Category Archives: featured

featured

Moose captured and collared along Hwy. 11

Moose numbers have increased dramatically in the past 30 years in Southern Saskatchewan farmland areas and a new research project spearheaded by the University of Saskatchewan is trying to find out what these animals are up to.

Ryan Brook, moose project director and assistant professor in the U of S College of Agriculture and Bioresources, said his group was capturing and collaring moose in the area along Highway 11 between Dundurn and Chamberlain during the month of February in an effort to understand their movements, diet, home range, what kinds of habitats they use and when and where they cross roads and highways.

He said the capture of the moose lasts a maximum of 30 minutes and the collars have a built in GPS unit enabling the researchers to know the movements of the moose every hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

“We have a short chase time,” said Brook. “We shoot a net out of a helicopter and the net immobilizes the moose. We hobble the legs together, put a blindfold over their eyes, so it calms the animal down, and then we put a collar around the neck.

“We then draw a blood sample for assessing health of the animal, take a poop sample to look for parasites and disease, and take just a pinch of hair from around the tail, so we can look for genetics and diet of the animal.

“As soon as that’s done, we take off the hobbles, remove the blindfold and just let her go.”

Brook said the collar would stay on the moose for two full years and then fall off on its own meaning the group never has to bother the animal again. He said they managed to capture and collar 17 adult female moose over the span of a day and a half last month, with one animal dying from a broken neck suffered during the fall after being netted.

“That’s unfortunately just a challenge of capturing large animals,” he said, noting the capture adheres with guidelines laid out by the Canadian Council on Animal Care. “There is a risk during capture because they go down in a net. That would be with any capture (of any large animal).”

The project will focus on adult males next February and has an end goal of capturing and collaring 50 moose in total if they can find more funding support.

To read more please see the March 4 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Davidson, featured

Davidson buys CTRC building for $100,000

Davidson town council received authorization to purchase the Carlton Trail Regional College (CTRC) building on Washington Avenue last Tuesday and the town is set to take possession March 1.

Clayton Schneider, mayor of Davidson, said the town is buying the building for $100,000 with the funds coming out of the 2013 budget. He said council decided to go ahead with the purchase after seeing a need for another building in the town to hold medical services.

“To build something would cost a lot more and it makes sense to have health services near the doctor,” said Schneider, noting this also keeps the town away from a rent agreement or temporary space. “It’ll be a great thing. It’s exciting for the fact that we get our own place that we can control and get people in it.”

Carlton Trail Regional College moved out of the building last July after closing its Davidson campus.

Schneider said the town is trying to secure a dentist and their future office would be located in the CTRC building. He said the optometry services provided by InSight Vision Care at the Davidson Family Practice could also be relocated to the space.

“We recognized that we need some infrastructure for the services we are trying to get in Davidson,” he said. “This is a great idea to get our own building to get that sort of thing.”

Davidson, featured

Davidson town councillor resigns

The Town of Davidson has put out a call for nominations for a town councillor position a mere five months after the last municipal election.

Doug Gilchrist, who won a seat around the council table in the Oct. 24 election with a total of 218 votes, resigned as a Davidson councillor last Tuesday in a letter to council citing “unforeseen circumstances.” His resignation is effective immediately.

“When I first put my name forward there was more time in my day,” said Gilchrist. “It was something I could have handled and something I was interested in. I still am interested in the way the town runs. Its just sometimes life happens and you just all of a sudden don’t have time anymore.”

Starting today, nomination papers can be picked up at Town Hall for the vacant councillor position. Nomination forms can then be handed in to the town until 4 p.m. March 13. If more than one person vies for the spot, a byelection will be held April 17.

To run for council, a candidate would have to live in Davidson for at least three months previous to the Election Day in April and in Saskatchewan for six months. Candidates must also be 18 years of age and a Canadian citizen. Five electors, who have the same qualifications as the candidate, but only have to own land in town instead of actually live here, must sign the nomination form.

Donna Bessey, Davidson community development coordinator, said “it was unfortunate to see him resign” as the town needs business people and younger people around the council table to help move the town forward. She said a resignation does affect council business, as now a person will come in with no previous knowledge of what the town has been working on over the past few months.

“Its nice to have a full slate there,” said Bessey. “When you run for council, whoever elected you basically expect you to be there. When you’ve got projects that are started and you’re moving on, then with somebody new coming on, there is always that downtime trying to bring them up to speed. It makes it a little harder.”

To read more please see the Feb. 25 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

featured

Lukiwski says Tory’s “screwed up” with push-poll calls

Regina-Lumsden-Lake Centre MP Tom Lukiwski said someone in the Conservative Party “screwed up” by not identifying the party as the sponsor of the push-poll call that went out to many Saskatchewan residents two weeks ago voicing the party’s opposition to the province’s new riding boundaries.

That being said, he still objects to the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Saskatchewan’s final report tabled in the House of Commons Jan. 28 that redraws the province’s federal electoral map.

“I think you have to let them know who the sponsor of the calls are and that was not done,” said Lukiwski. “The party said there was a miscommunication there. I certainly take them at their word for that. They said they would be more diligent in the future and quite frankly had they identified the Conservative Party as being the sponsor of the call none of this, really controversy if you want to call it that, would have occurred.”

A push-poll call is a telemarketing call designed to rally opposition to a particular issue, but does so in a way that makes it seem it is a public-opinion survey. The push-poll call in this instance first gave the Conservative Party argument against creating urban-only ridings in Saskatchewan before asking recipients of the call to press a button if they are for or against these boundary changes.

Lukiwski said push-polls are not undemocratic as “all parties do them,” but whether they are effective or not could be debated. He said the call, which also went out to some of his constituents, is not the issue; it is the fact the Conservative Party did not identify themselves as the sponsor of it.

“Certainly a mistake was made,” he said. “That is the bottom line.”

Ralph Goodale, Liberal MP for Wascana, said he has filed a complaint with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) alleging the Conservative Party’s failure to identify themselves as the sponsor of the call broke telemarketing rules. He said the automated call said it came from Chase Research, but this company was obviously working on behalf of someone else and that someone else was not identified.

“It was essentially an anonymous call made for a political purpose and that purpose was not identified in the course of the call and that would appear to violate potentially a number of CRTC rules and regulations,” said Goodale. “It’s an issue here of transparency and honesty in making the call.

“Is it adequate to say Chase Research or should they say ‘hi, I’m employed by Chase Research, but I’m calling on behalf of the Conservative Party.’ That really is the nature of the issue here.”

To read more please see the Feb. 18 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

featured, Kenaston

Kenaston puts a stop to speeding

Slow down is the message concerned residents of Kenaston are trying to get across to speeders in their community, but not all Kenastonians seem to be taking kindly to the means.

Carmen Fowler, administrator of Kenaston, said the village has recently installed three new four-way stops, one on 3rd Street at the first block coming into Kenaston and two on 2nd Street about two blocks apart, to go along with their original four-way stop near Kenaston School in an effort to prevent a possible accident involving a speeding car and children heading to class.

“We had a lot of speeders going downtown, so it’s basically to slow people down because there is a crosswalk where kids go across Main Street (3rd Street),” said Fowler. “There is a hill where you come into town and you go up that hill to get downtown. Kids cross there that go to school, so we wanted to slow people down before they go to that street and possibly hit kids because the kids can’t see the traffic very well there.”

Fowler said 2nd Street comes off Highway 11 just as 3rd Street does and they have been getting complaints from residents about people speeding on it as well, so that is why they decided to erect two four-way stops there too.

“People come off the highway and they keep going,” she said. “They don’t slow down because they can curve coming into town off the highway. This way we’re hoping that it’ll slow them down because they know there is a stop sign there now.”

The decision to put up the stop signs was made by the previous village council headed by former Mayor Dan O’Handley, but current Mayor ML Whittles agrees entirely with the stop signs and said “they are not being removed” despite some opposition from residents unhappy with the new stops.

“We have that hill and (the RCMP) were clocking people at around 80 to 100 kilometres at times going down Main Street,” said Whittles, noting it’s a 40 km an hour limit. “It is a means of safety.”

The new stop signs were recently brought up at a community meeting held Jan. 29 at Kenaston Place by some residents wary of the change, but Fowler said putting up the signs was a council decision in an effort to make the community safer and people unhappy with the change need to recognize that.

To read more please see the Feb. 11 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Davidson, featured

Businesses welcome penny’s demise

Businesses in Davidson don’t seem too worried about the demise of the penny in Canadian currency.
Starting today, businesses will be rounding cash transactions up or down to the nearest five-cent increment according to a guideline provided by the Government of Canada. According to the guideline, only the final amount, after taxes have been added, are subject to rounding.
For example, if a final amount owing is $1.01 to $1.02 the figure will be rounded down to $1, while if the amount is $1.03 or $1.04 the figure will be rounded up to $1.05.
“We’re almost there,” said Natasha Larsh, co-manager of Gunner’s Gas and Convenience, on whether they’re prepared for the change. “When we first opened we were rounding everything off anyways. There are just a few products we need to change.”
Pennies can still be used in cash transactions indefinitely and the rounding off policy does not apply to cheques or electronic payments such as debit, credit or payment cards.
Kamal Saini, supervisor at Davidson’s A&W restaurant, said the tills have already been configured to take the rounding policy on cash transactions into account and there have been signs posted on the tills leading up to the change to inform customers. He said the prices of food would not actually change.
“The tills are going to change, but not the prices on the menu boards,” said Saini.
By phasing out the penny as a Canadian coin, the government states it will save taxpayers $11 million a year. This savings comes from the rising cost of production of the one-cent coin compared to it’s worth, the amount of pennies that are lying around Canadian households right now and the handling costs imposed on retailers with the penny.
Judi Packet, co-owner of Packet’s Foods, said the phasing out of the penny is not going to affect them in any way as they’ve already been rounding off transactions for about the past four years.
“We’re a coffee shop,” said Packet. “We didn’t want to deal with pennies in the first place.”