Renewed Energy At Legion
⇢ A8 You Scream, I Scream
February 6, 2013
WEDNESDAY
Young Nevaeh Wakely may not have won a trophy for fishing or hunting at the Estevan Wildlife Federation’s annual awards dinner, but she may have qualified for the best ice cream consumer as she dug into her dessert following the banquet portion of the program.
Collage Back This Fall
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Third Town Band Playing After Dark
www.estevanmercury.ca
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Issue 40
CT scan bid backed by Sun Country The board of directors of the Sun Country Health Region are backing a proposal that was taken to the Health Ministry in early January, seeking a CT scanner for St. Joseph’s Hospital in Estevan. Asked by The Mercury if the board members were fully apprised of the proposal and its implications, board chairwoman Marilyn Charlton said they were, and they fully backed the Energy City’s bid. She spoke to the issue on Jan. 30 following the board’s monthly business meeting. The idea that was taken directly to Health Minister Dustin Duncan was that Estevan, through the St. Joseph’s Hospital
Bruins Rally For Win Over Melfort
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Foundation, would make the capital purchase of the $1.2 to $1.5 million CT scanning device that aids the X-ray and imaging units in diagnosing all types of injuries and medical conditions. Sun Country, and by extension, the Health Ministry, would only be responsible for the cost of operating and maintaining the unit. Shortly after visiting with Duncan, St. Joseph’s executive director Greg Hoffort said he felt the local delegation caught Duncan’s attention with the unique prospect of a local committee shouldering the capital purchase burden in an effort to get CT service into southeast Saskatch-
Marilyn Charlton ewan. Citing the proposal as one that would be very nearly impossible to say no to, Hoffort said he felt the local committee made their pitch and engaged in a good two-way discussion with Duncan and his ministry officials. In a later interview with The Mercury, Duncan
admitted that the offer and suggestions did grab his attention as well as that of his officials and the matter was receiving serious review. “The proposal came in a bit different from what we expected. Of course there is no normal process when requesting a CT scanner,� Duncan said at the time. The health minister went on to say the deliberations would then focus on whether the hospital in question is meeting their benchmarks in terms of patient volumes and if a scanner would help them raise that bar to a new service level. The local committee members who visited with Duncan did include one
Sun Country board member, Gary St. Onge. Along with Hoffort and St. Onge, the other delegates making the trip to Regina were Estevan MLA Doreen Eagles, Estevan Mayor Roy Ludwig and St. Joseph’s board chairman Don Kindopp. St. Joseph’s is considered an affiliate facility within the Sun Country Health Region and the largest such health-care facility in the region that serves approximately 59,000 people. Charlton said the Sun Country board, although they had only one member representing them at the meeting, was kept aware of the proposal and lent their support to the Estevan and area bid.
Record cold, record production for SaskPower
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sumption reached a new level, the same wasn’t true for SaskEnergy and their spokeswoman said some of that could be attributed to more recent focus on energy efficiencies in homes and businesses, but the demands were also huge in that “warm-up� sector as well. Tyler Hopson, communications officer for SaskPower, said the company hit
a new peak production/consumption demand around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday with 3,379 megawatts of power. Last year’s highest demand was 3,265 megawatts. The increase in demand was still well within the company’s ability to produce electrical power since the current production for SaskPower is just over 4,100 megawatts. A t S a s k E n e r g y,
spokeswoman Vanessa Beaupre, said the demand for their natural gas product peaked at 1.1 petajoules. One petajoule equals one million gigajoules. This was below an all-time high demand, but 20 per cent higher compared with the biggest demand day last winter. “No records set, but we had a peak week and a big 24-hour stretch,� Beaupre
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High -8Âş Low -15Âş High -2Âş Low -8Âş
Mailing No. 10769
WEATHER & INDEX
The coldest days experienced in the Energy City in the past several years struck last week with a Wednesday evening cold snap sending SaskPower into a record-setting power consumption mode. The cold snap that began in earnest on Tuesday eased off by Friday, but not before hitting near - 50 C. And while SaskPower’s production and con-
as low as
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said. The gas load for residential consumption did hit a new high though, and that’s partially due to the weather and partially due to the growth factor in the province. Between businesses and residences, SaskEnergy has signed on and hooked up over 7,000 new customers in the past year. SaskEnergy ⇢A2
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