PAGE A12 • MOOSEJAWEXPRESS.COM • Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Saturday transit to remained parked until low ridership addressed, city says
Jason G. Antonio - Moose Jaw Express City hall will continue to look for creative solutions to town for free and then ride to another stop is not someaddress Saturday bus service, but until the problem of low thing city administration has considered, but is an opporridership is remedied, transit vehicles will remain parked tunity to pursue in the future, said Puffalt. Meanwhile, on the weekends. city hall offered a dial-a-bus program on Saturdays in “The issue is it’s a very low subscribed service that 2021 that was also poorly used. Only a small percentage is very expensive to operate on a Saturday. I mean, it’s of people took advantage of that initiative. expensive to operate every day, but Saturday particular“It was just so high, the costs,” he remarked. ly,” city manager Jim Puffalt said during a recent media The municipality runs regular transit from Monday scrum. “So, it’s really not a capital issue; it’s an opera- to Friday, and while some routes are not full, enough peotional issue. Again, if we had huge ridership, we’d look at ple use the service overall, he continued. In comparison, doing something again.” arenas are not usually busy on weekdays, so city hall enDuring the scrum, media asked about city hall poten- sures services are quiet or keeps those venues closed. It tially giving both school divisions discounted bus passes then ensures services are available during the prime-time so they could give the passes to students at less cost. That weekend hours of 4 p.m. to close. conversation then turned into a discussion about weekend “You could do it — absolutely you could do it — transit and some residents’ concerns about its absence. but it’s very, very expensive. And it comes down to, how Most costs with transit are gasoline and labour, so it’s much are we willing to charge for transit services that nounlikely that using smaller buses on Saturday would save body (uses)?” Puffalt said. much money, Puffalt continued. Such buses would probThe media then suggested that city hall work with ably burn less gas, but those vehicles would still drive taxi companies and subsidize them on the weekend to around with few passengers. transport residents. That is a good idea, but it could be cumbersome since on Saturdays. We’re continuing to talk about things but city hall would not know whether it was helping residents running a regular transit (service on the weekend) is just who need transit service or just required a taxi to reach the not feasible,” he added. bar, replied Puffalt. Allowing users to jump on the bus somewhere down“It’s really hard to get through those types of things
CITY HALL COUNCIL NOTES
The next regular council meeting is MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28. and deal with the parameters around it. I think we’re very creative, and if there are ways to make things work, we’ll the service.” City hall appreciates the free bus service that occurs during New Year’s Eve — “That’s an awesome thing” — but SGI pays for that service, Puffalt added. Yet, the municipality will continue to seek a solution that gives residents the transit support they need while using taxpayers’ dollars wisely.
City could increase funding to reserves to address future equipment failures City hall may have to increase funding to its building reserve accounts considering mechanical equipment such as boilers appear to have a maximum lifespan of 10 years, as Mosaic Place discovered. During its recent meeting, city council unanimously approved a motion to allow Mosaic Place to spend $125,000 to replace both of its boilers. The heat exchangers in both devices failed in late 2021, leading to glycol leaks that could have affected the building’s heating and refrigeration systems. The municipality performs regular preventative maintenance at venues such as Yara Centre and Mosaic Place, but what’s happening is most equipment appears to last no more than a decade, city manager Jim Puffalt said during a recent media scrum. He experienced similar problems last year after his home water heater died, so he “It’s (happening at) all our facilities. Anything that’s around 10 years old when it comes to boilers and that kind of thing,” he stated. “Hot water heaters, RO (reverse osmosis) systems, they’re all seeming to go. We just had to replace one at the Kinsmen (Sportsplex); the hot water
Jason G. Antonio - Moose Jaw Express tank was 10 years old.” City administration is having conversations about
which are “tremendous” and help the municipality pay for items, Puffalt continued. However, he didn’t know if there was enough reserve money to cover similar mechanical failures and equipment replacements a decade down the road. That is why he thought reserves needed to be increased, so municipal money. “I think this is certainly an unforeseen (issue). There’s no way you can estimate the lifespan. Around 10 years is when something is going to go. Unfortunately, when things fail, they fail,” said Puffalt. “A lot of those items on our ice plants and buildings are pretty mission-critical, so we have to come back (to council). Fortunately, this was money we have in reserve for the building (Mosaic Place), and we’re able to use it.” During the scrum, the media pointed out that boilers used to last 20 to 25 years and wondered if the city
for most grains and oilseeds
needed to prevent the breakdowns. don’t know what the answer is,” Puffalt replied. “I know there are boilers in older buildings downtown that have been there forever. So how come those last forever and they’re using the same water as other ones? We just don’t know what the issue is. “Maybe we have to spend more money on the boilers and not less.” Puffalt declined to speculate on whether contractors who helped build Mosaic Place cut corners with the boilers they installed. He noted that it had been 11 years since construction, so he knew nothing about what happened back then. “Hindsight is crystal clear. When you have a budget can’t build. You’re limited in the money you have,” he added. “I (would) never say the builders had cheaped-out can only do so much.”
Record provincial agriculture exports for 2021
By Ron Walter - For Moose Jaw Express
katchewan farmers this year according to the annual Saskatchewan Crop Guide. Grain corn is the only crop not expected to cover variable expenses or total expenses. Total expenses include land and depreciation cost. Grain corn will lose farmers $21 an acre on variable expenses and $140 on total expenses. Other marginal crops are feed barley, $65 an acre over variable costs and loss of $46 on total cost; and small Kabuli chickpeas, $91 over variable expenses and $1.85 loss on total expenses. Kabuli chickpeas, $587 an acre over variables and $434 over total costs. turn $447 and $339 respectively with oriental mustard, $472 and $397 while brown mustard will return $461 and $385.
Among larger acreage crops edible green peas will return $390 and $282 with yellow peas returning $291 and $183. Large green lentils will fetch $309 and $202 with red lentils returning $427 and $319. Canola will return $317 and $265 Durum will return $375 and $267 with hard red spring wheat at $242 and $135 while winter wheat is $123 and $15. Oats will return $263 and $155 while feed barley will return $140 and $33. In mustard the Oriental variety will return $124 and $32; brown mustard is at $461and $385; with yellow mustard at $447 and $339 an acre. Canary seed will return $269 and $162 with camelina at $147 and $54. Faba beans will return $427 and $360. Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@ sasktel.net
AGRIMART
EXPRESS A new record for Saskatchewan’s agricultural exports was set in 2021, at an astonishing $17.5 billion. The province states that, in 2021, the total was almost seven percent higher than the previous record of $15.8 billion set in 2020, which had itself increased by 27 percent from the previous year. Even more impressive is that Saskatchewan’s ag exports have increased by 56 percent since 2012. A few of the top commodities on the list are: canola seed, canola oil, non-durum wheat, lentils, durum and dry peas. over 50 per cent between 2020 and 2021. The main buyers are the United States and South Korea. At $37.1 billion, agricultural exports accounted for nearly half of Saskatchewan’s total exports in 2021. “Our producers have fed the world for generations, and we continue to enable the innovation necessary to keep feeding the world’s growing population, expected to be 10 billion people by 2050. These exup to that challenge and well on the way to
meeting the future goals we’ve set.” said Agriculture Minister David Marit on February 14th. The province overcame several challenges related to drought conditions and challenging weather patterns across the country to supply sustainable food locally and internationally. Within the next 10 years, the Saskatchewan Growth Plan has outlined goals which include increasing crop production to 45 million tonnes, agriculture exports to $20 billion, and value-added revenue to $10 billion within this decade. A key component of Saskatchewan’s Growth Plan is processing and value-added agricultural processing. In response, building plans have been accelerated for the Federated Co-operatives’ renewable diesel facility. The AGT Foods canola crush plant in Regina is set to process 1.1 million tonnes of canola annually. “Saskatchewan’s agriculture industry of our economy - with an impact that extends far beyond our provincial borders,” added Minister Marit. The province announced its plans to enhance its offering to international marcurrently under development in the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Mexico in Japan India, China and Singapore.
