Sheila Bautz
The Saskatchewan Government & General Employees’ Union (SGEU) has donated $10,000 to Denare Beach’s Volunteer Fire Service.
The donation was presented by Tracey Sauer, President of the SGEU.
“SGEU is proud to stand behind the people who stand up for others — especially in times of crisis,” said Sauer. “When a community is hurting, or when first responders like those in Denare Beach are stretched to their limits, our members believe we all have a role to play.”
Since 1913, SGEU is a solely made-in-Saskatchewan worker’s union with the long-standing motto ‘Working Together for Saskatchewan’. The organization was originally known as the Saskatchewan Civil Service Association (SCSA) and was initially established as a social club with nearly 300 members joining at the time. During the 1920’s, the SGEU began reinventing itself and developed a new constitution that focused on improving the working conditions for the members within their organization, transforming into a union. Today, there are over 20,000 members with 250 Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency workers represented by the provincial union.
The SGEU membership includes firefighters working to contain and eliminate the wildfires. Other members of the union faced evacuation with properties lost due to the fires at Denare Beach and other areas in northern Saskatchewan.
“I’m sure the fire department will put it to very good use.” said Carl Lentowicz, Mayor of Denare Beach. “We appreciate it and thank [SGEU] for the service to make it happen. I hope [the union] can come up here when things are cleaned up.”
The northern village of Denare Beach is 422 kilometers north-east of Prince Albert and 20 kilometers south-west of Flin Flon. The community is a tourist destination originally known as Amisk, which means Beaver. The community’s name was changed to Denare in the 1930’s. The new name derived from using the first two letters of the government agency Department of Natural Resources, which was in charge of overseeing the northern village built on the east shore of Amisk Lake in Saskatchewan.
In 1990, the SGEU’s Indigenous Committe was formed. Eleven years later, the first Indigenous Vice-President of SGEU was elected in.
The current President of SGEU and several SGEU representatives traveled to Denare Beach on August 14 for a tour of the area. Indigenous Vice President Hall Topinka, along with George MacLeod, the Vehicle, Equipment and Operations Component Chair, Public Service Sector Vice-President Justin Priel, First Vice-President Diane Ralph and Health Sector Vice-Chair Tracy Schmidt accompanied Sauer. They met with the Carl Lentowicz, Mayor of Denare Beach, and the Denare Beach Fire Crew, concluding the tour with a dinner with the Fire Service volunteers and their families.
