The City of Prince Albert released a proposed 2024 budget on Nov. 1 that would require an extra $4.4 million in property taxes to balance.
City councillors will meet for a line-by-line discussion of the budget starting on Nov. 16 where council will have the option to trim items from the list.
If council approved all budget proposals, residents would be looking at a 13.7 per cent tax increase. A one per cent tax increase would raise roughly $320,000 in revenue.
“Council will consider public input, its own priorities, and the inherent trade-offs in deciding each issue,” reads the budget document. “Council will either accept the issues brought forward, decline, or substitute other priorities.
The head of the Prince Albert and Area Teachers’ Association (PAATA) says there is solidarity among local teachers, but there’s still hope the province will return to the negotiating table.
With a recent impasse in negotiations with the provincial government, 95 per cent of Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) members voted to support job action. However, PAATA president Jean-Marc Belliveau said that’s a long way from teachers going on strike.
“Sometimes I hear strike vote. It’s not a strike vote,” Belliveau said.
Award-winning acapella group Countermeasure are the latest act refusing to cross the picket line at the E.A. Rawlinson Centre.
Instead, the 11-member group will perform at the Union Centre in Prince Albert on Nov. 9, the same day they were scheduled to perform at the Rawlinson.
“Like other artists, we could have just cancelled,” Countermeasures manager Patricia Silver said in an interview with the Herald. “Obviously, we’re not able to cross the picket line and other artists are cancelling. This is too important.”’
The mother of a man who died in Prince Albert nearly three years ago responded to the evidence and recommendations presented at an inquest in early November
Jordan Norfield was 30 years old when he died at the Victoria Hospital on Dec. 5, 2020.
The inquest heard that Norfield was arrested on Dec. 1 for breaching his COVID-19 self-isolation orders.
He was held in police detention cells overnight. Video evidence showed Norfield appearing to seize on and off and hit his head on the concrete walls.
The lawyers who represented Norfield’s mother, Sandy Pitzel, provided a statement with her response to the inquest.
“This process has allowed Sandy and her family some closure, and they are deeply grateful to have some of the answers they needed to continue healing from Jordan’s death,” it reads.
A program that assists students in need in Prince Albert is being temporarily suspended.
The Prince Albert Catholic School Division board of education was informed of the decision to suspend the HUB program during their regular meeting in November
Superintendent Charity Dmytruk said the Hub Steering Committee made the decision on Oct. 22.
“It is due to human resource challenges that agencies at the table are facing. There is a commitment to consider reinstating the Hub if and when these challenges change for these agencies,” Dmytruk explained.
The Remembrance Day service returned to the Prince Albert Armoury for the first time in four years on Nov. 11.
The day was even more special thanks the attendance of special guest Lieutenant Governor Russell Mirasty.
The service began with Mirasty’s entrance before the playing of Oh Canada by the Prince Albert Concert Band, followed by the playing of the Reveille, a moment of silence, the Last Post and the Act of Remembrance.
Marie Mathers, a longtime service organizer who is in her last year of working on the event, said having the service in the traditional location was special.
“It was really great that we were able to use it,” Mathers said. “It’s not finished, but it was usable. It was a nice way of leaving the barn, and good weather so you couldn’t ask for any better.”
Sports
The Prince Albert Pee Wee River Riders finished their season on a high note as they came away with a 42-39 victory over the Clavet Cougars at Saskatoon Minor Football Field on Nov. 5.
River Riders head coach Taras Kachkowski says he was glad to see the team finish the season with a victory.
“I didn’t have much for expectations. We had lower numbers and we had to put some kids into positions that they hadn’t played before, which isn’t a great start to the game. Everything just kind of came together and we had a really fun game. It’s an evenly matched team and it was a fun way to end.”’
It was an eventful week for PA’s Strkyer Zablocki at the Women’s U18 National Championships in Dawson Creek, B.C.
Suiting up for Team Saskatchewan, Zablocki says the tournament was a very memorable experience.
“I got to spend lots of time with all my friends (that) I don’t get to see very often. The whole experience playing hockey there against the top talents in Canada was also very fun.”
Zablocki is no stranger to the national stage as she was invited to the National Women’s U18 selection camp earlier this year and competed at the Esso Cup with the Regina Rebels in Prince Albert earlier this year.
For the first time in school history, both St. Mary Marauder volleyball teams are 5A provincial champions on Nov. 18.
For the Marauder girls, they captured provincial glory on home court, downing the Swift Current Ardens in two sets, 25-20 and 25-15.
Head coach Shaun Hunko says the provincial championship win was a culmination of experience that the team had gained over several years.
“It’s surreal for sure. One of the big things we focused on this year was just to build off those experiences [from] last year and the year before, and even the year before that. and just use those experiences, learn from them and apply to them to this year. We were able to do that, and I think just having that experience this year helped so much.”
Both the Saskatchewan Rivers School Division board of education and Prince Albert Catholic School Division board of education returned their chair and vice chair in November.
Darlene Rowden returned as chair and Alan Nunn as vice chair in Sask Rivers. In the Catholic Divsion Suzanne Stubbs was returned as chair and Pat Hordyski was returned as vice chair.
Arts
A traditional Ukrainian celebration is raising money for a local dance club.
On Nov. 18 Prince Albert Barveenok Ukrainian Dance hosted Obzhynky. The annual event will include a traditional meal, dance, music, silent auction and raffle.
Kayleigh Skomorowski is the president of the Barveenok dance group and co-chair of the Obzhynky committee. She said the event is significant in the non-profit’s year-round operations.
“The profits from Obzyhnky, they’re used for a variety of different things. They allow us to do things like purchase new costume sets or the cost of instructors,” she said.
She added that costumes are made in Ukraine, which, in turn, allows the club to support Ukrainian seamstresses and other craftsmanship.
An exhibition at On the Avenue Gallery on Central Avenue is bringing two local artists together under a common theme.
Boreal Birds, which held a reception on Nov. 18 featured the paintings of Helen Croissant and the pottery of Bonnie Bailey.
Croissant works in acrylic and watercolour and Bailey creates fired pottery, which she has added bird embellishments to for this project.
Bailey said the show came together because she loved a painting Croissant did of a Heron. She was contemplating creating an exhibit around boreal birds and asked Croissant about collaborating.
“She jumped on board so here we are,” Bailey said.
