Estevan Mercury - March 27, 2013

Page 1

March 27, 2013

WEDNESDAY

Province Delivers Balanced Budget

Spring Car Care

www estevanmercury e t v n erccury ca c www.estevanmercury.ca Issue 47

⇢ B21 - 22

⇢ A3

Local NDP Executive Hold Housing Symposium

Popular TV host Rick Mercer spent Monday at Pleasantdale School. The visit was a result of Pleasantdale winning the elementary division in the Spread The Net Student Challenge.

⇢ A8

Mercer visits Pleasantdale School

Chargers Capture League Championship

⇢ B1

The efforts of Pleasantdale School students to help spare children from the ravages of malaria have drawn the attention of Rick Mercer. The popular host of the equally popular TV show The Mercer Report was in Estevan Monday to spend the day with Pleasantdale students and teachers. The visit was a result of Pleasantdale winning the elementary school division of the Spread the Net Student Challenge. Launched in September by The Mercer Report, the challenge asked schools throughout Canada to raise money to purchase mosquito nets to fight malaria in Africa. Pleasantdale was one of 45 schools to take part in the contest and the school’s Grade 8 social justice program spearheaded the effort with an impressive $5,439 for the nets. As one of three winners, Pleasantdale earned a visit from Mercer and the satirist was at the school for much of Monday filming material for an upcoming show.

At a morning assembly, Mercer explained to the students how he became interested in the fight against Malaria. “About two years ago I went to Africa with my friend Belinda Stronach,� he said. “We visited five or six different countries and in some of the countries they were very poor. We would visit some towns, the size of your town and everything was very similar to a town in Canada. There were kids like yourselves that were going to school and there was corn growing in the fields and people were running around and having a good time. “But then we would go 100 miles down the road and there would be another village and there weren’t really any kids out playing and it wasn’t a very active place.� Mercer said he became intrigued to learn why one community was so active compared to the others and discovered that some villages and towns were able to afford mosquito nets to protect their children from malaria while other, poorer

areas, could not. “My friend Belinda said ‘when we go back to Canada we are going to have to tell all the people about this and we are going to have to figure out a way to get bed nets,’� Mercer said. “So we came up with the idea of Spread The Net. Ten dollars buys a net and saves a life.� Mercer said he was impressed by the efforts of Pleasantdale, noting that for its size they raised an incredible amount of money. “Every now and then a school comes along and they punch way above their weight. They raise more money than anyone could ever imagine and Pleasantdale is one of those schools. You guys are amazing, you raised over $5,000 and that is over 500 bed nets. That is saving 500 lives, that is twice as many people that are in this school and you guys did that for children on the other side of the world.� Along with making a rock video with the students, Mercer also went tobogganing with students during his day at the school.

City pleased with provincial budget Scan with your smartphone to visit The Mercury’s mobile website

Thursday

Friday

High 1Âş Low -11Âş

High 5Âş Low -8Âş

Saturday

Sunday

High 6Âş Low -4Âş

High 6Âş Low -4Âş

Careers .......B17-20 Church Dir........ B15 Classifieds ..B11-14 Obituaries ..B13-14 Perspective........ A6

Business .......... A13 Energy ........A14-15 Services Dir. .... B16 Sports .......... B1 - 6 Community ....... B7

Mailing No. 10769

WEATHER & INDEX

The City of Estevan is joining other communities throughout the province in giving the 2013 budget a passing grade. Delivered last Wednesday by Finance Minister Ken Krawetz, the budget contained a revenue sharing increase for communities along with other assorted goodies. Mayor Roy Ludwig said the City was pleased to see the operating grant increase, which provided an additional $250,000 for

City operations. “We were very happy with that and we are getting extra revenues on that side,� said Ludwig. In an interview last week, Ludwig said he was somewhat disappointed the province did not go with a formula that would have provided a larger increase for Saskatchewan cities since they are the areas of growth. Since that interview, Ludwig has learned that the province went halfway on the request from

cities as half of the increase was allocated on a per capita basis, which did give the City a slight increase. “We are happy that we are starting to go down that per capita route,� he said. “That was good news.� Prior to the budget Ludwig had said one of the items on his wish list was a long-term sustainable infrastructure program to address the long list of needs in communities throughout the province. Although the govern-

ment is continuing to spend heavily on highways, there was little mention of direct infrastructure spending for cities, towns and RMs. Ludwig said he was not disappointed by the news as they are hopeful the province will announce a program that ties in with the massive infrastructure announcement made Thursday by the federal government. That program has allocated $53 billion over 10 years. “We were hoping for something like a 10-year

plan, so when we get into something like a water reservoir we can look at longterm, committed funding to help us through. We understand and we’ll see what happens, that the province is looking at some type of a matching program to tie onto that. “We understand that they will be looking at and will consider some type of matching (money). How they are going to match, I am not sure at this point. Truck ⇢A2

6RXULV $YH 1 (VWHYDQ 3DUWV ( PDLO VDOHV#VHQFKXN FRP ZZZ VHQFKXN FRP

6HQFKXN

)RUG 6DOHV /WG


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.