Dust control on Lincoln Park Road issue dealt with by RM of Prince Albert

Michael Oleksyn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
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Dust control on Lincoln Park Road issue dealt with by RM of Prince Albert

The RM of Prince Albert met for the first time since March on Thursday, May 14 and dealt with issues such as dust control on Lincoln Park Road and changes to bylaws.

Reeve Eric Schmalz explained that there have been calls about dust control.

“We are not doing dust control currently but we are testing a product for soil stabilization,” Schmaltz said.

Earlier in the meeting, the council conducted a conference call with Mark Hryniuk of GreenBond in regards to dust control on Lincoln Park Road.

“He provided us with an update and we have decided to go ahead. There are some details we need to hammer out as far as warranty and road preparation, preparing the road for that product to go on. But there is 1.5 kilometers of Lincoln Park Road and then 300 meters of an access road will be getting this,” Schmaltz said.

According to Schmalz the product is poured on at a higher temperature so the viscosity is similar to water it then leaches into the ground and congeals with the soil to prevent washboard roads.

“A side benefit is dust control but the main objective of using this product is to prevent washboard and the need to have a grader go down grid roads in short windows. Right now we have a grader going down Lincoln Park Road every three or four days and that ties up our grader from serving the rest of the RM roads,” he explained.

They also updated their subdivison and drainage and pumping bylaws to reflect what the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority does to fill a gap. The Saskatchewan Watershed Authority covers anything that is not within the subdivision and they control pumping and the natural flow of water.

“Essentially what we needed to do there was a gap in our bylaws that didn’t cover subdivisions and that has been closed now. The bylaw just brings what the Saskatchewan water agency has into subdivisions allowing us to prevent people from digging massive drainage ditches and flooding out their neighbour. It also allows us to regulate, people need to move water we understand that and when they do they need to do it within some guidelines and make sure they are not interfering with other people’s property when they do it,” Schmalz said.

They also did some work with hiring beaver trappers to control beaver population to prevent flooding of farmland.

The council also renewed the agreement with Legal Counsel Larry Zatlyn.

The meeting was held at the RM of Office on River Street with all councillors and staff present except Division 5 councillor Wayne Acorn. The meeting was closed to the public and media.

New cost sharing agreement for Prince Albert District Planning Commission

Michael Oleksyn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
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New cost sharing agreement for Prince Albert District Planning Commission

The RM of Prince Albert and the RM of Buckland finalized a change in the way the Prince Albert District Planning Commission cost sharing agreement operates. At their regular meeting on Thursday, May 14 the RM finalized an agreement which changes the cost structure.

The Prince Albert District Planning Commission is a trilateral agreement between the City of Prince Albert, the RM of Buckland and the RM of Prince Albert. The cost was originally split with the municipalities and the City each paying one third for Director of Planning and Development Jason Kaptein.

“There was a split cost share with the city and Buckland and so what the RM of Prince Albert and the RM of Buckland has done now is brought our district planner under our payroll. The RM of Buckland and the RM of Prince Albert split the costs associated with that planning officer so he now works for the RM of Prince Albert and the RM of Buckland, he also looks after and manages the Prince Albert and District Planning Commission,” Reeve Eric Schmalz explained.

Planning Services

The Planning Commission was formed in the mid-1950s to promote a regional approach to agriculture, commercial and residential development. The Planning Commission is an advisory body and provides planning expertise to the member councils.

“That was just to finalize the agreement for shared services so that means that we now have a signed contract with the RM of Buckland and Jason Kaptein to provide us services,” he explained.

No new COVID-19 cases in Sask. for first time since March 15

Michael Oleksyn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
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No new COVID-19 cases in Sask. for first time since March 15

For the first time since March 15, the province of Saskatchewan is reporting no new active cases of COVID-19 which leaves the provincial total at 592.

This comes after a single case was reported on both Friday and Saturday.

There are currently 455 recoveries and six resulting in deaths, 131 cases are considered active, which is a drop of 11 cases from the Sunday update.

Eleven more recoveries have been reported for the second consecutive day.

There are still five people in hospital with illnesses related to COVID-19. Two are receiving inpatient care, with one each in the Saskatoon and Regina, there are also three people in Saskatoon in intensive care. The province is emphasizing that these areas are where the patient is hospitalized, not the regions where they live. Active cases are included in the number for their region of residence.

All of the other numbers remain the same in the province.

There are currently 48 cases who are health care workers; however, the source of the infections is not related to their work environments in all instances, 219 of the cases are from the far north, 164 are from the Saskatoon area, 106 are from the north, 76 are from the Regina area, 15 are from the south and 12 are from the central region.

The age breakdown shows 83 cases involve people 19 years of age and under, 210 cases are in the 20-39 age range, 182 are in the 40-59 age range, 99 are in the 60-79 age range and 18 are in the 80-plus range.

The gender breakdown remains steady with 49 per cent of the cases being females and 51 per cent being males.

As of May 18, 41,159 COVID-19 tests have been performed in the province.

The next scheduled news conference for COVID-19 updates is Tuesday, May 19.

No tax increases in RM of Prince Albert budget

Michael Oleksyn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
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No tax increases in RM of Prince Albert budget

There will be no tax increases in the RM of Prince Albert. At their regular meeting on ursday, May 14 the RM council decided to hold the line on taxes while also extending a program to benefit rate payers in light of COVID-19 related financial stress.

“We didn’t do any tax increases, mostly because of the Revenue Sharing increases on behalf of the federal government we were able to hold the line as far as tax increases go,” Reeve Eric Schmalz said.

The increase in revenue sharing was around $90,000 to help the RM hold the line.

“What happens is when they pay early they can get up to a seven percent discount on their property taxes if they pay by July. at is something that we have always o ered to the rate payers. Because of COVID-19 we want to try to help people out, we understand that people are suffering financially and we want to ease the financial burden on individuals in the RM. We are going to extend the full seven percent dis- count to October 31 rather than July,” Schmalz explained.

“It will give people an opportunity to be able to put more money together to pay their taxes and still receive the seven percent discount,” he added.

Schmalz explained that the budget remains status quo and the RM will be able to serve rate payers while still holding the line on taxes.

“We were trying to keep ourselves with some cushion in case there is some unforeseen difficulty with a road getting blown out by a flood, any contingencies basically. We try to leave a cushion within the budget so that we don’t have any overruns during the years and still remain in a good financial position, actually the RM is in an excellent financial position,” Schmalz said.

RM of Buckland deals with flood issues at May meeting

Michael Oleksyn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
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RM of Buckland deals with flood issues at May meeting

After taking a month off from regular RM council meetings the Rural Municipality of Buckland held their first meeting in a month on Monday, May 11. A flood event in late April when the South Saskatchewan River rose flooded some areas of the RM and the council had to deal with that and finances arising from it.

After their meeting scheduled for early April was cancelled, the RM experienced a washout of the Buckland Bridge and flooding in the Shell River Heights area.

“Actually we discussed a little bit about the Buckland Bridge. We talked about the flooding that took place It was just sort of a meeting because we didn’t have a meeting the month be- fore. So we were just getting financials in order,”

“The agenda was full but it was really more housecleaning than anything. e biggest item that came out of the meeting was the bridge and the berm,” Fyrk said.

Fyrk explained that April was not very eventful besides day-to-day operations and the meeting itself was more about the budget.

“It was just to get all of the finances in order,” he said.

The RM is planning another budget meeting for Monday, May 25 to further discuss the municipalities upcoming and keeping taxes low for ratepayers.

“That’s why we have got to have the budget meeting. We have got to see what is going on there,” he said.

The flooding exposed a problem with a berm in Shell River Heights.

“We have got to rebuild a berm. It is a berm that is there already but we want to enhance it so there is no more flooding in that area. We have got to protect the people down in there,” Fyrk said.

“We are having our budget meeting because we don’t want to raise taxes if we don’t have to. So we are trying to

hold the taxes back and we are going to go over thing with a fine tooth comb and just see what the heck we can come up with. ere are some jobs that have to be done that were unforeseen so it is going to be nip and tuck,” Fyrk said.

The recently announced infrastructure stimulus package includes culverts and bridges but Fyrk was not aware of the commitment from the province touching Buckland.

“They can announce what they want to give you all they want but whether you get it or not that’s another story. It would be nice if they paid for a new bridge for us holy smokes, but we’ll wait and see,” Fyrk said.

Black fly control program expanding

Michael Oleksyn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
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The District 32 Agricultural, Development and Diversification Board (District 32 ADD Board) recently announced the expansion of the Black Fly Control Program.

Starting in June, the North Saskatch- ewan River from Fort Carlton to 15 kilometres downstream of the Wingard ferry site will be targeted by the program.

e product used will be Bti, a bacterial larvicide used to control the Black Fly larva in the river. Fewer de- veloping larva leads to reduced adult Black Flies. Bti also has no effect on other insect species or sh in the river system. e program goal is to reduce livestock harassment from Black Flies. Results are monitored over the summer months by livestock producers and municipal representatives who reside within the abatement zone.

The program is administered by the District 32 ADD Board with financial support provided by the Government of Saskatchewan.

One new case of COVID-19 for second consecutive day

Michael Oleksyn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
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For the second consecutive day The Government of Saskatchewan reported one new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, this case was reported in the far north.

These new numbers bring the province’s total number of reported cases to 592. With 444 recoveries and six resulting in deaths, 142 cases are considered active, which is a drop of 10 cases from the Saturday update.

Eleven more recoveries have been reported in the past day.

Currently, there are five people in hospital with illnesses related to COVID-19 which is a drop of three from Saturday. Two are receiving inpatient care, with one each in the Saskatoon and Regina, there are also three people in Saskatoon in intensive care. The province is emphasizing that these areas are where the patient is hospitalized, not the regions where they live.

Of the 590 cases in the province: 139 cases are related to travel, 320 are community contact (including mass gatherings), 68 have no known exposures and 65 are under investigation by local public health.
There are currently 48 cases who are health care workers; however, the source of the infections is not related to their work environments in all instances, 219 of the cases are from the far north, 164 are from the Saskatoon area, 106 are from the north, 76 are from the Regina area, 15 are from the south and 12 are from the central region.

The age breakdown shows 83 cases involve people 19 years of age and under, 210 cases are in the 20-39 age range, 182 are in the 40-59 age range, 99 are in the 60-79 age range and 18 are in the 80-plus range.

The gender breakdown remains steady with 49 per cent of the cases being females and 51 per cent being males. As of May 16, 40,806 COVID-19 tests have been performed in the province.

The next scheduled news conference for COVID-19 updates is Tuesday, May 19.

Single new COVID-19 case announced Saturday

Michael Oleksyn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
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Single new COVID-19 case announced Saturday

The Government of Saskatchewan reported just one new case of COVID-19 on Saturday in the Saskatoon region, breaking a recent trend of cases reported in the north or far north. The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) has also announced that the presumptive positive case in Lac La Ronge announced Thursday has been found to be negative.

The SHA declared on Saturday morning that the case was officially confirmed as negative.

​In a release, they explained that presumpt​​i​​ve results are used as the first line of defence to ensure the authority warn contacts and close contacts as soon as possible of possible exposure.

They explained that the Lac La R​​onge In​​dian Band Health Services, Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authority and Saskatchewan Health Authority public health officials took immediate steps with the presumptive result out of an abundance of caution to prevent potential further transmission.

With the new​ offic​ial result from the Roy Romanow Provincial Laboratory (RRPL), health officials indicate that no further action is required from customers who shopped or bought gas at the following locations:

Fire Creek Gas St​​ation in Saskatoon – May 4
Co-Op​​​ Gas Bar, La Ronge – May 4 -11
Robertson Store, La R​​​onge – May 11
Keethanow Sup​​ermarket, La Ronge – May 5-8
Keethano​​w Gas Bar, La Ronge – May 4
Craving Re​​staurant La Ronge – May 1-9.

The SHA also announced that is ending its outbreak declaration at the long term care facility in the La Loche Health Centre made on April 17.

Dr. Rim Zayed, Medical Health Officer, has declared the outbreak over after the standard 28 day period has passed without a new positive case of COVID-19 in long term care.

Zayed cautions that community precautions remain in place and that exhaustive work continues as the Saskatchewan Health Authority and local community leaders work together to curtail the spread of COVID-19 in the area. This includes extensive door to door testing, mobile testing, and aggressive contact tracing.

These new numbers bring the province’s total number of reported cases to 591. With 433 recoveries and six resulting in deaths, 152 cases are considered active, which is a drop from the 176 active cases reported yesterday.

Twenty-five more recoveries have been reported in the past day.

Currently, there are eight people in hospital with illnesses related to COVID-19.Five are receiving inpatient care, one in the north, two in Saskatoon and two in Regina there are also three people in Saskatoon in intensive care. The province is emphasizing that these areas are where the patient is hospitalized, not the regions where they live.

Of the 590 cases in the province: 139 cases are related to travel, 320 are community contacts (including mass gatherings), 68 have no known exposures and 64 are under investigation by local public health.
There are currently 48 cases who are health care workers; however, the source of the infections is not related to their work environments in all instances, 218 of the cases are from the far north, 164 are from the Saskatoon area, 106 are from the north, 76 are from the Regina area, 15 are from the south and 12 are from the central region.

The age breakdown shows 83 cases involve people 19 years of age and under, 209 cases are in the 20-39 age range, 182 are in the 40-59 age range, 99 are in the 60-79 age range and 18 are in the 80-plus range.

The gender breakdown remains steady with 49 per cent of the cases eing females and 51 per cent being males. As of May 16, 40,097 COVID-19 tests have been performed in the province.

The province also announced that an investigation has concluded that the COVID-19 case admitted to Pasqua Hospital is a community-acquired case and does not constitute a hospital outbreak. The Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) recently questioned the reasoning behind there being no outbreak announced as there was in a similar case at Victoria Hospital in Prince Albert.

Thus far, all testing of staff and contacts are negative in the case according to the province.

Diefenbaker School parade shows growth of concept in Prince Albert

Michael Oleksyn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
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Diefenbaker School parade shows growth of concept in Prince Albert

Winding their way through the Crescent Heights area of Prince Albert on Thursday morning was another tribute to students and families in schools. John Diefenbaker Public School and their parade wound its way through the neighbourhood to say hello to all of their students and families.

According to Principal Roy Feschuk the idea came after the success of the parades by Ecole Arthur Pechey and W.J. Berezowsky School a few weeks ago and wanted to keep the momentum rolling.

“I mean the whole idea of teaching and being in schools is building on relationships with your community,” Feschuk said.

Feschuk said that on the last day of school before COVID-19 ended the in-class school year the school was down to a mere two students.

“Educators, educational associates, teachers, principals, school-based social workers — the whole gamut — they thrive on the interactions and the relationships with kids so the idea of encouraging a physically distanced parade that gets us out in the community, gets us letting families know we are still here, hey we have still got services going on at the school,” Feschuk said.

The Diefenbaker School parade with 52 vehicles in total wound through the Crescent Heights area of the city Thursday morning.

One example is the Community Cares Kitchen Food on the Move Brown Bag program which is run by Natalie Guimond and is handing out 200 lunches a week.

“We are actually starting to receive some big uptake with her so it is very cool and we really appreciate her advocacy.”

The parade had contributions from important partners with emergency responders including the Prince Albert Fire Department, Prince Albert Police Service and Parkland Ambulance taking part in the 13.5 km route, which took around one hour and twenty minutes to complete. Fifty-two vehicles took part.

Feschuk described all of the agencies as great partners.

Students and families were out as the Diefenbaker School parade wound through the Crescent Heights area of the city Thursday morning.

Mann-Northway contributed five vehicles including convertibles and the colourful “Skittles Cars” which added to the sense of fun. Anderson Motors also tried to get them a vehicle as well but the timing did not work out.

According to Feschuk ,everyone was very generous, offering what they could for the cause. Feschuk said the momentum from this parade and the partnerships developed should expand as these parades continue happening.

“Other schools are going to be getting on this so you are going to be seeing other partnerships forming as other schools reach back out to their communities from a safe distance and just show that we are better together and we are still here and we have got you with what you need,” Feschuk said.

Connections are also being maintained with familie in the north who went back home after the pandemic started. Feschuk explained that the teachers remain in touch with multiple meetings.

“We are hosting what we can in the way of virtual meetings. We are trying to make sure that there is no digital divide and we are offering Supplemental Learning packages on paper with a whole bunch of other pieces met to make sure we are COVID compliant and not doing anything to transmit other parts of this virus to other parts of the community,” Feschuk said.

“It has really changed the way we do things but the one thing that you still see is the thriving of relationships,” Feshuck said.

Students who could not be there had their photos displayed by teachers to highlight them. Saskatchewan Rivers School Division trustees Arne Lindberg and Bill Yeaman participated in a division vehicle.

People were encouraged overnight Wednesday to tune in. Feschuk paid tribute to the community as a large part of the parade.

“We live in an amazing community, Prince Albert has got to be one of the best places in Canada to live and the support and the power of people pulling together makes it a great place to be,” Feschuk said.

Prince Albert schools taking part in clean up challenge across city

Michael Oleksyn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
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Prince Albert schools taking part in clean up challenge across city

One idea can spark a series of positive things. With spring being a time for cleaning, staff at schools across Prince Albert are taking part in a cleaning challenge.

The latest school to join the cause was King George School, which cleaned at both Prince Albert Collegiate Institute (PACI) and Kinsmen Park on Wednesday. Grade 7 and 8 teacher Kris Kahlika organized the school’s section of the challenge and they are following the lead of Arthur Pechey and Red Wing School. The staff was decked out in costumes as they cleaned the vast greenspace in both the fields around PACI and the Park.
“I do believe it started with Red Wing School and they kind of started a little bit of a project and challenged Arthur Pechey which then Arthur Pechey said they wanted to take it to the next level and not just kind of clean up their school yard but they wanted to help out the community as well,” he explained.

Brandi Sparboe, the Principal of Arthur Pechey explained that Red Wing School challenged their school via Instagram.

“We have a lot of students from King George that do decide to go to PACI as a high school so we thought that to keep that going on instead of just making that an elementary project,” Kalihka said.

“Cleaning up our own school felt great but it felt even better to spread the positive vibes and clean up at King George and throughout Prince Albert. We’re thankful to Red Wing for getting the ball rolling,” Sparboe said.

Staff from King George School were busy cleaning at PACI and Kinsmen Park on Wednesday afternoon. /Michael Oleksyn/Daily Herald

The challenge has now moved to PACI, according to Kalihka. He used to teach at the school and everyone agreed it would be a good time to reach out.

“And it is not too far from our school instead of just doing school grounds we wanted to go over into Kinsmen Park. A lot of our students and high school students like to enjoy that area and the basketball courts, the park and everything like that,” Kalihka said.

They want to keep the good deeps moving through schools as the challenge continues to grow.

“I think more or less we want to keep this good thing going with quarantine and everything. We just wanted a good deed to spread throughout our community and just show that teachers really do care about our students and about our community,” Kalihka said.

They practiced proper distancing and other measures to keep themselves safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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