Arm River-Watrous MLA Greg Brkich has won the nomination to become the Saskatchewan Party candidate for the Arm River constituency in the next provincial election.

Brkich defeated contestant Clark Puckett in a vote held among party members at a nomination meeting last Tuesday at Davidson Town Hall. He will be seeking his fifth term in office as a Saskatchewan Party MLA when the next provincial election is held likely sometime in spring 2016.

“The support was overwhelming,” said Brkich after the vote. “I was really impressed with the support I got from the people in the room.”

Around 300 people filed into the Hall to cast their ballot after hearing both men speak about their previous experiences and qualifications to be the next Party candidate and what issues they would advocate for if elected.

“That humbled me,” said Brkich. “I was very impressed because there was people from all over the constituency. Some had to drive as much as an hour-and-a-half to two hours to come here to take part in this nomination.”

The new Arm River constituency encompasses much of the same territory as Brkich’s current riding except Watrous will no longer be included and Craik would.

The new riding would stretch down to past Central Butte in the southwest and run north along Lake Diefenbaker. It will then go above Hanley and move east under Watrous before hitting Big Quill Lake and then move down and west towards Last Mountain Lake. Using the lake as a natural boundary, it will head south passing just above Strasbourg on its way to Regina Beach before cutting straight across above Moose Jaw on its way back to near Central Butte.

Brkich said the support he received in the campaign for the nomination was strong from the outset, but as in every election he ran as if he was one vote behind. He said the campaign team worked hard throughout the six-week race and were able to increase their membership in the party to over 500 members, which also bodes well for the next election.

“It increases the awareness,” he said. “Also, because this constituency does change quite a bit (with) the new one, I got to make a lot of new contacts that I wouldn’t have made till close to the election. In the long run it’s going to be a very good benefit for us for the next election with the contacts I’ve made in each and every town throughout the constituency in the new part (of the riding).”

To better help this area’s veterans and their families after the recent closure of the Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) district office in Saskatoon, Royal Canadian Legion Branch #51 president Gord McRae is entering training to become a volunteer branch service officer.

A branch service officer assists veterans by identifying those with unmet health needs and any possible benefits they could receive from VAC and then making appropriate referrals to provincial command service officers. This branch-specific function became especially important after the Department of Veterans Affairs oversaw the closing of eight district VAC offices across Canada Jan. 31, including the one in Saskatoon, which provided face-to-face services for veterans.

“A lot of veterans are entitled to certain health benefits and…that’s where the service officer would come in,” said McRae, noting he is attending a branch service officer training session at the beginning of May and would become active in the role right after that. “There are a lot of (veterans) who are still alive that are old enough that they’re entitled to a lot of benefits. When they pass on, the families are. That to me is very important. They do a lot of extra for the veterans if they know how to apply for it. That’s where I’d like to see this all happen. It’s coming up more and more.”

The transition of the person-to-person contact between a veteran and their families with a qualified individual ready to identify and respond to the challenges facing them for an online self-service program is McRae’s main concern. He said a lot of veterans have difficulty filling out the complex online applications for services correctly and denying them this access to in-person help creates lengthy delays for these people getting the services they need.

“At least with the Veterans Affairs (offices) someone there knows how to fill it out and it’s done instantly or in a (short) time frame,” he said. “That’s important to the veterans or even the people that are involved…like doctors who want to do something for them.”

To read more please see the April 21 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Construction of the Dundurn International Exhibition Centre will not begin this spring and no firm start date has yet to be presented.

Fred Wilson, Reeve of the Rural Municipality of Dundurn, said negotiations between the RM and Brightenview Development International Inc., which is building the massive wholesale outlet, are ongoing. He said they spoke to Brightenview April 8 and the company did not indicate when construction would begin.

“Everything is still progressing,” said Wilson. “It’s a multi-million dollar project and there is a lot of things that have to fall in place.”

Construction on the 155-acre site located a half-mile north of the Highway 211 and Highway 11 intersection on the east side of the highway was slated to begin in the fall of 2013 and last for 18 to 24 months. Once completed, the centre would potentially house 350 Chinese businesses that would sell wholesale products to buyers in North America and employ over 1,000 people.

“Everything is moving along,” said Wilson. “I’m not starting to get buck fever or anything. I think it is still going to happen, but it’s just taking a little longer maybe than what originally the plans were. Whether they’ll get started this summer, I can’t really (say). But I still feel quite confident that the project is still going to happen.”

In addition to the Exhibition Centre, Brightenview also pledged to help the community build a multi-million dollar community centre in Dundurn that would house a skating rink, swimming pool, hall and office space through a donation towards the costs of the project. Wilson said the new community centre is still in the plans.

“We’ve had some preliminary discussions on it, but we haven’t come up with all the financing on it yet,” he said. “It’s still part of the project.”

Wilson noted there are many people saying ‘I won’t believe it till I see it,’ but he is still confident the centre will become a reality. He said they are just not in a position to “put an exact date or timeline” on construction of it as of yet.

Sarah Nykiforuk, 17, has decided to make a difference in the lives of those suffering from mental illness and cancer.

Sarah is running an online donation campaign to raise $1,000 by June for the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA). She is also pledging to cut her long golden hair shortly after she reaches that goal and donate it to a foundation that makes wigs for financially disadvantaged people suffering from cancer.

“I’ve set up a page on the Canadian Mental Health Association website (www.cmha.ca), so people can go on it and search for ‘Sponsor Sarah Nykiforuk,'” said Sarah, who is a Grade 12 student at Davidson School. “If people want to pay with cash or cheque they can give those to me and I could enter their cash or cheque onto the website and they would get a tax-deductible receipt for any donation they contribute.”

Sarah began her campaign to raise funds for the CMHA on April 2, which is Autism Awareness Day, because of her interest in the brain development disorder and the new options medical personnel are using to help people touched by it. However, she said the decision to go forward with the fund-raising campaign happened near the beginning of the school year when she became more serious about supporting the overall cause of better treatment of mental illness.

“I’ve met a lot of people who have struggled through different mental health issues such as bipolar disorder and depression and I’ve just seen the ways those issues have affected them and their families,” she said. “Those are people that I’ve seen who’ve been getting help. I know there are a lot of people out there who aren’t getting help and if I can have some part in helping them to have access to that I really want to.”

During her campaign, Sarah is also spending time researching different charitable organizations to find one she could donate her shorn hair to when she cuts it in mid-June.

To read more please see the April 14 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

The Davidson Swimming Pool community auction being held this Thursday at the Davidson Rink is shaping up to be one of the biggest fund-raising projects the new pool committee has held to date.

Jessie Foster, a member of the new Davidson Swimming Pool committee, said there will be a full bar, midnight lunch, appetizers, door prizes, a silent auction and the main live auction during the evening. She said the cost to get in to the adult-only event is a $10 charge at the door, which covers the midnight lunch and entry into the door prize contest, but the chance to bid on some of the hundreds of “amazing” donated items is worth the price of admission in itself.

“We’ve got quite a variety,” said Foster, noting more auction items are still coming in. “We’ve got everything from meals to the field and homemade baking to services like Bobcat (Landscaping) or trucking to spa packages, concert tickets, flight packages and Rider tickets. We really have a good variety of items for everybody.”

Foster said the committee has raised close to $500,000 so far solely through fund-raising events and community donations. She said to reach their goal of having $1.3 million by 2015 they are going to begin focusing on applying for grant money to try and find some funding from outside the community to get closer to the final total.

In the meantime, the committee is taking a closer look at the initial plans of the new pool design and would be getting some technical drawings made up. Foster said once everything is ready they’d like to invite the entire community to an open meeting to take a look at what is being proposed along with a breakdown of the costs.

She said after the auction the committee is planning on holding a spring bottle drive. There are a few other community events in the works as well, but for now they’re concentrating their efforts on putting together an enjoyable evening this Thursday at the Rink and hoping for a good turnout from members of the community.

“We are going to have fun surprises during the auction that I think people are going to enjoy,” said Foster. “It’s going to be a fun evening to come out and bid and socialize and have a good time.”

A Dundurn recreational institution is in danger of fading into history if its participant numbers are not increased in the near future.

Shannette Classen, coach of the Dundurn Skating Club, said they need more parents in the community to enrol their kids in the Club’s learn to skate classes this fall if they hope to survive. She said there are many helpful skating programs available for kids in Dundurn and people need to take advantage of them.

“There are so many new people in the area that don’t know we’re here,” said Classen, noting the long-time Club’s membership has dwindled from 37 kids in 2012-2013 to 12 kids in 2013-2014. She said the Club provides a learn to skate tot class as well as Can Skate levels one to nine classes and a pre-power early hockey skills program, but the low enrollment puts offering these lessons in the future in danger.

Classen said they plan on getting the word out about what the Dundurn Skating Club has to offer this spring and summer in an effort to improve next season’s enrolment. The coach, who has been teaching classes at the Club since 2008, said these efforts would include placing advertisements in the Dundurn community newsletter, distributing brochures at the town office and passing out handouts at the elementary school.

She said the Club is also saluting long-time helpers to show their appreciation for all those who have kept the program going strong in Dundurn since it began back in 1967.

“We made a presentation to Vera Falk (March 22) for a lifetime achievement award,” said Classen. She said they also raised almost $2,000 later that day at a steak supper fund-raiser at Big Mur’s Tavern in Dundurn, which would be used to keep future enrolment costs down.

Falk said it would be “sad” to see the club she helped start with four or five other community members over 46 years ago, come to an end. She said the Club has been great for kids in the community looking for a chance to learn how to skate over the years and it has to keep going.

“The kids have got to learn skating when they’re five and six years old, three and four years old, (and) as soon as they can stand on skates,” said Falk, whose three daughters Abby, Jessie and Natalie skated with the Club in previous years. “We had a lot of kids involved (earlier). It was a big club and we had professional skaters, teachers, come from the city. It was a good club.”

To read more please see the April 14 print edition of The Davidson Leader.