
A well-known local Ukrainian dance group declined to participate in the Prince Albert Multicultural Council’s annual Tapestrama Cultural Festival in late September after a Russian dance group was also invited to participate.
The Prince Albert Barveenok Ukrainian Dancers pulled out of the event on Wednesday after learning that they had been booked the same day as the Kalinka Folk Dance Group, which is based out of the Saskatoon Russian Folk Centre.
Barveenok organizers said the ongoing war in Ukraine was the reason.
After Barveenok withdrew from Tapestrama the Kalinka Group also withdrew. PAMC executive director Michelle Hassler said that the Multicultural Council respects both groups and was in contact with both after the posts on social media.
“It was very good to be able to talk to both parties and all I can say is the PAMC will work together with the two groups to have a deeper conversation in the future and have a better under-standing, because it’s a very sensitive a lot of on both sides,” Hassler said.
The Prince Albert Grand Council’s Health and Social Development Department put together activities to ensure that the 2024 Truth and Reconciliation Day was properly commemorated on Sept. 30.
The event began at 10 a.m. with the “Wiping of Tears” ceremony which was open to everybody. This was to comfort the families of those whose relatives never came back from residential school, and others who have uffered pains in any way from the residential School experiences.
“Today we are here for the Orange Shirt Day or Truth and Reconciliation Day. We are here to honour the survivors of the residential school,”
Shirley Woods, the Director of Health And Social Development, Prince Albert Grand Council (PAGC) said. “We also want to acknowledged those who attended residential schools as well as their families and their communities as well as remember those who never made it home.”
Prince Albert’s new indoor recreation centre finally has a name.
On Oct, 1, city officials announced a $10 million legacy commitment from Lake Country Co-Op, which will see the facility named Lake Country Co-op Leisure Centre for the next 25 years. The funds are payable over the terms of the agreement.
Mayor Greg Dionne said the contribution shows how important the new recreation centre is.
“This legacy contribution is the largest donation in the City’s history,”
Mayor Greg Dionne said. “This impressive contribution demonstrates
Lake Country Co-op’s commitment to Prince Albert and the region.”
Dionne said Lake Country already has a strong legacy in Prince Albert, and this donation will only enhance it.
“One good thing about the projects embarked on in Prince Albert is that every project springing up here has been on partnership and that has been the success stories.” said Dionne.
In early October the sites for new Francophone Schools in Saskatoon and Prince Albert.
The new CÉF school in Prince Albert will replace École Valois and will be designed to accommodate up to 350 Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12 students, including 51 childcare spaces.
It will be located near the Alfred Jenkins Field House.
Roger Boucher, the president of the Parent Council for Ecole Valois, said they are happy to see the project making progress.
“I think it’s exciting to have made headway,” Boucher said. “I think there’s a lot of work to be done moving forward because really that that’s the first step in the new school. We’re now at step one.”
The Chamber of Commerce cancelled the all candidates forum scheduled for Oct, 9 after only three of 16 candidates agreed to participate.
The chamber typically hosts forums for provincial, federal, and municipal electoral candidates.
Chamber CEO Patty Hughes said they were frustrated by how few provincial electoral candidates committed to it.
“It is disappointing because there is a lot of prep work that goes into this,” Hughes said, “We weren’t hosting a debate. We were hosting forum. It was an opportunity for these candidates to discuss their platform on issues that are of concern for the voters.
There will be no new YWCA shelter at 420 — 18th Street West after the required bylaw failed to pass first reading at the October council meeting.
YWCA CEO Donna Brooks, and three residents who lived near the proposed site were scheduled to speak at Mondays meeting. However, a motion to give first reading to a new bylaw allowing for a public hearing on the matter failed to receive a seconder.
Coun. Dawn Kilmer moved the first motion after reading, but with no councillor to second the motion the discussion ended before it started.
“Without a seconder, I’m going to declare the motion defeated,” Mayor Greg Dionne said during the meeting.
“This will not move ahead. There will be no vote on the shelter. It dies on the order paper…. There will be no public hearing and there will be no shelter on 18th Street.”
Coun. Terra Lennox-Zepp made a motion to have a public hearing on a new location, but Mayor Greg Dionne ruled it out of order twice.
Brooks said she was disappointed with the decision.
“We did not have the opportunity to talk because the motion was not seconded, we would have been able to tell the house why we think it would be a good location,” said Brooks
Three Prince Albert city councillors are eager to get back to work and help develop the city after being elected by acclamation.
Wednesday, Oct. 9 marked the final day municipal candidates were eligible to get their nomination forms in.
By the end of the day, Tony Head in Ward 3, Darren Solomon in Ward 8, and Blake Edwards in Ward 6 had all been elected without any challengers.
In separate interviews with the councillors, all three said homelessness, addictions and crime have been major challenges facing the city for years, and they are ready to tackle those challenges over the next term.
The Saskatchewan Party retained both Prince Albert seats following the 2024 provincial election on Oct 28 but the results in PA Carlton were much closer than four years ago.
Saskatchewan Party candidate Kevin Kasun claimed victory with 3,007 votes, a less than 500 vote edge over the NDP’s Carolyn Brost Strom.
Kasun sought to hold the seat after incumbent Joe Hargrave dropped out of the race in May.
“I just thank the constituency of Prince Albert Carlton for their support, (and) their belief in not only
myself, but the party to continue on the path we’ve been on,” Kasun said after being declared the winner late Monday evening. “I just can’t wait to serve them, hit the ground, … continue conversations, and just keep PA strong.”
Kasun thanked his campaign volunteers for their work over the past few weeks. He also thanked his family for their support.
Prior to the Saskatchewan Rivers School Division election in November incumbent trustees from Prince Albert Grant Gustafson and Michelle Vickers both announced their intentions to not seek another term.
Sports
The Carlton Crusaders led early and never looked back as they defeated the St. Mary Marauders 48-0 in the Car Guys Classic in Birch Hills on Sept, 27.
Carlton head coach Lindsay Strachan says he was pleased with how the Crusaders came out of the gate.
“I just thought we had a good start and really carried that all the way through. Intensity was good and guys were doing their jobs and doing it with energy and passion, which is what we talked about coming in. The execution was good today.”
With the win, Carlton improves to 3-0 in the North Saskatchewan Football League (NSFL) play. Carlton has not lost a game since dropping an exhibition contest against Saskatoon Holy Cross 38-0 back on September 6.
Strachan says the game against Holy Cross has been beneficial for Carlton as it showed the Crusaders what it takes to win.
“I think we found out real early what it takes to be a good football team and we’re starting to find our identity a little bit, which I’m not sure that we had early in the year, but we’re getting there.”
The Prince Albert Mintos came out with a split during their first weekend at home against the Notre Dame Hounds.
In Saturday’s game, the Mintos fell 4-2 to the visiting Hounds.
Despite the loss, Minto head coach Doan Smith says there were plenty of positives for the team to build on.
“We’ve come a long way since even last weekend when we split on the road. But these are tough ones because they’re competitive. They’re frustrated. It’s easy to get frustrated and dwell on the total outcome. At the end of the day, we did a lot of good. Special teams, power play, we got to be better. Penalty kill was good again today. It’s just a team effort and sometimes it takes time.”
Thanksgiving is a time to spend time with family, but the day will have extra special meaning for the Truitt family.
Kerrington Truitt is the daughter of Prince Albert Raiders head coach Jeff Truitt. She is currently a third year student at UBC Okanagan in Kelowna where she is pursuing a degree in Health and Exercise Science.
“She’s getting a good education in athletic therapy and she’ll be at the game as well (on Monday).” Jeff explained in an interview. “She’s helped out with the Rockets training camps and things like that for the last two years and she really enjoys it. She’s been a real hockey fan of ours ever since she’s been small and our son is the same way but we get to see her in Kelowna and meet up with her for a bit. Short term because we’re in and we’re out back into Kamloops after the game, but it’ll be nice to see her for a couple minutes. Midterms are coming up in university, so we gotta check in on that.”
Because of her dad’s career and the demands of being a coach, Kerrington has not gotten to spend many Thanksgivings with her dad. With the Raiders visiting the Kelowna Rockets on
Thanksgiving Monday afternoon, she will get a chance to spend some time with him after the game.
After a years-long battle with cancer, Bruce Vance passed away peacefully on Friday, October 18.
Vance was well known and well respected in the Prince Albert community due to his involvement with sports across the city, including with the Prince Albert Raiders, Prince Albert Northern Bears and Prince Albert Minor Softball, amongst many others.
Vance was initially diagnosed with cancer in the fall of 2013 and under- went emergency surgery shortly after.
“They removed a tumour the size of a golf ball from my colon, and also 27 cm of my colon at that time. I was diagnosed as Stage 3,” he explained in an interview with the Daily Herald in September 2023.
“I underwent chemotherapy and radiation and by July of 2014, I was determined to (have) no evidence of cancer.”
Vance’s cancer would return in 2020. He underwent a total of 53 rounds of chemotherapy and radiation throughout his battle with the disease before he stopped undergoing treatments in June 2023.
Arts
As part of Culture Days in Prince Albert, local artist Cheryl Ring opened the doors to her studio on Sept, 29 to allow guests to take part in her public art project.
HeartSpace Clay studio is located on Fifth Avenue East. Ring does her own work out of the studio, and also uses the space for classes.
“It is a one stop shop,” she said.
“I have spots for six people to take classes and as you can see there is a lot of work going on here, and more classes starting all the time.”
The back door of the studio was open and people were welcomed to work on her project outside.
The project is called Art Abandonment – Hearts for Humanity. Ring said the Culture Days event drew on the theme Heart of the North.
“Hearts are a very prevalent shape and theme for me, so in keeping with the overall theme of Culture Days, I decided to have participants come in and paint clay hearts that I’ve previously fired in preparation for them to paint and decorate, and then abandon as part of an initiative that I have called Art Abandonment Prince Albert,” Ring said.
“It’s just me right now,” she added.
“I don’t know if it’s going to grow, but I like doing it.”
The annual celebration of Indigenous culture at Carlton Comprehensive High School kicked off for the fourth year with a Grand Entry on Oct. 7.
Carlton Indigenous Day has become tradition at the school. Organizing committee member Bonnie Vandale said the day fills a need at the high school.
“Our student population is 60 percent Indigenous and we have many students from other countries and we want them to learn about the Indigenous people on Treaty 6 territory,” Vandale said.
She said that Indigenous education permeates the Saskatchewan Rivers
School Division at every level, and this is a great representation of that.
Carlton Indigenous Day is closed to the public except for the Grand Entry in CPAC.
“We had to close the event because our student population is so large that
I don’t think that we could accommodate too many people,” Vandale said.
“We have opened up to Grade 8 students from Vincent Massey and Vickers,” she added.
The Saskatchewan Indigenous Music Awards surprised Canada’s Got Talent winner Rebecca Strong with their lifetime achievement award, called the Willard Ahenakew Award, on Oct, 12 at the EA Rawlinson Centre.
This was one of 14 awards handed out on the evening. The event recognized the work of Indigenous artists and was hosted by the Saskatchewan Indigenous Music Association (SIMA).
Strong became emotional while accepting the award on Saturday night because it was also the first award she ever received.
“Just being recognized for my achievements in life and in music, of course, (means) a great deal to me because of how hard I’ve worked my entire life,” she said. “Having the support of just Prince Albert and Saskatchewan is insane and I feel so loved.”
SIMA Vice President Sheryl Kimbley presented Strong with the award.
Kimbley has known Strong since she came to audition for Voices of the North as a five-year-old.
“Sheryl’s been a big part in my musical career,” Strong said. “Growing up, I was in all the showcases, so she’s always been someone who supported me.”