Eye on derelict properties

Jason Kerr
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Eye on derelict properties

The City of Prince Albert is looking at updating the bylaws surround rental properties, with the possibility of creating a licensing agreement.

On Monday, Ward 3 Coun. Evert Botha brought forward a motion asking the city to “establish a Rental Property Licensing Program to ensure maintenance and minimum health and safety standards, along with property maintenance standards by individual rental units.”

Evert said derelict and poorly kept properties are a major problem in Prince Albert, and it’s time the city took action.

“Don’t get me wrong, we have good, responsible landlords in Prince Albert, but we also have a number of absentee landlords and, dare I say, slumlords, who really don’t care much for the upkeep of their rental units as we are not holding them accountable,” he said during Monday’s meeting.

Currently, any residents found in violation of the city’s Property Maintenance Bylaw, which covers everything from walls and ceilings to electrical and plumbing facilities, face fines of up to $10,000 for individuals, or $25,000 for corporations.

The city can also fine landlords up to $2,500 per day for continuing offences. Unpaid fines can result in up to a year in prison.

However, Botha said the current laws and penalties aren’t doing enough to dissuade landlords from neglecting their duties.

“Our police and bylaw are called to deal with the same properties on a continual basis, and at great cost to the City of Prince Albert,” he said. “I do feel that an aggressive, progressive, fining process plan should be explored as part of this initiative.”

Botha added that improving the city’s rental market would help with overall quality of life in Prince Albert, while also cutting down on the cost of policing, and potentially creating new job opportunities.

The motion received support from most city councillors, although there were concerns from Mayor Greg Dionne about local landlords whose properties are being destroyed by careless tenants.

“I know some landlords who will get out of the market,” Dionne said. “They’re already thinking about it because of the damage they get.”

Botha acknowledged that landlords do face difficulties of their own, but said the city’s planning department should determine where it would be best to begin tackling the problem.

This isn’t the first time the City of Prince Albert has tried clamping down on derelict or unsightly buildings in the community. In 2015, the city made changes to the property bylaw to make it easier for bylaw officers to deal with vacant and boarded up buildings.

The city’s planning department is currently working on an updated proposal, which should come before city councillors sometime in June.

@kerr_jas • jason.kerr@paherald.sk.ca

Bring on the Lobster

Jason Kerr
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Bring on the Lobster

Prince Albert residents may have enjoyed an evening seafood, but the real winner was Project Triple Play.

On Saturday, the Prince Albert Rotary Club raised more than $30,000 for the project at their annual LobsterFest fundraiser.

The money will go towards renovating the baseball diamonds at Prime Minister’s Park in preparation for the 2018 Junior Men’s World Softball Championships. The Prince Albert SPCA will also receive funds from the event’s VIP table.

The final total will be even higher since the last few donations won’t come in until the end of the week. Overall, Rotary Club members say they’re pleased with the result.

“The community really stepped up to the plate to help us raise some money for Project Triple Play and the SPCA,” event chair and Rotary Club member Dave Fischl said. “It was just so nice to see the community and the businesses step up to the plate.”

This year’s event was sold out, as residents packed the Ches Leach lounge in the Art Hauser Centre for a helping of lobster, mussels and other seafood.

Rotary Club president John Doucette said the annual event is one of their most popular fundraisers, and this 2017 version was no exception.

For the rest of this story, please see the May 16 online or print edition of the Daily Herald.

SPCA garage sale provides big boost

Jason Kerr
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SPCA garage sale provides big boost

In his seven years of volunteering at the annual Prince Albert SPCA garage sale, Dan Troupe has seen a lot of donations.

This year, however, might be the biggest ever.

Troupe, who is a former board chair of the SPCA, was one of more than a dozen volunteers who took part in the three-day fundraising event at the Archie Anderson Pavilion, and even he was a little surprised by what he saw.

“This is up there with one of the busiest garage sales for the SPCA,” he said during a brief interview on Saturday. “In my seven years, I have never seen as much donated as this year. It just goes to show the passion the public has for the SPCA.”

The increase in donations has also led to an increase in sales. The result was a fundraiser that surpassed its 2016 totals by the end of the first day. In total, more than $10,000 was raised for the SPCA, with a few more donations set to trickle in.

For the rest of this story, please see the May 16 online or print edition of the Daily Herald.

From humble beginnings

Jason Kerr
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From humble beginnings

In 1887, the Prince Albert Catholic School Division began as a single log cabin schoolhouse in the vast District of Prince Albert.

Today, it encompasses eight different schools and roughly 3,200 students.

On Saturday, current and former teachers, students and trustees gathered at St. Mary High School to honour that achievement, as the division celebrated its 130th anniversary in the city.

“Through those years there’s been a lot of trials and tribulations, and we’ve had some obstacles along the way, but I’m very proud to say that we’re a still a strong organization,” current school board chair George Bolduc said.

Although Father Alexis Andre established Prince Albert’s first Catholic school in 1883, the actual school division didn’t take shape until four years later.

Originally dubbed “Catholic Separate School Division No. 6 of the North-West Territories,” the new school system received its first students nearly two decades before Saskatchewan joined confederation, making it the oldest school division in the province.

“From the humble beginnings of a rustic little shack on the riverbank to where we are now, it’s just amazing,” said Bolduc, who has served on the school board for roughly 20 years.

Bolduc and others in attendance were quick to credit the teachers and support staff for the success of Catholic education in Prince Albert.

Current trustee Maurice Chalifour first joined the division as a Grade 6 teacher at Ecole St. Anne School in 1970. He said it quickly became apparent that he was joining a high quality organization.

For the rest of this story, please see the May 16 online or print edition of the Daily Herald.

“Touching Smoke” brings a lifetime of experience

Jason Kerr
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“Touching Smoke” brings a lifetime of experience

After a lifetime of songwriting, touring and teaching, Jim McKillop found himself with a book full of songs and some free time.

For years, the Prince Albert musician brought his musical talents to a number of bands, playing on weekends and writing songs during his spare time. When he retired, he decided to finally start recording.

“I’ve played music all my life, played in bands and weekend stuff … and all along the way I’ve written (songs),” McKillop said during an interview on Saturday. “Now I’m not playing in so many bands, I’m retired from my day job as a schoolteacher, and it was time to put them down somewhere.”

The result was “Touching Smoke,” McKillop’s inaugural album, which was officially released on May 6 at the Rock Trout Café.

The name comes from the album’s title track, which McKillop wrote after visiting the Gila cliff dwellings. The album features a wide variety of musical styles and themes, but they all have a connection to something in his past.

“It’s just trying to capture that (experience),” he said. “It’s kind of an observer role. Some things make you shake your head and some things make you angry and some things make you happy that you’re here.”

Getting into the studio and recording the album was a long process. It began roughly 20 years ago when he played on a few recordings for one of the bands he performed with. A decade later, he was back in the studio, this time recording one of his own songs.

For the rest of this story, please see the May 10 online or print edition of the Daily Herald.

Trek for MS taking off

Jason Kerr
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Trek for MS taking off

While taking part in a Terry Fox Run last fall, Jackson Lepage had an idea.

The École St. Anne School Grade 5 student admired Fox’s commitment to raising funds for cancer research, and wanted to do something similar.

Lepage wasn’t living with cancer like Fox was, but he did have two godparents, both of which were living with multiple sclerosis (MS).

“I thought about my godparents, and I thought, ‘maybe I could walk to raise money for them,’” he said.

He took more inspiration from “The Little Red Wagon,” a movie about a young boy who walks across the United States to try and help the homeless, and began putting a plan into action.

But having an idea was one thing, but getting it off the ground was another. Initially, Lepage wanted to walk across Canada, like Terry Fox. However, his mother Christine and the MS Society of Canada’s Saskatchewan branch convinced him that it would be safer and more practical to walk in Saskatchewan.

Now, he’s planning to raise $4,000 for MS research by walking and biking nearly 400km before his 12th birthday on Nov. 8.

“His original plan was to walk along the highway, and then the MS Society talked him down from that idea,” Christine explained. “After a couple of meetings with the society he decided to do it in smaller treks.”

For the rest of this story, please see the May 10 online or print edition of the Daily Herald.

A year of change

Jason Kerr
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A year of change

On Sunday evening, in an out of the way part of Cornerstone Methodist Church, a few members of the OSI-CAN Support Initiative are quietly celebrating their one-year anniversary.

The weekly support group is a rarity. It’s one of five in Saskatchewan committed to providing an out of the way place for police officers, soldiers, firefighters, corrections officers and medical personnel to discuss incidents that may have led to PTSD or operational stress injury (OSI).

Few support groups in the country bring people from so many diverse careers together in one room, but for organizers, that’s its greatest strength.

“It doesn’t matter if you were a police officer, a firefighter or an ambulance attendant,” Prince Albert group leader Michelle McKeaveney explains. “Some of those traumatic things are the same for each (attendee), and that’s what the room brings. It brings a sense of normality and comfort.”

The provincial initiative itself is fairly new. It only began operations in January 2016, with the Prince Albert chapter starting a few months later.

The weekly meetings are built on a peer support, rather than a clinical support, perspective. They allow attendees to talk about their experiences, either in person or over the phone, with people who’ve gone through similar difficulties, while receiving access to other services like psychosocial rehabilitation or even just basic housing.

Anonymity is of the utmost importance.

“We have rules and we have provisions to make sure that everybody is protected,” says McKeaveney, who worked as a corrections officer before becoming involved in the initiative. “Each peer group and each peer leader satisfies that at the beginning of the meeting.”

McKeaveney and OSI-CAN provincial coordinator say the feedback has been phenomenal. Even tough the group only has one year under their belt, they’re starting to see changes, and that’s true of similar groups in Saskatoon, Regina and Weyburn as well.

“They have hope now,” says Brown, a military veteran who served in the U.S. Army prior to moving to Canada. “They’re seeing that they have the prospect of returning to a normal live and regaining their balance back, and the same thing is echoed by the families.”

Brown comes from a military family. His father fought in the Second World War, while he and two brothers joined the army near the end of the Vietnam War. He also has one son who is a veteran, and one daughter who is still enlisted after 13 years.

He says mental health was something his family never brought up, even PTSD.

“There were indications that there was something there, that there was a problem,” Brown explains. “PTSD did exist, but because it was something that was never talked about, you just continued on with your life. Even after I entered the military and saw it myself, it was still something that wasn’t spoken about. You just soldiered on.”

Brown says there is a “self-stigma” where a lot of individuals can’t acknowledge that they need help.

Fortunately things are starting to change, especially in Prince Albert. McKeaveney says employers in the city are starting to take the issue of mental and emotional health seriously, and that’s having positive consequences.

However, there are still a few challenges ahead. The Prince Albert OSI-CAN group is financially supported solely by an anonymous donor, but that funding is set to expire in 2018.

They’ll be looking for new ways to keep the program growing, which has provided an important start for those suffering from OSI and PTSD.

They also want to expand from five groups to eight by the end of the year, but on Sunday, it’s a night for celebration.

“It’s truly amazing,” Brown says. “It’s what gets me up in the morning.”

The Prince Albert chapter of OSI-CAN meets every week for two hours at Cornerstone Methodist Church. For more information, call Michelle at 306-922-3113 or 306-981-6083.

Residents can also access the phone-in support group every Thursday at 2 p.m. by calling 1-888-289-4573, access code 6325824.

A PTSD/OSI Awareness Conference will also be held from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1 at the Prince Albert Inn. Registration is $75 per person, prior to Sept. 1. Contact Karyn at 306-961-8231 for more information.

@kerr_jas • jason.kerr@paherald.sk.ca

Living life to the fullest at MS Walk

Jason Kerr
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Living life to the fullest at MS Walk

It didn’t matter how much it rained on Sunday morning, Rhea Krakowetz was always going to show up for the Saskatchewan Blue Cross MS Walk.

Krakowetz was one of more than 60 people who came out for to raise funds for the Saskatchewan division of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, and she wasn’t going to let thunderstorms stand in the way of that goal.

“I was a little worried, being down near the river, if there was lighting, but other than that, no,” Krakowetz chuckled. “I was going to be out here in rubber boots if I had to be.”

Sunday’s walk was particularly important for Krakowetz, who suffers from MS herself. She’s one of more than 3,500 people in Saskatchewan living with the disease, and while the future is filled with uncertainty, she remains optimistic.

“I only have one life and I’m still going to live it to the fullest,” she said. “With good support and good family and friends, even if it’s not quite the life I wanted, it’s still amazing.”

An estimated 100,000 Canadians live with multiple sclerosis, which gives Canada one of the highest rates of MS in the world. However, Canada has also become a major research centre.

For the rest of this story, please see the May 9 online or print edition of the Daily Herald.

Government review of jury recommendations underway

Jason Kerr
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Government review of jury recommendations underway

A spokesperson from the Ministry of Justice says the government wants to implement recommendations made by jury members in the Shauna Wolf Inquest “as soon as possible.”

On Thursday, the ministry officially released all 17 recommendations made by jury members, nine of which were specifically directed at the Ministry of Corrections and Policing.

Government officials got their first look at the list on Thursday, with Ministry of Justice spokesperson Drew Wilby saying the review process would begin in the coming weeks.

“We will, in the not too distant future, figure out how we’re going to respond to (the recommendations), what work can be done from the provincial level here, and what work needs to be done at the local level up at Pine Grove,” Wilby explained. “Those discussions will begin here within the next couple of weeks for sure.”

For the rest of this story, please see the May 5 online or print edition of the Daily Herald.

Kicking of National KidSport Month

Jason Kerr
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Kicking of National KidSport Month

Spending a day sitting in a raised scissor lift swaying in the wind isn’t how most people envision having a good time, but for KidSport chairperson Dwight Bergstrom it feels right at home.

Bergstrom, who spent plenty of time dangling about the ground while riding ski lifts as an instructor, spent Thursday riding in a different kind of lift. It was all part of a goal to raise $1,000 for KidSport Prince Albert by 5 p.m.

“I may have to spend an indefinite amount of time up there,” he chuckled during an interview shortly before jumping in the lift. “I’ve actually had more people asking how much they’d have to pay to keep my up there permanently.”

Bergstrom has a self-depreciating approach to sitting in a scissor lift all day, but the goal is a serious one.

Last year, Prince Albert KidSport granted $87,162 to help 341 children from low-income families participate in everything from hockey to soccer to gymnastics to swimming.

This year that funding is in jeopardy, as budget cuts from the provincial organization, which would normally provide up to $37,000 annually, means the Prince Albert chapter will struggle to meet last year’s numbers.

For the rest of this story, please see the May 5 online or print edition of the Daily Herald.

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