Estevan Mercury 20221005 1-11

By Ana Bykhovskaia

The Estevan Market Mall continues to make progress with their renovations and development plans.

Martin Blair, managing director of First Aberdeen Properties Ltd., which owns the mall, recently invited Estevan city council for a tour to talk about what’s been done, what’s happening now, what can be achieved in the future and how it can affect and benefit the city and the community.

The tour started on the south side of the mall – the area which has been actively developing since the change of ownership. Since there is a multi-residential area on the south side of the mall, the new owners wanted to ensure that people would have easy walking access to the facility, so they started turning it into a 360-degree building.

“I think we’re going in the right direction,” Blair told councillors during the tour.

He noted that the entire site has become very important for them, and they see a

lot of development and growth opportunities in Estevan.

Since possession, the owners installed a new underground storm system and have done many other structural changes to help with any further progress on the property. Last year they built a concrete parking lot on the south side and started other improvements such as a free bicycle repair station, pathways and some beautification.

“We want to get people coming back and forth and engaging the mall as really part of the community. So that’s what really drove that [south side development] … We put the sidewalk program in to help encourage things, but we do need the city to do a little bit of a curb ramp there at some point,” Blair said.

Tesla installed their charging station this year on the south side, which has a capacity for other electric vehicles charging. The mall has already noticed people using it, which Blair believes will be beneficial for them and the community alike.

“This is a level 1 charge sta-

tion. That’s the level you can get right now in Canada. So for your Tesla, it’s about 15 to 20 minutes for a full charge,” Blair said, adding that there were already people out of the

community using the charging station on their way from B.C. to Quebec.

Once Tesla installs a charging station, it appears on its system, and all drivers know

it’s there. Having it by the mall gives drivers and passengers something to do while their electric vehicle is charging, which also stimulates the local economy.

by David Willberg

Participating

the mall tour

Councillor Lindsay

sales associate with ICR Dawson MacAuley

mall maintenance supervisor John Bland, Councillor Tony Sernick, city manager Je

Ward and Martin Blair, managing director of First Aberdeen properties Ltd., which owns the mall. Front row, Councillor Kirsten Walliser and mall manager Arlene Stebeleski. Photos by Anastasiia Bykhovskaia

Enrolment up at the Estevan Comprehensive School

The Estevan Comprehensive School has experienced a slight increase in students for the 2022-23 school year.

The school has 756 students, as of Sept. 30, which is the date school registration numbers become official in Saskatchewan. That number is up from the 751 they had on Sept. 30 of last year, and also a slight increase from the 753 they expected to have.

Principal Nathan Johnson said they have 198 kids in Grade 11, which the school expected. Another 194 students are in Grade 10 this year.

Johnson said it’s been nice to have a traditional classroom schedule for the start

of the school year. They were back to the normal schedule in the final months of the last school year as well, after the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were lifted.

It means that students won’t have the extended classes they had in 2020-21 and for part of 2021-22.

Some pandemic measures remain, but Johnson said they are largely optional.

“We’ve got masks available at the office if people are interested, and we still have our hand sanitizer stations. Some increased cleaning practices were developed during the past couple of years, but otherwise, it feels like a pretty normal year. It feels great,” said Johnson.

He’s also pleased to see the fall sports seasons happening. Other extracurricular activities and groups are underway.

The school community council held a back-toschool barbecue on Aug. 29 that Johnson said was well attended by students from all grades and parents. The student representative council hosted a welcome week from Sept. 6-9 with activities and other ways to get young people comfortable with the school.

A pep rally was held in the courtyard in mid-September to get kids excited about the upcoming year.

Amos McArthur spoke to the students on Sept. 27 about the importance

of truth and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

“He shared his father’s story and it was a really powerful message from Amos. We haven’t been able to do full-group assemblies like that in the past couple of years.”

The school is also looking forward to the Co-op Challenge volleyball series with the Weyburn Comprehensive School Eagles on Oct. 5 and 12. Games in Estevan will be Oct. 5, with the boys playing at 5:30 p.m. and the girls at 7:30 p.m. Games in Weyburn are Oct. 12.

The best-of-four series is similar to the annual McLeod Series basketball showdown, which is slated for February.

Estevan council learns about mall’s plans

During the tour, Blair also pointed out that the mall has 10,000 square feet of space on the second level on the south side, which one day used to be Walmart offices. Now this room is planned to be used to create opportunities for local business development.

“It’s all been gutted and cleared out. And all along that upper wall will be all windows … This is going to be a twostorey glass entrance here. And then are we putting in a glass elevator that will allow the handicap [access] and [for everyone] else to be able to access the 10,000 square feet of what we here call the hub business centre,” Blair said.

“So you can see what we’re trying to create here, whether it will go this way or not. But if we could really have a 90-person call centre here, we got parking for it, they could live across the street, they can have coffee in our food court [which is coming up soon], and at 4:30, they can go down to Studio C [Fitness], and they can do all that at minus 20 without going outside. It’s a convenience that you expect in a place like Vancouver or Edmonton, but it’s something that actually can happen right here, which is really, really unique, so we wanted to capitalize on that.”

The look of the south side of the mall continues to change with more landscaping, and they hope for it to become a popular arrival point.

They started updating their lighting system, installing LED lights on the building and the property.

The mall also plans for the development of the land south of the main building, where they hope one day to see single-storey professional buildings, accommodating specialists like doctors, lawyers and more.

The land behind Canadian Tire is also part of the mall’s property, and they started working on a water management system there with hopes for a future subdivision and potential development opportunities for something more dense, probably a high-rise

residential structure or assisted living building.

Work also has been done on the side of Canadian Tire, which is part of the mall’s property as well, to improve the drainage system in the area.

“This one will allow it to detain or hold water for a while and slowly move it into the city system,” Blair said. “We also started planting trees and rocks along the back as well and mainly around some of the garbage disposals.”

The road on the east side of the mall was paved and redone to allow for better communication throughout the property.

On the front of the building, the renovations are progressing from east to west, starting from Peavey Mart the first year, with Dollarama’s storefront and adjacent area under construction now, and The Brick and Mark’s on schedule next.

“We know they’re going to be long-term tenants with us, so we want to make it better for them,” noted Blair when talking about their relationships with tenants and their approach to renovations.

As they are proceeding with upgrades, they are improving the general appearance as well as the sidewalk system and pedestrian safety by installing separation is-

lands, various landscapes and pieces such as permanent bike racks, garbage cans, benches and more.

“That’s going to provide some comfort for pedestrians to feel comfortable walk along here, have a coffee, chat and not worry about somebody coming and going to get run over. We got to get that safety factor on the sidewalk, so that’s part of our program going from east to west,” Blair said.

One of the most exciting news Blair had to share is the food court now under construction in the central part of the building. With it coming up, the mall will completely redo their main entrance, which will be two-storeyhigh glass with sliding doors. It will also have a new north parking lot entrance straight through Pine Avenue.

“This mall hasn’t had the accesses changed since it was built 50 years ago ... So the city worked with us and they’re in the process right now, you can actually see the staking there for installing that new controlled intersection,” Blair said, adding that they will keep the previous access by Tim Hortons, but will put a “pie” in the middle to regulate traffic flows better.

The food court will have a separate entrance to allow for independent work hours. It’s also planned to have at least three tenants. Blair said for the tenants they are considering a coffee shop, potentially a Japanese cuisine like Edo, Booster Juice and others. They want to give the food court a

modern and industrial look with a lot of sitting spaces and options.

New modern bathrooms will replace old ones on the ends of the building and will be located by the food court.

The mall hopes to have the food court front redone before the snow as they want to work on the inside over the winter.

“Our focus really right now is … that new entrance. That new entrance is incredibly important for us,” Blair said.

He also noted that all the changes they are putting in place are happening while businesses keep serving the community, which means they can’t be too aggressive with the renovations so that they don’t interrupt the business.

The detailed plans for the new food court and other mall changes are now on display inside the building.

For the former Ardene space, the plan is to have up to five smaller-size pop-up stores. The shorter-term rent (three months to a year) will allow smaller retailers to try out space before making a long-term decision. Besides, subdividing the space will create more shopping opportunities for the community.

Last but not least, a major stop of the tour was the area previously used for the Christmas Farmers Markets, and which is currently under construction for the newest business coming to Estevan –a golf and baseball simulator.

For more on that, see future editions of the Mercury.

Martin Blair, holding the map, explained changes planed for the mall’s property to city councillors.

Estevan participates in local events on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

By Ana Bykhovskaia

For the second time, Sept. 30 was marked as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and Estevan was eager to become a part of the processes of learning, honouring and rebuilding relationships.

The Souris Valley Museum, in partnership with the Métis Nation Saskatchewan Estevan Local No. 25 and the Estevan Art Gallery and Museum, hosted an event to mark the day, with many community members and volunteers joining them at two locations.

The day started off with a come-and-go lunch at the museum courtyard, provided by the Métis group. People, many of whom were wearing orange shirts sharing an “Every Child Matters” message, stopped by to enjoy traditional hamburger soup and bannock. The museum opened their indoor space, as well as the yard and the old school building for visitors to view.

The lunch was served inside the building, and people could choose to eat inside or outdoors. Estevan city council, local organization leaders, Estevan Diversified Services participants and dozens of others stopped by and dedicated time to talk about the cause, while also supporting it with donations.

After lunch, the EAGM invited everyone who was interested to join them at the Woodlawn Regional Park’s free park area for a walk and talk with their art-

ist-in-residence Karlie King from Regina, whose art is on display at the gallery and in the park. A few dozen people joined the walk, which toured the plinth with King’s ceramic works.

During the walk, King, who is a Métis artist, shared her personal story and visions and talked about her art and the traditional techniques she used while she was a part of the mini residence at the EAGM. She also invited everyone participating to join her in the conversation about truth and reconciliation and share their views and experiences.

EAGM director/curator Amber Andersen opened the walk at the first location with acknowledgment.

“The Estevan Art Gallery and Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are located on Treaty 4 Territory, the traditional gathering place for the Cree, Saulteaux, Dakota, Lakota, Nakota and formerly Blackfoot. We also acknowledge the traditional homeland of the Métis. We honour their contributions and history. Histories and cultures continue to influence our community,” said Andersen.

She added that for her residency, King was invited to stay down at Woodlawn park and source clay for her art locally.

“[King] got to spend 10 days in our community in this park. And these works are representative of what we ended up with after the 10 days of that experience,” Andersen said.

“I absolutely loved my

time here and I think you have such a gem of a park, and the space was beautiful,” King said. “When I saw clay or what I thought was clay, I would gather a small amount and then mix it with the prepackaged clay. Then I’d make what’s called a little pinch pot, and then I’d get a fire going. And once the pinch pot was dried, I actually used different things that I had collected and then fired the pottery right in the fire pit in the campground here. That’s basically how traditional pottery was done, and I’m learning more about this.”

In her art, she used different types of local clay and ochre she sourced in the area. She said that, following traditions, what she enforces when sourcing materials is reciprocity.

“A person should never take without giving. There needs to be an exchange as a show of respect for both parties involved. So when I’m collecting, I don’t gather buckets and buckets, just a small sample of what I need. And traditionally, what you do is you lay down tobacco and you say something respectful, grateful before you take anything. I do something a little different,” said King.

“I actually don’t have access to tobacco that’s not full of chemicals. So it just doesn’t feel right to me. [I’ve heard it from elders] and I just loved it, so I actually give my hair,” King shared.

In her art she also used plants, which she was learning about during her residency and shared with the public, asking people to share what they know about local vegetation as the walk and talk proceeded.

After her experience in Woodlawn, she also encouraged the participants to take time to just spend it on the land as a “reconciliatory practice”, which would help them understand Indigenous peoples and their ways of living better. She noted that dedicating time to walking and observing nature might also have great effects on health and people’s relationships with themselves and others.

“A lot of us are searching for ways to find our true self or be authentic or even just things like lower your blood pressure, be healthier, all these things. And I really feel that nothing does that better than just sitting in solitary ways in nature. It just has a way to unravel you in a delightful way. And there’s ample opportunity here. I just think you guys are super lucky. There’s just such beautiful places, so find time just to go in and sit and be with yourself,” King said.

King’s talk was like a quilt, where different pieces would come together beautifully after a period of time. She touched on what the land meant for Indigenous peoples and talked about the residential school sys-

tem, the meaning of orange shirts, the term reconciliation and its origins, colonialism, healing and more.

“As we know now, the schools were definitely a tool used in cultural genocide,” King said. “We wear orange shirts today to remember the story [of Phyllis (Jack) Webstad] and all the other stories, and the residential school survivors.

“My grandpa actually went to residential school. And when they talk about residential school and the effects of intergenerational trauma, one of them is he didn’t know how to parent since he went to residential school. So when my dad was young, he left at a very early age. That’s one of my dad’s first memories. He said, I just remember my dad saying, ‘No, I can’t do this.’ And he just walked down the lane and never came back.

Then my dad obviously has trauma and issues from that,” King shared while telling her personal story.

“I remember this being said in my family, and now the science is backing it up. But traumas are stored in our DNA. So whatever you’re going through in your life, that does get passed down to our children. If you don’t heal properly, it just gets passed down,” she added.

King encouraged the participants to keep conversations going, and also, as more resources become available, to learn more about history to better understand what happened.

The walk took people around to four plinths, and the talk was deepening along the way.

King’s art in the park will be on display until Oct. 7, and in the EAGM until Nov. 4.

Students sending a message

Métis artist Karlie King led the walk and talk at Woodlawn Regional Park. Photos by Anastasiia Bykhovskaia

Students at Sacred Heart School/École Sacrè Coeur in Estevan showed their support on Sept. 29 for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, which was the following day. The Grade 5 English class created letters to spell out Every Child Matters as a visual display of their work towards reconciliation. The letters are facing Dieppe Crescent. And students at the school donned orange t-shirts in a show of solidarity.

Photo courtesy of Megan Vanstone

Many people stopped at the Souris Valley Museum for a traditional lunch provided by the Métis Nation Saskatchewan Estevan Local No. 25.

Karlie King talked to participants about her art now on display in four plinths at Woodlawn.

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We like to think that every week should be a newspapers’ week. After all, we’re delivering a paper to you each week, filled with important and timely stories about what’s happening in Estevan and area.

So often, we’re the only place you’re going to hear about things. We’re out there running stories on police arrests, city council meetings and other political occurrences, but we’re also writing articles on youth sports teams, fundraisers, community events, new businesses and other happenings in the city.

And we’re typically the ones delivering the strongest photos. You can tell who’s in the photo and what is actually happening.

Our goal is to cover every facet of life in Estevan. After all, one of the truest measures of success for a community newspaper is the diversity of its coverage.

It’s important to remember that most of the people in Estevan are great folks who do important work to make our communities what it is. And so the pages of the Mercury should reflect that. The good should outweigh the bad.

But everything in the area isn’t always positive, and so we have to reflect that reality, too.

The Mercury is proud to be Estevan’s oldest business. We’ve been around since 1903, so we’ve obviously done something right. Estevan likely isn’t the only community to say its paper is also its oldest business. And there actually are other papers in Saskatchewan even older than us. It speaks to the impact that newspapers have had throughout the province over the years, and to the contributions they continue to make.

And there’s a team that makes the paper happen. You need to have the sales people to sell ads, the editorial team to write stories and the production employees to bring it all together. Like all businesses, you need a good administrator.

But you also need people who will print the paper, and the carriers to distribute the finished product. Take even one of these out of the equation, and you won’t have the newspaper that people enjoy each week.

The 21st century hasn’t always been kind to the newspaper industry. We’ve seen many papers shut down, and long-time journalists have been laid off or given early retirement before they were ready to call it a career.

Advertisers have opted for other newer, non-traditional forms of media, and aspiring reporters in journalism school don’t fancy a career in print like they once did.

Newspapers haven’t always done the best job of adapting to the changing dynamics, either. Those of us at the Mercury like to

think we’ve kept pace – we’ve been a free distribution paper for more than a decade now, and have long been aggressive in getting news online – but others have not.

But still, in Saskatchewan, newspapers remain the best option for news and advertising. And according to information from News Media Canada, 86 per cent of Canadians still turn to their newspaper each week, whether it be in print or online.

This year’s theme for National Newspapers Week is “Champions of Truth: The Real Superheroes.” We’ll agree with the first half of that sentiment. Our job is to deliver the truth to you, whether it be each week within the framework of this paper, or online through the provincial news hub, www.sasktoday.ca, which we have been part of since July 2021.

As for the second part of that theme, well, we still think the true superheroes are firefighters, police officers, front-line health-care workers and the men and women of the Canadian Forces.

The theme, of course, is secondary. What’s most important is that newspapers continue to be a valued member of the community, and will remain as such. So forgive us for this brief self-indulgence. We always appreciate it when you come to us with story ideas or when you’re looking to book an ad.

And if you want to take the time to thank us for our work, we’d sure appreciate it.

We talk mental health a lot, but do we do anything?

Mental health has been a focal point for a while now.

Ana Bykhovskaia

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Even more so since the beginning of 2020, when most of us got bombarded with endless changes, usually not such good ones, and were flooded with instability, which for most feels like a never-ending, nervewracking earthquake.

For many people, more stress came into their lives with the latest economic challenges, global and personal. For some, including myself, the world became even shakier since February this year, when the Russian president decided the country’s borders were apparently too tight for his offended ego, so he put the lives of millions of Ukrainians at risk. He subsequently destroyed the lives of millions of Russian people, which hurts me as much.

The escalation of the conflict put the well-being of many Europeans and people all across the world under threat as well.

What can you say, it’s been tough lately. And even though I’m usually a half-fullglass type of person, I don’t see much ease in the near future by any means.

With all that said, our own well-being and mental health are actually the most crucial things and also among the very few we can actually affect when it comes to the sense of the chaos around us.

The lists of things we can do to take care of our mental health are so simple, that they almost feel irritating when I come across the advice. I know all of that, I tell myself. One of those lists suggests: get regular exercise, even 30 minutes of simple walking every day helps boost your mood and improve your health. Small amounts of exercise add up too. Eat healthy, regular meals and stay hydrated. Make sleep a priority and cut down on screen time when going to bed.

Try out some relaxing activities that would calm your brain, be it meditation, breathing or nature watching. Get your todo list organized, set goals and priorities by deciding what must get done now, what can wait and by saying no to something not that important. Be grateful and practice gratitude. Focus on positivity. And of course, stay connected by reaching out to friends or family for emotional support and practical help. If nothing helps and you feel down big-time for longer than two weeks, seek professional help (most times it’s available free of charge).

Every single piece of it is simple, right?

But have you tried writing them down and actually testing yourself on how high you can score? I did, and if it was a real test, I’d fail. Well, I indeed do fail, I fail myself.

I used to go swimming, but the stress I’ve been under since the beginning of the war gradually squeezed it out of my life. I used to take my two outdoor furry folks on long walks. Now they don’t even believe me when, once every few months, I take their leashes and say let’s go. I used to take time to read some good books just for the soul. Now the most I can do is listen to something. (And I’m thankful that I manage to do at least that). I used to sit out on a deck and just observe the gorgeous valley around me. Now, even five minutes doing nothing (the way it seems) pretty much makes me feel guilty as if I was missing out on something. I used to spend time driving around

and capturing the ever-changing skies, curious wildlife, endless fields and even bugs.

Now my camera mainly sees the light when I have to get work done. The list can go on.

The walk and talk with Karlie King, organized by the Estevan Art Gallery and Museum at Woodlawn Regional Park on Truth and Reconciliation Day, made me pause inside and reminded me how important time on the land is. Her talk was inspiring and filled with meaning, and after that event, I did spare time to go out to Rafferty and let my mind take off, fly away and eventually calm down at least for a bit. Without a reminder, I don’t think I’d do it.

Forgive me if this column turned out a bit too personal. But I noticed that a lot of people around me are in very similar shoes.

We all have different reasons to stress, be it work, family, children, money, global affairs, our loved ones or friends and changes in their lives or something else. We all have excuses for why we can’t take basic care of our mental health even though it’s simple.

We all quite often have reasons to keep it to ourselves, as we often feel that everyone is stressing, so what does it help to “whine” about your own worries, right?

But if we don’t take care of ourselves using that “simple” mental health self-care list, if we choose not to talk about our worries, if we decide not to reach out for help, nothing will change and one day, one way or the other that stress ... By the way, it’s not stress that kills us, it’s our reaction to it.

So if you, like me, would fail the mental health self-care test, please take time and find something that would help at least some of your accumulated stress evaporate.

Add sleeping time, go for a walk and talk to a friend. It’s simple, but it can make a huge difference for your tomorrow.

The last vestige of COVID restrictions

David Willberg Willberg’s World

After more than 2 1/2 years, international travel has returned to a more normal level in Canada.

The federal government lifted the last of the COVID-19 restrictions on Saturday. The ArriveCan app is now optional, and you would have to wonder why anyone would choose to use it if it’s not necessary. (Maybe they have as much time on their hands as people who incessantly yap on social media).

Mandatory vaccination requirements for cross-border travellers are finished. Random COVID-19 testing for those entering the country is over.

And for those travelling within Canada by plane or train, you don’t have to wear a mask any longer.

These end of COVID-related travel measures comes among concerns that we might be seeing another spike in the number of COVID-19 cases this fall due to the Omicron variant and lower levels of Canadians getting the COVID booster shot.

But it was time for the restrictions to end. They should have actually been dropped a few months ago.

For those of us who reside in southeast Saskatchewan, we should be happy to see more people crossing the border. We enjoy the benefit of U.S. travellers coming to our communities and shopping in our stores. It was nearly impossible to have that happen at the start of the pandemic, and it was still difficult to cross in the past year or so when the border reopened to some non-essential traffic.

It’s also imperative to make it easier to cross the border now with the Canadian dollar lower against its U.S. counterpart. Americans could be more willing to spend money in Canada, knowing that there is more value.

I hope we’ll see more American visitors to Estevan, North Portal, Oxbow and other communities that have been hurt by the border restrictions.

I’m hopeful that this means we’ll see more American drivers at the Estevan Motor Speedway next season. The track has done a great job of repeatedly pivoting during the challenges of the past three years. They still had entertaining programs with about 60 drivers a night.

It was nice to see a few American drivers back here for this season. But there weren’t a lot. And I’m sure fans often thought they would like to see Mike and Travis Hagen, Joren Boyce and some of the other American regulars who haven’t been here since 2019.

And hopefully it means we’ll see the Dakota Classic Modified Tour back here for the 2023 season.

As for the other measures, the end of ArriveCan was long overdue. It took me about 15 minutes to fill it out the only time I did it; I’m sure it would have been much easier with future instances. But it was a significant hindrance for senior citizens who aren’t as tech savvy as younger generations.

And we don’t have to worry about masking while on planes and trains. I’m sure there will still be people wearing a mask; if they do, that’s their choice and they shouldn’t be criticized for it.

But when you’re on a long flight, it is difficult to have your mask on for hours at a time.

I still have the “please wear your mask at all times” message echoing through my head from my prolonged layovers at Pearson International Airport in Toronto in June and July. Maybe people won’t have to hear it any longer.

Hopefully the end of these measures also make it that much easier for both international and domestic travellers.

This is not to say that COVID is over. It’s not. The virus is going to have a presence for years to come. But as long as we don’t see a large mutation into something far more sinister than what Omicron is now, we shouldn’t need a return to restrictions, or worse, the lockdowns that we saw at the start of the pandemic.

We know what we’re up against, we have a vaccine and we’ve been able to adapt the vaccine to meet the virus’ changes. Should we finally have a cathartic mask-burning ceremony? Probably not. We might need them again one day. And if you want to enter a health-care facility in Saskatchewan, there’s a good chance you’ll still have to wear a mask. (I think St. Joseph’s Hospital and a doctor’s office are the only places I’ve worn mine in the past three months).

But at least for now, we’ve had another step forward in bringing us back towards the world we knew before COVID-19.

Bird excited to be back with EPS

The newest member of the Estevan Police Service is not a stranger to the community or the municipal policing agency.

Craig Bird has been hired as a constable with the EPS, a little more than two years after he announced his retirement from the force. His first day back is expected to be Oct. 14.

Bird noted he had a conversation with Police Chief Rich Lowen at a recent retirement function for a member of the EPS. They started talking and through those conversations, Bird said the EPS expressed an interest in his return.

“I was receptive to all of that, and they ended up convincing me that I could come back,” said Bird.

He wasn’t actively pursuing a return to the EPS, but a resumption of his policing career was “in the back of my mind,” he said.

When he retired in 2020, he was a sergeant. Bird will be rejoining the EPS as a constable as part of one of the patrol units.

He knows it will be different serving as a constable than a sergeant.

“I won’t have all of the duties and responsibilities that I had before. I did that role for quite a number of years for the department, so it will be nice to see how the other members who were promoted into those positions are working out,” said Bird.

There will be more flexibility in the role as

constable if he wants to be part of specialized sections.

Bird said he didn’t want to leave more than two years ago, but the circumstances of the department at the time caused him to retire.

“It’s nice to still be wanted with the department, so when they struck up the conversation with me, I needed to make sure that I could check off all of my boxes on my end of things, and it worked out well. I decided to jump back into uniform and continue

on with my career there,” said Bird.

Prior to retiring, Bird founded the South East Military Museum, which has displays at the Estevan branch of the Royal Canadian Legion and at his home outside of the city. He noted he will continue to operate the museum and will remain involved in other aspects of the community.

Bird noted Lowen was very receptive to Bird’s other interests.

But Bird did have to step down from his role as the deputy sheriff at the

Estevan Court House to rejoin the EPS.

The whole dynamic with the EPS has changed since Lowen arrived in September 2021, Bird said.

“Just talking with the other members of the department and some of the things that he has done, there has been quite a number of changes. I’m quite excited to see what all of the changes are, and all of the things that are new. They’ve hired a few new members since I left, so it will be interesting to see and work with all of the new people.”

Mary’s Little Lambs students express why they’re thankful

It’s become a popular annual tradition for the Mercury: the participation of the Mary’s Little Lambs preschool students in the Estevan Mercury’s Thanksgiving Kids promotion.

Thirty-four students in the four-year-old class submitted answers for the question of what they’re thankful for.

Mary’s Little Lambs owner Mary Lawrence said this ties in with what teacher Patty Ksenych does at the beginning of the school year. The preschool has monthly themes, and the one for September is I am special.

“There’s a lot of talk about their families, who they love, who’s important and also the things that are important to them,” said Lawrence.

It helps them be ready for the October talk about being thankful.

As part of her daily rou-

tine, Ksenych has a puppet named George the Mouse. He helps the children say hello to shapes and numbers on the board and to the picture of Jesus on the wall.

“That leads into the discussion about the important people in the children’s lives,” said Lawrence.

It helps them think about family and friends, and they say a brief prayer for people they love.

“It gets them thinking about being thankful and understanding what it is,” said Lawrence.

They also learn special songs this month like the Gobbler Turkey Song. Ksenych plays the guitar and teaches them the song, and demonstrates turkeys running away so they won’t get eaten for supper. They also play a game in which they’re turkeys while talking about the special time they have with their families.

And they talk about what they’re doing for Thanksgiving and where they’ll have Thanksgiving supper.

The classroom is brightly decorated for October with autumn colours and turkeys around the room.

“Patty does balloon turkeys with them, so they all have a balloon, and they glue a turkey head to it with feathers, and they do handpainted turkeys, so their hands get put on a piece of paper and eyes get put on, and they make little turkeys out of it,” said Ksenych.

Each child also makes and takes home a special bookmark that says “Give thanks to the Lord.”

This year’s participating children provided some great answers. One little girl said she was thankful for guitars and music, which Lawrence said is a new answer. Another was grateful for Kraft Dinner.

“We’re grateful for their insight into what they find is important in their lives. It’s always interesting to read them,” said Lawrence. Each answer will be sponsored by a local business.

Students are always eager to be part of the promotion, because the kids love seeing their photos in the paper.

“As a business, we’re very thankful to the Mercury and to all of the other businesses in town that support this special Thanksgiving edition and make it possible for the children to be put in the paper.”

The ads can be found throughout this week’s edition of the paper and will be available on our provincial news hub, www.sasktoday. ca. The Mercury thanks Mary’s Little Lambs for their involvement and the businesses for supporting this promotion.

Estevan Police Chief Rich Lowen welcomes Craig Bird back to the Estevan Police Service. Photo by Murray Cowan

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Enrolments steady for Cornerstone this year

The enrolment numbers for the South East Cornerstone Public School Division are consistent with last year.

Figures released by the division show it had 8,301 students as of Sept. 30, which is up by eight from the 8,293 they had for the same date a year ago. Sept. 30 is the day in which school divisions in Saskatchewan submit their official registration numbers to the Ministry of Education, although there will be some fluctuation over the course of the school year.

“We’ve been pretty stable the last few years in terms of enrolment,” said director of education Keith Keating. “It’s good to see the numbers go up slightly and not down.”

There were 8,246 in the division at the end of the last school year.

The four kindergarten to Grade 8 schools in Estevan have a combined 904 students, up from 882 on Sept. 30 of last year. Spruce Ridge School remains the largest of the four with 383 students, up 25 from the 358 it had last year. Also up is Hillcrest School

at 141 students, compared with 134 previously. Pleasantdale School dropped from 213 to 207 students, while Westview School sat at 173 students, compared with 177 a year earlier.

An increase at Spruce Ridge School was close to their projections, Keating said.

“I’m not surprised that enrolments are up in the city of Estevan at all,” said Keating. “They’re pretty close to where they were before, but they’re up slightly, and we do see an increase in both of our Weyburn and Estevan areas in particular.”

As for some of the rural communities, Midale Central School, which is a kindergarten to Grade 12 school, grew from 135 to 145 students. Lampman School, which is another K-12 school, slid from 174 to 168.

As for K-8 schools, Macoun is at 56, down from 59, and Bienfait Weldon School dropped from 116 to 112. Lyndale School in Oungre, a K-9 school, is at 59 students, compared to 55 a year earlier.

“We always see fluc-

City of Estevan

United Way Estevan Telethon

WHEREAS

Director of education Keith Keating

tuations in different communities, up and down in different years, so it’s pretty much expected a lot of those numbers,” said Keating.

A staffing contingency was put in place for some areas of the school division that saw an increase, he said.

The number of students being home schooled is down slightly, but remains around the 300 mark.

Keating said there is a level of excitement to start the school year in a normal fashion after all of the challenges that have oc-

curred since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m excited about all of the great things that will be happening in schools across our division, as schools re-engage with communities and parents to bring them back into the buildings,” said Keating.

With the addition of some one-time funding from the provincial government to address inflation issues for transportation and other expenses, the school division is looking to use the money as much as possible to put teachers back in classroom.

“The board passed a budget on September 21st at their monthly meeting to increase staff in schools across the division,” Keating said. “So between the contingency staff that we put away to help address individual school increases in enrolment, and the onetime funding, we’re looking at being able to put back at least 14 of those 21 teachers that had to be reduced as a result of funding shortfalls last year.”

Keating started as the

director of education in the summer, and he said his work has been going well thus far.

Lachlan W.

Zalia C.

This week’s edition of the Carlyle Observer will have numbers for the Carlyle-area schools

By David Willberg

A former Estevan resident now living in P.E.I. had an upclose look at the impact generated by post-tropical storm

late last month.

Josh Lewis, a former sports reporter for the Mercury who resided in Estevan from 20112015, now lives in Montague, a community of more than 2,000 people where he writes for the Eastern Graphic newspaper.

Fiona was a post-tropical storm when it hit the area, and the worst of the storm in Montague was from about 2 a.m. to noon on Sept. 24, but the rain and wind lingered throughout the day. Then the cleanup process began.

“All of P.E.I. was hit badly, but eastern P.E.I. got the worst of it. The track of the storm went over northern Nova Scotia and eastern P.E.I.,” said Lewis.

When he went outside after Fiona hit, Lewis said the damage was “unbelievable” in terms of downed trees and other debris. And it was the same story through much of the province.

“It was pretty extensive no matter where you go on P.E.I.,” said Lewis. “It was definitely not comparable with any hurricanes we had in the past.”

The wharves in Montague and nearby Georgetown escaped relatively unscathed,

but one in a community not far away disappeared entirely and another was destroyed.

Agriculture was hit hard, he said, as a lot of cornfields were flattened by Fiona.

The storm surge on the north coast of P.E.I. caused the kind of damage in terms of erosion and washing away sand that would have taken decades due to climate change. The Teacup Rock, which was a popular tourist attraction on the north shore of the island, was ruined.

Power outages were also widespread. Lewis noted that by the end of Sept. 25, power had been restored to Main Street in Montague. Electricity was back on at the newspaper’s office the following morning, hours before the Eastern Graphic went to print.

“We have never failed to put out a paper in the history of the Eastern Graphic since 1963, and this could be the first time,” said Lewis.

The paper is printed in Pictou, N.S., which was also hit hard by the storm, but their power was also back in time for the paper.

“The first few days were dealing with the impact at home with no power … while also putting out a really con-

sequential issue of the paper, which only had Monday to try to encompass the entire impact of it from all angles. As you can imagine, there’s so many angles after a storm of this impact,” he said.

The electricity in Lewis’ home was restored in the late afternoon of Sept. 27, about 90 hours after it first went out.

He hopes the impact of Fiona on Islanders is captured through the media coverage. It’s sad to see the tourism attractions lost, but it’s been

harder for people who are struggling to get by financially and now have an added burden. The province was already going through a cost of living crisis, he said.

Lewis pointed out that P.E.I. and the rest of Atlantic Canada have a great community spirit and neighbours are keen to help each other out and ask what they can do.

“The resilience has definitely been there and that’s helped people cope,” said Lewis.

At the same time, the challenges associated with a storm like Fiona grated on people. Some were without power in early October.

“Even in my situation, where I didn’t have a tree fall on my house, I didn’t have a business that suffered catastrophic damage, but by Day 4, your patience is wearing thin, so I can only imagine the people that were still without power … and some of those people who did have damage to their homes.”

Josh Lewis kneels among the damage caused by post-tropical storm Fiona in Montague, P.E.I. Photos courtesy of Josh Lewis

Fiona caused damage in the P.E.I. community of Cardigan.

CCS at Boundary Dam praised at conference

The carbon capture and storage facility at SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Power Station received lots of praise at the inaugural Carbon Capture Canada conference held in Edmonton on Sept. 20 and 21.

Estevan City Councillor Tony Sernick attended the event on behalf of the City of Estevan and Estevan’s economic development board. The Petroleum Technology Research Centre (PTRC), which operates the Aquistore carbon dioxide (CO2) storage site near Boundary Dam, was in attendance and presented on behalf of the Boundary Dam Unit 3 (BD3) project.

“The conference was as you would expect with guest speakers, group discussions and exhibitors. Its purpose was to bring industries together and discuss how to lower emissions through CCUS [carbon capture utilization and storage] technology,” Sernick said in a news release.

During the first day, BD3 was the focus of much of the discussions.

“BD3 was the first successful CCUS project in the world and everyone in the room knew it,” said Sernick.

He admits he didn’t realize how highly BD3 was thought of until he attended the gathering.

“Obviously it’s important because it’s saving tonnes and

tonnes of CO2 in the atmosphere,” said Sernick. “That’s one thing that did surprise me when I got there, and right from the first discussion, and almost the entire first day, it was always mentioned.”

One of the speakers noted that everyone was in that room because of the success of BD3.

But a common denominator in every discussion, Sernick said, was a lack of investor confidence in CCUS because of federal climate change regulations.

At one point, Sernick pointed out that it was said:

“In this room today there’s a trillion dollars’ worth of projects that would actually lower emissions, if only we could do them.”

Also stressed throughout the conference, according to Sernick, was that the CCUS industry is in its infancy. Alberta is building pipelines and storage facilities through their industrial areas. The province has plans to build CO2 pipelines that would allow busi-

nesses to hook up for their operations.

A representative from Natural Resources Canada unveiled a plan to run a CO2 trunk line from coast to coast. Sernick said that was a bit of a shocker.

“The best part about all of this is that Saskatchewan is years ahead of everyone with BD3, Aquistore and the Weyburn unit,” Sernick said.

BD3 has sequestered nearly 4.6 million tonnes of CO2 since it came online in October 2014 and he believes that should be the focus.

Sernick also noted a science and technology advisor mentioned it may be worth looking at converting the Shand Power Station to natural gas with CCS as a federally-assisted project.

“Another informative gentleman knew everything about BD3. You could say he was passionate about BD3,” he said.

Sernick sat with different people each day during lunch, and the discussion often turned to BD3. And he noted CCUS extends beyond power generation to other aspects of the energy sector, along with cement plants and even an Alberta brewery that

&

has found a use for CCUS.

“The one … that did the presentation, normally he would have to buy his CO2, and this way he captures it and

reuses it. It’s on a very small scale,” Sernick said.

Sernick was selected to attend on short notice,

Phillip

By Ana Bykhovskaia

The Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division has released its

numbers for the 2022-23 school year.

Accordion to Gwen Keith, director of education with Holy Family, their enrollment is on par with previous years and coincides with the division’s expectations.

“We’re status quo,” Keith said in the interview with the Mercury. “As of September 30 of this year, we have an actual enrollment of 1,317 students. So, really status quo with the last year, both in terms of what September 30 looked like comparative and also in terms of our projections. So, we’re certainly pleased to hold our own, and we are excited about working with our students this year.”

Holy Family, which has schools in Estevan, Weyburn, Radville and Wilcox, had 1,318 students registered as of Sept. 30, 2021.

Keith noted that kindergarten enrollment was a bit down from previous years, but that was expected.

“What we do is really

look at analyzing the projections in each school. And we sometimes have to make a few shifts of staff, but overall, what was predicted actually turned out to be where we ended up, so no big surprises here,” Keith said. “We take a look at how many students are in communities and work from that. We really work very well with the schools as they analyze their local communities and what’s happening in each of our five sites. And we’re getting better all the time in terms of predicting where we’re going to be.”

Now that there are no mandatory measures or health orders related to COVID-19, the schools are mainly working at prepandemic levels with a few hardly-noticeable changes in place to accommodate their students and staff “We’ve come out of a couple of years of COVID, and as we normalize as much as we can, COVID is still out there. We’re really working on the priorities of the one-year plan that the government has put out for us. And our goals align to the ministry expectations

around the academic side of things, our learning responses and mental health and well-being,” Keith said.

Holy Family has their Safe School plan published on their website. Keith said the last two years taught them a lot about cleanliness and using common sense, which affected their approach to the school environment.

“When it comes to people that are ill, stay home. We have a full supply of PPE for those that want to use it. If they want to use

masks, they can, certainly not mandated at all. And we are doing as much as we can do in the cleanliness area, we have certainly the kinds of disinfectants that we’ve been using for a couple years now and continue with that. And we really, really watch mental health and well-being of both students and staff,” Keith said.

“We just want people to be as safe as possible, but more importantly, to feel as safe as possible. We’ve had really very few COVID cases reported. But it’s flu season coming in and as we move through each month, we’ll have our challenges, but our attendance is good, and we’re just trying to normalize as much as we’ve had. There is certainly the excitement of being able to have our schools open for parents to be in the buildings, and to be able to involve with extracurriculars the way we’d like. But we are doing all of these more normalized things with a sense of caution and a lot of good common sense and good communication.”

Keith added that while restrictions years were tough, the school divi-

sion picked up many good things from those times that they plan on using going forward.

As they analyze how their students are doing, they are trying to find the best ways to support each student with their needs.

“There may be gaps in certain places, and we’re working with our teachers around how to support any gaps that we might have. So we look at ... how we can do learning leaps going forward and do it in a whole-build kind of a way … We’ve got a diverse population, and the needs of one child might not be the needs of another. And so we are sensitive, and I’m really honouring our staff, as they support everybody moving along to wherever level they started with moving forward, whether there’re some cultural changes that need work, or social ones, or emotional ones, or academic ones, for that matter,” Keith said.

The division chose Keep Going with God as this year’s theme, and they are working to ensure that they provide hope and a pathway for each and every one of their students, Keith said.

“Obviously, as a Catholic school division, we permeate our schools and classrooms with Catholic distinctiveness, and we’re very respectful of working through the framework that we have been given around reconciliation as well,” Keith said.

She praised all of the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division staff and parents.

“Just a big thank you to all of our parents that they’ve been able to work with their children and [helped to have] a good successful start to the school year in our schools. And I really have to commend our staff. It doesn’t matter whether it’s central office staff or school staff, we’re certainly here to serve students and we really keep our communication lines open and listen to the feedback that we’re getting and we’re working as a family. That’s what Holy Family is, just one big family. And that’s how we like to nurture and grow everybody in it. It’s a wonderful opportunity to look at what challenges we have and move forward in a successful faithful way,” Keith said.

Gwen Keith, director of education with Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division.

File photo