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Thursday, December 24, 2020
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First sitting in the books for new Battlefords MLA
Play for Seniors
‘An honour to walk in that building’ By John Cairns Staff Reporter
The new MLA for the Battlefords has completed his first fall sitting at the Saskatchewan legislature. The sitting lasted only a couple of weeks, but it was a memorable one for Jeremy Cockrill, who took his seat in the Legislative Assembly after several months of work trying to win the seat in the provincial election in October. “It’s certainly an honour to walk in that building every day and get to go to work there,” said Cockrill to the News-Optimist. He called it “pretty neat to be a part of the legislative process.” But like all things in this COVID-19 year, things were different at the legislature than expected during his first legislative session. “It certainly looked different than normal — we were at 50 per cent of members in the House at any one time and so even voting looked different. Question Period was probably a little less
Jeremy Cockrill Battlefords MLA
raucous than normal just because there was fewer people, and no guests in the gallery, but it was still pretty amazing to be there for the first time and to participate in that.” It meant some differences during the swearing in period as well. “If you ask my wife, she’d be pretty upset that she wasn’t able to be there for the swearing in,” said Cockrill. Like most other things these days, there were fewer people and less pomp and circumstance for those ceremonies, but Cockrill was still excited to take his seat. It was “pretty neat to
be able to be sworn in and take my seat there, and see ‘J. Cockrill - the Battlefords’ on my desk there in the legislature.” It was a “good reminder about the people who helped me get here and then the people that I’m trying to serve every day.” The prime piece of business during the fall sitting was the reading of the Speech from the Throne, which opened the new Legislature session. It allowed the Sask. Party government to be able to meet some campaign promises. “The Speech from the Throne was really, from our perspective, it was an opportunity to just reiterate the commitments that we had made during the election campaign,” said Cockrill. “And you know, even though we only sat for two weeks in this fall session, we were already able to deliver on a number of our commitments – the home renovation tax credit, reducing small business taxes, reducing SaskPower bills by 10 Continued on Page 6
The Centre francophone des Battlefords and APF (association des parents fransaskoise) arranged a visual playdate for local children with Villa Pascal residents Saturday. Children played outside in the snow and also sang for the seniors who were able to watch and listen at a distance from their venue. You can find more photos from this event on our website www.newsoptimist.ca. Photos submitted by Oumnia Tahiri
The Gift of Giving Erin Katerynych, executive director of the Empty Stocking Fund Battlefords District Food & Resource Centre, accepts a $5,000 cheque from Ira Bird of Mosquito First Nation, who recently received a lump sum of cash. For a long time, he’s wanted to own his own home so he bought a house trailer. Bird also wanted to give back. Growing up, he witnessed and experienced hardships so he decided to donate to the Empty Stocking Fund to ensure children in need have food and toys this Christmas. Photo submitted
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