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Patrons organization argues 15-year lease too costly

The Saskatchewan Government’s decision to provide the use of fixed assets on community pastures such as fences, dugouts and cattle handling facilities to patrons at no cost is “very positive,” but the 15-year lease agreement offered by the government makes pasture grassland very expensive for small cattle producers, said the chair of a farmer-run patrons organization.

Ian McCreary, chair of the Community Pasture Patrons Association of Saskatchewan (CPPAS), said the lease fee requirement of patrons plus taxes they must pay varies between 40 and 50 cents a day per cow/calf payer. He said the lease fee requirement is 27 or 28 cents per head plus 13 to 23 cents per head for taxes depending on where the patrons graze their cattle.

“Right now the government is providing that land to the PFRA (Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration) system at no charge and the PFRA system is running those pastures and losing money, significant amounts, and they are expecting the patrons to run those pastures and pay a lease fee of 27 or 28 cents a day and pay the taxes,” said McCreary. “The patron groups are looking at it and saying we’re going to be among the most expensive grass in North America.”

McCreary said small cattle producers must also have staff in the pasture in order to manage the grass appropriately, which further adds to patron’s costs. He said with the addition of this lease agreement patron groups in Saskatchewan are facing “way more expensive” costs for grassland than counterparts in Manitoba and Alberta as well as key grazing states in the United States.

“We need to find a way to get some additional savings,” he said. “Right now, can the pasture (patrons) afford to pay the lease fee? Well, it’s borderline. Every pasture (patron) has to take a look at those numbers, but it’s still more expensive grass. In Manitoba when these pastures got turned over, they turned it over to the patron groups with no lease fee. In Alberta, they turned their community pastures over and they agreed on a lease fee of $1.39 per animal unit a month.

“We need to find a way to get this lease fee lower in order to make the package more attractive.”

Lyle Stewart, Minister of Agriculture for the Government of Saskatchewan, said the 15-year lease term for community pastures was decided upon in discussions with patrons. He said the government originally suggested a five-year lease agreement, but patrons said that would not provide them with enough security, so it was moved up to the current term.

“All the province will get is about 27 cents (a head) and the rest of the costs are other costs (such as) labour, maintaining the fixed assets and so on,” said Stewart. “Those are things that patrons, as good business people, can be creative with.”

Stewart said the decision to provide the fixed assets on community pastures to patrons at no cost also came through these discussions with patrons after the government learned they would be getting these assets from the federal government at no cost.

To read more please see the April 8 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Davidson

STC proposes to cancel travel services to Imperial this spring

Concerned citizens of Imperial have five days left to convince the Highway Traffic Board to keep their parcel and travel services with the Saskatchewan Transportation Company (STC) before it is eliminated in mid-May.

The STC is proposing to discontinue the Regina to Lanigan bus service route via Nokomis and Watrous beginning May 18. Before the route can be discontinued the Highway Traffic Board must approve the move, but riders can make their opposition known to the board until April 17 through emails and letters stating how removing the service would hurt residents of the affected communities. The board will make the final decision on whether the bus route stays or goes in early May.

Gaylene Parry, a resident of Imperial, said removing the route would particularly hurt seniors who use the bus to get in and out of the cities for shopping, friendly visits and medical appointments. She said eliminating the service would also marginalize the town as a whole.

“Every time a small rural community loses another one of these things, it’s just one more bit of instability in the community,” said Parry. “People need to know that this is slated to happen. Really a letter writing campaign is what their option is to try and voice their opinion if they consider it a problem.”

Dean Madsen, director of business development with the STC, said they have identified the Regina to Lanigan bus service route as unjustifiable due to low ridership. He said discontinuing this route would also save the company costs as they deal with increased financial pressures.

“We were looking at routes and ridership which is very low and (the Regina to Lanigan route) has been low for the past five years with just an average of two passengers utilizing the service per trip,” said Madsen. “It is hard to justify keeping the service if it is not being utilized.”

Madsen said they have provided a mechanism for concerns of discontinuing the service to be made to the Highway Traffic Board, but it is up to the board now if the service is eliminated.

To read more please see the April 8 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Sports

Cyclones win provincial “C” championship

The Davidson Cyclones senior men’s hockey team are provincial champions for the fourth year in a row after coming back to defeat the Hudson Bay Hunters 4-3 March 30 at the Davidson Rink to take the best-of-three provincial “C” finals series 2-0.

“We weren’t worried,” said Cyclones defenceman Chad Allan about Davidson going down 3-0 to Hudson Bay at the four-minute mark of the second period. “We felt if we could just get a couple goals we would be alright. Once we got those two quick goals (by forward Pat Cey with 11:25 remaining in the second and forward Steve DaSilva 14 seconds later) we had a pretty good feeling.”

Through the first 28 minutes of the game it appeared to the 300 fans that packed the Davidson Rink the Cyclones were going to be heading back to Hudson Bay the next night for a game three. Nothing seemed to be clicking for the home team as everything they threw at the Hunters net either went far wide or hit Hudson Bay goalie Derek Leidl.

But after the two quick goals, it was all Cyclones. The shots up to that point were 17-13 in favour of Hudson Bay. By the end of the game Davidson would get another 27 shots and third period goals by forward Carter Smith and the winner, for the second year in a row in the provincial “C” deciding game, by Colton Allan, with four minutes remaining in the third frame. The Hunters, on the other hand, seemed to lose all forward momentum by continually getting pressed into their own zone and only managed eight more shots through the final 32 minutes of the game with none being counted as a goal.

“You never like to go down 3-0, but we knew with past provincials when you get to the final both teams are going to be good and it’s going to be a tough game,” said Cyclones head coach Jason Shaw. “You have got to play 60 minutes and that is what we talked about after the first period. We were down 2-0, but if we kept on working we thought we could wear them down a bit and get some goals and turn things around.”

To read more please see the April 8 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Kenaston

“Wynn Fairly” wrestles at Kenaston Place

Wrestling fans in Kenaston are set to be thrilled this Friday and Saturday as they watch local boy Wynn Fairly get ready to compete for the state title, but an underhanded manager of his rival has other ideas in mind.

The 2013 Kenaston Dinner Theatre is bringing “Wynn Fairly, Champeen Rasler!” to near sold-out audiences this weekend at Kenaston Place in an effort to raise funds for maintenance costs for the village hall. The comedy-melodrama is scheduled for two shows April 12 and 13 as part of Kenaston’s annual dinner theatre production, which will see over 70 volunteers cater to close to 250 patrons each night as they enjoy cocktails, dinner and dessert before being entertained by the Billy St. John play that features local actors in the production.

Melanie Kerpan, chairperson of the community dinner theatre, said the group hopes to raise between $5,000 and $6,000 over the two nights for the “upkeep” of Kenaston Place. She said the annual spring fund-raiser, which has been held for over 15 years, will have 30 tables spread before the stage with the eight spectators seated at each table being treated to a catered meal by Well Seasoned along with hors-d’oeuvres and desserts provided by members of the community before the play begins.

“We’ve had a really great response in the past (with the dinner theatre) and people keep coming back for it,” said Kerpan, noting tickets are pretty much sold out for the Saturday showing, but there are some still available for Friday night. “We have groups from both Davidson and Outlook who like to come here and enjoy it as well.”

To read more please see the April 8 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Davidson

Playschool enters world of visual arts

Davidson Playschool students are entering the world of visual arts this spring thanks to a recently received $4,180 Creative Partnerships Explorations grant.

Terra Fazakas, grants representative with the Davidson Playschool Association, said they are putting the grant money towards bringing visual artist Derek Pho to the classroom in early May to help the 42 kids who attend the playschool to create a papier måché project. She said the two-, three- and four-year-old students would compile the hands-on piece into a larger-than-life local wildlife animal.

“Our focus is going to be on sustainability,” said Fazakas. “It’s got an environmental twist and it’ll be how the community interacts with your surroundings. It’ll be an animal that is local to Saskatchewan in our area that’s native in a local environment.”

Fazakas said the project is still in the development stage, but what would likely happen is the kids would create small shapes individually before combining them to make a bigger shape. She said the playschool, which is located in a room at Davidson School, would have the artist come in for two days to work with the students and give them directions on how to build the papier måché animal.

This is the first time the Davidson Playschool Association has been awarded a Creative Partnerships Explorations grant. The grant program’s mandate is to explore how the visual arts can enhance environmental stewardship within the classroom and funding partners include the Saskatchewan Arts Board, SaskCulture Inc., Saskatchewan Lotteries and the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education.

“We hope to do more (Creative Partnerships Explorations projects) in the future,” said Fazakas. “This one is actually geared towards communities. We hope to be involving local businesses and local groups and volunteers from the town for recyclable donations to help build the structure.”

Davidson

Davidson Communities in Bloom enter into non-competitive judging category to grade “health” of town

Communities in Bloom has entered into a non-competitive judging category that will grade the “overall health” of the entire community of Davidson.

Erin Gust, treasurer of Communities in Bloom, said judges from the provincial organization of Communities in Bloom would head to town this summer to rate the beauty of various attractions in Davidson. She said the community as a whole and all community groups would be rated in order to give Communities in Bloom a “benchmark” of what the beautification of the town is and what they would need to improve on.

“What (the judges) do is they provide you with an evaluation report and there is eight key criteria that they look at,” said Gust. “There is tidiness, tree and urban forest management, landscaped areas, floral design, turf and ground cover, environmental awareness, community involvement and natural and cultural heritage conservation.”

Gust said items such as the new planters that are located throughout the town, the new garbage cans on Washington Avenue, the parks, playground, library, landfill and the reverse osmosis water system are some of the things the provincial Communities in Bloom judges will be grading. She said Davidson would not be competing against other towns in the judging, but Communities in Bloom will still put in the extra effort once the snow melts to make sure everything is as beautiful as can be.

“We don’t have an exact plan set out yet, but we definitely would like our town to look as good as it can look,” she said. “We’ll be talking to businesses and talking to other community groups and just make sure everybody is on side.”

To read more please see the April 1 print edition of The Davidson Leader.