A2 April 9, 2014
Estevan Mercury
Man caught with child porn pleads guilty Another man will spend a year in jail after attempting to enter Canada with child pornography in his possession. Shane Edward Westerfeld was driving to Regina on March 31 when he was crossing the border into Canada at the North Portal port of entry. During an investigation into his computer a series of images involving a nude female child, estimated to be about eight years old, were found by Canadian Border Services Agency personnel.
They identified the material as child pornography and sent the information away to the Internet Child Exploitation unit for a report and arrested Westerfeld, who appeared in custody during provincial court proceedings in Estevan on Monday. After receiving counsel through Legal Aid, he pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing child pornography. The Crown prosecutor noted the ICE report found about 1,000 images that were considered illegal and
the American citizen admitted to downloading the material on his smartphone and transferring the images to his computer. Westerfeld agreed to the forfeiture of his computer as part of the sentence, as both the defence and Crown presented presiding Judge Karl Bazin with a joint submission for a 12-month jail term. Westerfeld will spend the next 20 years on the Canadian Sex Offender Registry and must surrender a DNA sample along with his in-
carceration. In other court proceedings, Tyler Spencer made his first appearance before the courts after having been charged with four counts of impaired driving causing bodily harm as well as an impaired driving charge. The charges stem from Jan. 31, following a single vehicle rollover south of Estevan that left all five occupants of the vehicle injured. Information provided by the Estevan Police Service after the incident noted that four people were
treated for injuries in Estevan, while a fifth individual was evacuated by STARS air ambulance and sent to
Regina in critical but stable condition. The matter was adjourned until April 28.
Spending on capital projects reaches $2.9m ← A1 would have added $70 million to their bottom line, they eventually decided against both. Despite having to make major cuts to the various wish lists, Krawetz said the government is still spending $2.9 billion on infrastructure including $2 billion on the various Crown corporations. “There is literally billions and billions of dollars that need to be reinvested,” he said. “From 2013 to 2018, we are going to be spending on average (on Crowns) $1.7 billion. In fact, the $2 billion
we are spending this year is going to be more than the average of the next five years but we have to do it; SaskTel, SaskPower, SaskEnergy … all of those corporations are building and growing and meeting the challenge of making sure that we have sufficient infrastructure.” The remaining $887 million was spent throughout the other government ministries including $120 million into municipal infrastructure. He added the province is also moving forward with the Children’s Hospital in
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Saskatoon and will be finishing up the new hospital in Moose Jaw. Work towards a new mental hospital and corrections centre in North Battleford is also progressing and a new hospital for Prince Albert is next in the pipeline. There was also big spending in highways and infrastructure to the tune of $664 million. The big announcement for Estevan and area was the confirmation that the government will move forward with the twinning of Highway 39. Krawetz said that will be a big expense for the government moving forward. “That’s a $300 million smack. It’s not going to happen overnight but we have to get moving on it because we have to ensure we have other partners.” Krawetz added the province will also be spend-
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This week’s question: Who do you plan to vote for in the upcoming Estevan council byelection?
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On election day, the polling station will be located at the Church of God on Wellock Road from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Along with approving the use of automated vote counting, council also approved the wording of the two questions that will be included on the ballot. Question one will read: Should the City of Estevan continue to add fluoride to the drinking water? The second question is: Do you support casino development in the City of Estevan? Both questions will have a simple yes or no answer.
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← A1 is 99.9 per cent accurate and is also tamper proof. As for the election itself, an advance poll for those unable to vote on April 23 will be held at City Hall on April 16 from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30.
This poll was posted on www.estevanmercury.ca from April 1 - 8
Experience the
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the whole province is doing.’ That was implemented in 2004 by the former government; up until 2004 that statement was correct there was no summary, it was only the chequebook side as I like to call it. “There was a bit of discussion with the auditors over time who said that we have to make the chequebook side look like the summaries. When you have your chequebook and you are doing your monthly payments at the end of the month you don’t put down negative $185,000 because you have a mortgage but that is what the auditor was wanting us to do. We were producing both but we were focusing on the GRF.” Krawetz said the change will require some education for the public at large and they will have to work on educating the province through avenues such as the media.
Council also approves ballot questions
Last week’s question: Do you feel Estevan should stop adding fluoride to its water?
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he said points to the province’s ongoing prosperity and population growth. “School divisions have told us you can expect 2,140 more kids next fall than we currently have in the system,” he said. “I’m hopeful that the minister of education comes to us at the end of September and says ‘I need some supplementary funding because this $19 million isn’t enough, we’ve got more kids than what we counted on’ because that will mean growth for us.” Krawetz also touched on the fact the government moved to a summary budget after years of being criticized by the NDP opposition and provincial auditor for not providing taxpayers a clear look at spending and overall provincial debt. “For so long people have said ‘you are only doing the (general revenue fund) side and we can’t see what
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ing $95 million on education infrastructure, which includes a handful of new schools. On the advanced education side, the highlights include $1 million for the Southeast Regional College in Weyburn and a new $18 million technology and trades centre in Yorkton, which will include $10 million in provincial spending. The health budget for capital projects was also $95 million, Krawetz noted. In terms of overall spending, Krawetz said $8.2 billion alone will go to four “core” ministries — health, education, advanced education and social services. Among the areas of note, Krawetz mentioned the government has set aside $19 million for projected enrollment increases in Saskatchewan schools, a figure
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