Every little bit helps

Jason Kerr
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Every little bit helps

There are two things Big Brothers Big Sisters of Prince Albert are always looking for: mentors and financial support.

On Saturday, the local charity had a chance to find the second while honouring the first at their Music Unites us All fundraiser.

The organization currently provides more than 40 local youth in the community with mentors who hang out for a few hours every week, but the waiting list is always full.

Over the weekend they took time to recognize those members who not only make a difference in the lives of Prince Albert youth, but who also spread the word about Big Brothers Big Sisters.

The organization presented Shawn Rowden, Dexton Bourne and Estelle Hjertass with awards for their contributions. It was a welcome honour for the award winners, but also one they didn’t seek or expect.

“I was a little speechless when I found out,” said Bourne, who was recognized as volunteer of the year. “I personally don’t think I do very much…. I just hang out a couple of hours a week.”

Despite Bourne’s laid-back attitude, Sunday’s awards were not earned easily. Big Brothers Big Sisters development coordinator Natasha Thomson said Rowden, Bourne and Hjertass all went above and beyond the call of duty for the organization. That includes not only their work mentoring Prince Albert youth, but trying to get more local residents involved in the process.

“It makes me happy to see that there are people in the community who want to step up and help young children and youth who don’t necessarily have strong supports in their life,” Thomson said.

For the rest of this story, please see the Nov. 18 online or print edition of the Daily Herald.

Deconstruction delayed for historic buildings

Jason Kerr
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Deconstruction delayed for historic buildings

Prince Albert city council has reversed course on plans to deconstruct a pair of historic buildings in Kinsman Park.

Nisbet Church and the accompanying blockhouse, both of which were built more than 100 years ago, were originally slated for demolition due to a lack of funds to keep them standing.

However, during recent budget deliberations, city council voted against providing $10,000 for the Prince Albert Historical Society to save what they could and knock down the rest.

Ward 5 Coun. Dennis Ogrodnick, a former historical society president, led the charge to remove the funding. He’s worried the society is giving up on the buildings, and thinks there are options available to save them.

“They can be saved, it’s just at what cost, and when we pass a budget, we say to society, ‘this is what we value as a community,’” he said.

According to an engineering assessment performed last spring, roughly $750,000 in repairs are needed to keep both buildings standing. The main problems are the bottom logs on both structures, which are rotten and require replacing.

Representatives from the Prince Albert Historical Society say they don’t have the funds to save the buildings, and because both were moved from their original locations in the 1930s, neither can be declared National Historic Sites.

Other historic buildings in the area, like the Saint-Antoine de Padoue Church in Batoche, faced similar problems, but were saved due to their status as National Historic Sites of Canada.

“With the heritage and the history of these two buildings, it’s a shame that we aren’t at least putting in place a plan to save them,” Ogrodnick said.

Mayor Greg Dionne was the most fervent opponent of Ogrodnick’s motion. He’s concerned the buildings will fall over before anything can be saved.

Other council members, like Ward 8 Coun. Ted Zurakowski, said the $750,000 price tag simply wasn’t a credible option. He viewed the $10,000 deconstruction as a chance for the city to save historically significant parts while they still could.

The City of Prince Albert currently has $14-million in a rainy day fund, which could be used on short notice should the society conduct an emergency deconstruction at a later date.

While the budget line item has listed the $10,000 project as a demolition, Community Services Manager Jody Boulet described it as a “systematic deconstruction.” He said whatever can be salvaged for future museum displays will be prior to the final demolition.

The Reverend James Nisbet originally built Nisbet Church and school in 1872. According to the Prince Albert Historical Society, it is the second oldest church in Saskatchewan, and the oldest school between the Red River and the Alberta foothills.

The blockhouse was originally built by Archie Ballantine as a stable for Prince Albert’s first lawyer. It was converted into a blockhouse, which was used for the city’s defence during the Northwest Rebellion.

@kerr_jas • jason.kerr@paherald.sk.ca

Back to the drawing board

Jason Kerr
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Back to the drawing board

The Prince Albert Police Commission will have to head back to the drawing board after council rejected their proposed budget for the next fiscal year.

The original financial request called for $16,651,690 in spending for the police department, which represented a $543,130 increase from one year ago.

However, city council found the number too high for their liking, and sent it back with a note to trim $200,000 in spending.

Ward 8 Coun. Dennis Nowoselsky, who is one of two city councillors currently sitting on the police commission, was the strongest advocate for rejecting the budget. During the meeting he said he opposed the original request during police commission meetings, and time hadn’t softened his stance.

“I believe (the request) has got to be cut,” he explained. “I say that strongly and I say that publicly. We can’t have that much money going into policing.”

Nowoselsky took specific aim at salaries, which he said are so high they make it difficult to fund other city services.

The department currently spends 87.7 per cent of their $20.7 million in expenses on salaries and benefits. That includes 94 officers, eight bylaw or community safety officers and more than 30 other staff positions.

Instead, Nowoselsky wants to see community programs like the neighbourhood watch help pick up the slack.

“We’ve got to get the community involved and we’ve got to bring some of these budget (costs) down, because this year, we didn’t even have enough dollars for a second street sweeping in the residential areas,” he explained.

Nowoselsky added that he wanted to see more fruits and vegetables in a city budget that had been described earlier by Mayor Greg Dionne as “meat and potatoes.” To fund those projects, he suggested the city take a look at cutting police funding.

“This budget has to come down in the next few years, or we won’t have money to provide water and sewer and street cleaning and the basics,” he said.

Prince Albert Chief of Police Troy Cooper presented the financial request on behalf of the police department. While he agreed that training, outfitting and paying one individual officer can be expensive, he maintained that salaries are out of the department’s control.

Instead, Cooper urged the city to take a look at other ways to keep costs down, like applying for more provincially funded positions.

Throughout his time as chief, Cooper has maintained that policing in Prince Albert is prohibitively expensive. He attributes that to the sheer number of officers required to police the city. According to Statistics Canada, Prince Albert has one of the highest rates of police officers per capita. On average, each Prince Albert police officer answers roughly 680 calls per year.

The police department lost $78,000 in towing and storage revenue earlier this year due to a new City Impound Lot policy approved by city council. The department also lost $76,500 in revenue from SGI, although Cooper expects the department to make up for the shortfall in other areas. Overall, the department expects to increase revenues in the coming year.

Once a new financial request is approved by the police commission it will be sent to city council for approval.

@kerr_jas • jason.kerr@paherald.sk.ca

Day of remembrance hits close to home

Jason Kerr
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Day of remembrance hits close to home

For Dexton Bourne, the Transgender Day of Remembrance ceremony is never easy.

It’s not something the Prince Albert resident looks forward to, but on Sunday, Bourne still made sure to attend.

“I try not to think about it at all, until I absolutely have to,” Bourne said. ”It’s a really, really hard day, so I just try to power through it.”

Since its founding in the late ‘90s, the Transgender Day of Remembrance has spread across the world. It originally began in response to the 1998 murder of Rita Hester in Massachusetts, and today is held in almost 200 cities in 20 different countries.

On Sunday, Prince Albert residents held their own ceremony at John M. Cuelenaere Public Library, where they read off the names of more than 50 transgender men and women who were murdered in North American over the past year. The ceremony was attended by roughly two dozen Prince Albert residents, including city councillors Evert Botha and Terra Lennox-Zepp and Prince Albert Chief of Police Troy Cooper.

Even though it can be difficult to listen to the roll call, Bourne said it’s a vital part of moving forward.

“It’s just really important to take a moment to realize how much work we have to do, and to honour those who were taken from us far too soon, for reasons that shouldn’t be existing.”

Overall, Bourne remains optimistic that things are improving and that transgender people are becoming safer. However, Bourne added that it’s still important to stay focused to make sure those gains aren’t lost.

That sentiment was a common one from the four speakers at Sunday’s ceremony, including Chief Cooper. Cooper said his “spirit ached” after reading the names of the deceased and he immediately thought of the relationship between police and the transgender community in Prince Albert.

“I understood the obligations we have as a police service to keep all people safe, and how that had not been the case for many of them in many different countries,” he said.

Cooper added that the relationship between police and the transgender community has never been hostile in Saskatchewan, although it hasn’t always been positive. Police have never been overtly transphobic, he said, but they have been apathetic.

“I think what has been the case is that the trans community was ignored, and I think that apathy is just as damaging as transphobia.”

Fortunatley, things are improving. Cooper said the relationship between police and transgender residents is a strong one.

Bourne also said things are starting to take a positive turn, even though it can be difficult to remember on a day like Sunday.

“It does give me hope to realize people are trying,” Bourne said. “As far as we have to go, we have taken steps forward.”

@kerr_jas • jason.kerr@paherald.sk.ca

Council votes against rollback

Jason Kerr
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Council votes against rollback

Prince Albert Mayor Greg Dionne hopes the 2018 Prince Albert city budget will make waves in Regina.

On Saturday, Dionne and Prince Albert city council voted in favour of giving themselves a salary freeze instead of a reduction.

In the leadup to the budget, Dionne had hinted that city councillors would take a 3.5 per cent pay cut, which was mandated after the provincial government reduced the salaries of all Saskatchewan cabinet ministers by the same amount.

For more than 15 years, Prince Albert city councillors have had their salaries tied to the provincial cabinet, meaning the first couldn’t rise without a jump from the second.

Council changed all that on Saturday, and Dionne said he hopes the provincial government takes notice. City council is opposed to the rollbacks instituted in the government’s spring budget, and refused to approve any on Friday and Saturday.

“We’re talking more about the principal, especially this year,” Dionne explained.

Dionne added that he’d always been opposed to rollbacks in any department, a stance he’s been very vocal about with the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association. Despite that stance, he was prepared to vote in favour of a rollback for Prince Albert city council.

However, in the days leading up to Saturday’s vote, Dionne said he receive a stream of text-messages, phone calls and emails from Prince Albert residents encouraging city council to oppose any rollback, even to salaries.

The city was already looking at a zero per cent increase for most CUPE employees and out of scope staff, but instead voted to boost wages by one per cent, to help keep up with inflation. The move will add an extra $134,350 to the city’s expense line.

That reluctance to slash wages extended to city council’s own salaries.

Dionne received strong support for the idea during discussions on Saturday, with Ward 4 Coun. Don Cody being the most eager.

“I think rolling back salaries at any time is a bad idea,” Cody said during the meeting. “I think freezing salaries, from time to time, is reasonable, because after all, we do come upon hard times, and that’s where we are right now.”

Like Dionne, Cody said agreeing to roll back council salaries would show support for the provincial government’s budget, something he wasn’t eager to do.

Ward 5 Coun. Dennis Ogrodnick also spoke out strongly in favour of the motion. Ogrodnick said the province wasn’t in trouble because of public service workers or Prince Albert city council. Instead he placed the blame squarely at the feet of the government, and encouraged them to stop making Saskatchewan residents pay for those mistakes.

“Teachers and workers of this province never got us in this mess,” Ogrodnick said “This mess that this province has created is because of mismanagement of funds. That’s what this is about, so why should the workers of this province be the ones who are going to suffer?”

As mayor, Dionne is paid roughly $88,500 annually for his service, while city councilors make, on average, slightly more than $30,000. A 3.5 per cent pay cut would have shaved less than $20,000 total off the city’s budget as of January 1, 2018.

City councillors did not receive a pay increase or decrease in last year’s city budget.

@kerr_jas • jason.kerr@paherald.sk.ca

Surplus and small tax increase in 2018 budget

Jason Kerr
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Surplus and small tax increase in 2018 budget

Citizens of Prince Albert can look forward to a small bump in their property taxes after city council wrapped up budget discussions on Saturday.

After the dust had settled, council tentatively approved a 1.53 per cent tax increase, along with a $193,000 surplus. Final approval will come at a formal council meeting in December.

Mayor Greg Dionne said he was pleased with the final budget in what was a difficult budget year.

“I was happy at two per cent, but 1.5, that’s great savings for our taxpayers,” he said.

Although Dionne was pleased with the final numbers, the process required some finesse. Prince Albert City Council turned down nearly all funding requests from city departments and external agencies.

City councillors also found little support when trying to add additional projects to the list. There were 18 operating budget issues and 25 capital budget projects that were not included in the original proposal. City council voted to include four of them in the 2018 budget, and only one item, a $3,000 purchase of pool wheelchairs for Kinsmen Water Park, passed unanimously.

Prince Albert’s external agencies like the SPCA and Community Service Centre also felt the pinch. All agencies were told not to expect any funding increases this year, and those that did ask for more money were refused.

The city police budget also took a small cut, as councillors voted to send the proposed plan back to the police commission to trim another $200,000.

Dionne said Prince Albert’s tax rates were already too high compared to other Saskatchewan cities, and with the decrease in funding from the provincial government the city had to cut back on spending. However, he’s hopeful next year, with a new premier in charge, things will be different.

“We are hopeful that whoever gets elected premier of the province will go back to the grass roots and talk to us and see if we can all move forward,” he said.

More to come.

Charges laid after attempted robbery

Jason Kerr
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Charges laid after attempted robbery

A 17-year-old boy from Prince Albert is facing five charges in connection with an attempted robbery on Thursday.

Just before 2 a.m., police were called to a business along the 2800 block of Sixth Avenue East after a man walked in holding a gun and bear mace and demanding food.

After handcuffing the suspect and taking him into custody, police located the bear spray and an airsoft gun on the front counter.

The teenager is charged with attempted robbery, possession of a weapon dangerous to the public, carrying a concealed weapon and resisting arrest. He made his first court appearance on Friday.

Man fined after shooting bull moose

Jason Kerr
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Man fined after shooting bull moose

A St. Brieux man was fined $4,680 and received a three-year hunting suspension after pleading guilty to several charges in Melfort provincial court.

Carter Pratchler, 20, admitted to shooting a bull moose and leaving it to waste in the early hours of the morning.

He was charged with hunting out of season, wasting game and discharging a firearm from the road at night for the purpose of hunting.

The incident occurred roughly 3 km north of Brieux in January 2017. Conservation officers were able to solve the case following a tip provided to the Turn in Poachers line.

Charges laid following search by K9 unit

Jason Kerr
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Charges laid following search by K9 unit

Prince Albert’s K9 unit helped apprehend five suspects during an incident on Wednesday.

Around 9 p.m., officers noticed a stolen SUV traveling along the 600 block of Marquis Road. The vehicle continued on to Jasper Place before stopping. The suspects then abandoned the SUB and fled on foot.

Police set up a containment area and, with the help of PSD Daxa, were able to take five suspects into custody.

The suspects include a 16-year-old boy from Prince Albert, charged with possession of stolen property and resisting arrest, a 17-year-old boy from La Ronge, charged with possession of stolen property and breaching a court order, an 18-year-old man from La Ronge charged with possession of stolen property, resisting arrest, breaking and entering and breaching a court order, a 20-year-old man from Pinehouse charged with possession of stolen property and resisting arrest, and a 23-year-old man from Prince Albert charged with possession of a stolen vehicle.

All five appeared in provincial court on Friday.

Two charged after pursuit

Jason Kerr
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Two charged after pursuit

Police have filed charges against two Prince Albert residents following a short pursuit on Wednesday.

The incident began just before 1:30 p.m. when police spotted a stolen car along the 100 block of 20th Street West. The driver refused to pull over, and instead traveled north across Diefenbaker Bridge. Police did not pursue the driver due to public safety concerns, however a short time later they found it in the ditch just north of the Shellbrook overpass.

A 25-year-old man and a 29-year-old woman were spotted leaving the car and apprehended following a short pursuit on foot.

Police have charged the man with possession of stolen property, evading police, resisting arrest and breaching a court order. He also had one outstanding warrant for stolen property.

The woman was also charged with possession of stolen property and breach of a court order, and also has one outstanding warrant for theft of a motor vehicle.

Both suspects appeared in provincial court on Friday.

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