after feds reject funding request for new campus

Jason Kerr
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‘We’re not giving up’: FNUniv president says university will explore all options after feds reject funding request for new campus

First Nations University of Canada (FNUniv) President Jackie Ottmann said she’s disappointed by Infrastructure Canada’s decision to turn down the university’s funding request for a new Prince Albert campus, but they aren’t giving up.

Ottmann was in Prince Albert on Friday just days after Infrastructure Canada declined FNUniv’s
$25 funding request made through the Green and Inclusive Community Buildings (GICB) Program. If successful, the funds would have gone towards constructing a new campus near the Alfred Jenkins Field House.

“We put a lot of time and effort and expense into presenting Infrastructure Canada with a strong proposal for a new campus here in Prince Albert, for First Nations University of Canada, so I was disappointed because we had every indication that it was a strong submission,” Ottmann said.

“We’re not giving up. We still will work with the governments to seek solutions.”

One of those solutions will be to step up their fundraising campaign. FNUniv already had plans to raise $5.5 million in donations. Ottmann said they’ll likely increase that number. Leadership is still discussing other potential fundraising avenues.

This was the FNUniv’s second submission to the GICB program. Ottmann said she’s not sure if there’s going to be another.

Even if there was, FNUniv isn’t sure if the proposal needs changing since they received no feedback from Infrastructure Canada. The project is shovel ready after the City of Prince Albert sold FNUniv the land for $1 in January 2023, but Ottmann said it’s not clear what, if anything, needs changing in their proposal.

“There was no feedback,” she said. “It was a fairly generic response.”

When asked why Infrastructure Canada denied the request, a representative wrote that they do not share details on individual funding applications to ensure partner confidentiality. The representative wrote that all projects are assessed according to eligibility and merit-based, and Infrastructure Canada works with each applicant to identify their needs.

“There was a very high level of demand for funding under the Green and Inclusive Community Buildings Fund, and unfortunately not all submissions were able to receive funding,” reads the email.

“The Government of Canada is committed to closing the infrastructure gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, and we will continue to work with our partners across the country to support infrastructure projects that improve affordability, advance climate goals, and enhance the services and programs that residents rely on.”

Despite the setback, the project still has strong support among Indigenous leadership. Ottmann met with PAGC Grand Chief Brian Hardlotte and another PAGC chief while at the FSIN assembly earlier this week. They plan to meet again to discuss the next steps.

“The leaders of our 12 member nations are unanimously committed, highlighting our determination to complete this project,” Hardlotte said in a press release. “While this most recent funding bid may not have been successful, we are certain that both levels of government will recognize will recognize the immense value and importance of a new FNUniv Northern Campus.”

The project gained more support at the FSIN Winter Session of the Legislative Assembly on Feb. 27-28, when the chiefs passed a resolution endorsing campus construction in Prince Albert.

“This campus is more than a building,” FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron said in a press release. “It is an investment in our youth, our culture, and our future. This campus is envisioned as a hub for Indigenous scholarship, reflecting our commitment to education as a means of sustaining our culture and communities. We urge federal decision-makers to act swiftly in funding this critical initiative.”

The FNUniv Prince Albert campus has seen steady growth in the past few years. They now have more than 300 students enrolled in nine programs.

Ottmann said the current downtown campus is too small. Without a new facility, they will struggle to add more students and programs. Ideally, the university wants to expand their science and tech offerings.

“This has been a longstanding desire for the students and the Indigenous community in the north, to have a facility that’s dedicated to post-secondary education,” Ottmann said. “Grand Chief Hardlotte shared with us earlier this week that this desire has been on the minds of people in this community and north for approximately 30 years, and we’ve been located, First Nations University of Canada has been located in Prince Albert for over 20 years, so we’re well overdue.”

Former Prince Albert PC candidate remembers Brian Mulroney

Jason Kerr
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Former Prince Albert PC candidate remembers Brian Mulroney

A consummate leader.

That’s how Prince Albert resident and former Progressive Conservative Party candidate Gord Dobrowolsky said he’ll remember Canada’s 18th Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney, who died Thursday at the age of 84.

Dobrowolsky was the PC nominee in Prince Albert during the 1984 federal election. He said Mulroney was a great communicator who had a gift for making everyone feel like they were the only person in the room.

“If you were to come to my den, you would probably see eight or nine pictures of Mr. Mulroney and myself shaking hands, talking, that sort of thing,” Dobrowolsky said during a phone interview Thursday evening. “He was a unique individual, and one of—if not the—greatest Prime Ministers we ever had. He was a leader in the truest sense of the word.”

Mulroney’s daughter Caroline, and Ontario MPP, said the former Prime Minister died peacefully, surrounded by family. Caroline said the family will share details of the funeral arrangements when they become available.

Dobrowolsky said he was sad to hear of Mulroney’s passing, but not surprised since he’d been in poor health the past year or two. Even in his 80s, Dobrowolsky said Mulroney could still command a room.

“His negotiating skills and his PR skills were unapproachable,” Dobrowolsky said. “They were unmatched. When he had an idea, he went out and sold it, using his PR skills and negotiating skills to bring everyone together, and he did it very well.”

Mulroney was born in Baie-Comeau, Que. In 1939. He worked as a lawyer and businessman before winning the Progressive Conservative leadership race in June 1983. At the time, Mulroney had never been elected to public office, but the lack of experience didn’t hurt him. The PCs cruised to a massive majority in 1984, winning 208 seats compared to 39 for the Liberals and 29 for the NDP.

Dobrowolsky lost a close three-way race in Prince Albert, losing by less than 200 votes to the NDP’s Stan Hovdebo, but has plenty of positive memories of the campaign. The biggest came in July of 1984 when Mulroney invited Progressive Conservative leaders from across the country to a policy retreat in Prince Albert.

“He was a huge admirer of John Diefenbaker. Huge,” Dobrowolsky remembered. “I happened to be the Progressive Conservative candidate at the time, and because of his huge affection and admiration for Mr. Diefenbaker, he brought the entire Progressive Conservative caucus to Prince Albert.

“All of the Conservative MPs from across Canada, the Progressive Conservative premiers from across Canada, including (Alberta Premier) Peter Lougheed, (and) Grant Devine, of course, was premier of Saskatchewan at the time. It was a policy conference, but at the time, very much a PR move. That was him showing his huge affection and admiration for Mr. Diefenbaker.”

Mulroney served two terms as Prime Minister, winning a second but smaller majority in 1988. His term in office was defined by the successful signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the unsuccessful attempt to adopt the Meech Lake Accord.

Although Mulroney failed to get all 10 provincial legislatures on board, with Manitoba the lone dissenters. Dobrowolsky said it may be the best example of Mulroney’s leadership because of how hard it was to get all the other provinces on board in the first place.

“He was the consummate communicator, and very personable,” Dobrowolsky said. That personable likeness, I think, stemmed from the fact that his beginnings as a child were very humble—from a very poor working class family in Quebec. (He) became a lawyer, went into business and then into politics, but he was the consummate negotiator. No one was better, and again, that was born out in the Meech Lake Accord.”

While Meech Lake and free trade dominated the Mulroney era, Dobrowolsky said the former Prime Minister should be just as well known for his foreign policy accomplishments and his environmental record.

Mulroney was an Order of Canada recipient, and a winner of the Woodrow Wilson Award for Global Service. He is survived by his children Caroline, Ben, Mark, and Nicolas, and his wife Mila.

Teachers announce two-day withdrawal of extracurricular services

Jason Kerr
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Teachers announce two-day withdrawal of extracurricular services

Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) president Samantha Becotte had a message for the province’s students on Thursday: we want to make sure your needs are being met.

Becotte made the comments after the STF announced a two-day removal of services for all extracurricular activities on Tuesday, March 5, and Wednesday, March 6. The move means teachers will not offer voluntary service for athletics, non-curricular arts, field trips, student travel, and graduation preparations.

“My message would be we are concerned right along with you,” Becotte said during a press conference Thursday afternoon. “We want to make sure that your needs are being met, that your mentally well. We want to provide these amazing opportunities. That’s why teachers volunteer their time…. They know and see the impact that they have on students lives, as well as the learning that happens in classroom.

“We talk about education being the greatest equalizer. Well, that can only happen if we have the right supports in schools to be able to ensure that all kids can thrive in their classrooms and get their needs met.”

The move is the latest in a series of rotating strikes and service withdrawals. Becotte said she realizes it can be tough on students, but emphasized the STF wants students to thrive, and that can’t happen without serious changes.

In her opening remarks, she blasted the provincial government for ignoring the implications of escalating job action, and argued the Ministry of Education is not negotiating in good faith by refusing to make commitments at the bargaining table.

She urged parents, students, or trustees who are unhappy with the breakdown in talks to contact their MLAs.

“Teachers don’t want to be taking these actions,” she told reporters. “If government continues to ignore the big issues, we will have no other choice but to further escalate our actions.”

Becotte said the goal of the two-day job action is to convince the province and SSBA to get back to the bargaining table.

When asked if she thinks the escalating round of job actions were effective at reaching their goals, Becotte said they’re hopeful it will work.

“We don’t want to have that significant disruption to student learning,” she said. “That is not in the best interest of anyone.”

The Daily Herald contacted the Ministry of Education asking for an interview about the latest STF job action. In response, the Ministry sent a statement arguing that STF leadership were choosing job action over getting a deal done.

“The Government Trustee Bargaining Committee (GTBC) extended invitations every day last week to the STF to come back to the bargaining table, where negotiators had been waiting and were ready to engage in meaningful discussions,” the statement reads. “The government has moved on a number of items that the STF asked for, including a renewed salary mandate and workplace safety enhancements. The STF has refused to move off their initial proposals, including a 23.4 per cent salary increase.

“Outside of bargaining, government has proposed an agreement with the STF to annualize the $53.1 million in additional funding for class size and complexity. Since October, the STF has been at the bargaining table for a total of 30 minutes. Teachers and students should be in the classroom, and the teachers’ union should be at the bargaining table.”

Rural Sask desperate for healthcare support says SARM president

Jason Kerr
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Rural Sask desperate for healthcare support says SARM president

The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) has called on the provincial government to reinstate the Grow Your Own Nurse Practitioner Program in rural areas.

SARM president Ray Orb said rural Saskatchewan faces a healthcare crisis due to understaffing. On Wednesday, he called on the province to make it easier for nurse practitioners to work where they live instead of recruiting out-of-province candidates.

“This an issue for people who live in rural and remote areas of this province who just need better health care coverage, and of course, NPs can help a lot of with that,” Orb said. “In a lot of cases, they can be the first contact for a patient.”

The provincial government introduced Grow Your Own Nurse Practitioner in 2014. The program offered NPs wages and benefits for up to two years while they received full-time nurse practitioner training, based on a five-year return-of-service agreement with a sponsoring health region.

Orb said the program increased the number of NPs working in rural areas, and can do so again if brought back.

“We know there are some clinics, some hospitals, that are needing more nurse practitioners out in the rural (areas),” Orb said. “We’re asking the province to go back and look at that program again to … perhaps bring it back or make some enhancements to the existing program to see if we can improve that kind of delivery.”

The Saskatchewan Association of Nurse Practitioners (SNAP) gave their support for Orb’s request. SNAP president Johanne Rust said NPs are already being added to teams in hospitals, cancer care centres, and walk-in clinics where there are service gaps. She said adding more in rural areas would help improve access to care, with 30 new NPs able to serve roughly 36,000 patients.

“We work under our license and regulations and can work in many clinical areas with minimal supervision,” Rust said in a press release. “Nurse Practitioners can effectively manage most needs of their patients and refer anything more complicated to specialists or doctors as appropriate.”

In a press release, SARM and the SNAP said Saskatchewan is underutilizing trained NPs. As of April 2023, they said, the province had 328 NPs, 10 per cent of which are either unemployed or working as registered nurses.

Orb said SARM officials plan to discuss the issue with Health Minister Everett Hindley and Rural and Remote Health Minister Tim McLeod during meetings next week. He said the province has budget constraints and is already spending a lot on healthcare, but wants to see some of it directed to an NP program.

The Daily Herald requested an interview with a representative from the Ministry of Health. The ministry sent a statement touting budget investments made in the past year to help increase the number of healthcare workers, including NPs.

In the statement, the government said the number of NP training seats at the University of Saskatchewan, University of Regina, and Saskatchewan Polytechnic has increased from 20 seats to 50 since 2007-08, The government also said it has started a new NP training program through a partnership between Sask Polytech and the U of r, allowing students to train closer to home.

The Ministry of Health also continues to provide grant funding to support NP recruitment and retention, the statement reads, including a relocation grant and bursary.  That includes two NPs who received the $50,000 Rural and Remote Recruitment Incentive (RRRI) in 2023-24, and 22 NP students who received $2,000 each from the Final Clinical Placement Bursary.

“In August 2023, a first of its kind primary health care clinic opened in Warman staffed by three nurse practitioners exclusively,” reads the statement. “The Ministry of Health continues to move forward with a number of regulation amendments to expand the NP scope of practice in the province and make Saskatchewan a more attractive place for NPs to practice medicine.”

As of September 2023, there were 38 NP vacancies in Saskatchewan, 24 of which were in rural or remote communities.

NDP leader Carla Beck said her party supports SARM’s request to bring back the Grow Your Own Nurse Practitioner Program. Beck said too many healthcare centres in rural and remote communities have been closed due to staffing shortages. She said training and maintaining local NPs is the best way to reverse that trend.

“Healthcare workers who grew up here are most likely to stay here,” Beck said in a press release. “A Grow Your Own strategy is just common sense.”

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