Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Issue 32
SERVING THE ENERGY CITY SINCE 1903
www.estevanmercury.ca
Mailing No. 10769 | Publication No. 40069240
Locals receive emergency response training By William Acri wacri@estevanmercry.ca
Emergency response training is very important especially in Saskatchewan with the variety of energy and raw material-based industries. At the new Estevan Fire Rescue Service hall, Team Response hosted a large training session last week with various teams from SaskPower’s Boundary Dam and Shand Power Stations. “There are three emergency response teams and the fire team here today for training,” said Belinda Mitchell from Team Response. Also in attendance were Westmoreland Coal Company and the Estevan Fire Rescue Service. They were training together as first responders acting in various emergency situations. Mitchell has been running Team Response with Cassenna Parmeter for about three years. They have been very successful and both were long-time associates of the St. John Ambulance. “I was with St. John Ambulance for 32 years, I left there as the director of training and I opened up my
own company and we have been going strong for three years,” said Mitchell. The training that attendees get is very intense and high-risk; everyone receives a quality of training that will allow them work with the police and firefighters on scene. “We will take them through basic patient assessments right through to industrial rescue,” said Mitchell. The fire department was able to host the training now that they have moved into their new fire hall. The session was held at the department’s indoor training area. Fire Chief Dale Feser was in attendance during the training, and although he did not participate, he was happy to have the Estevan fire team training with first responders who they may encounter on an emergency call. “When we are taking a look at emergency response as a whole, we do offer high-angle rescue and confined space rescue for example, but it’s also good to have specialized first responders,” said Feser. “These groups specialize in specific areas of rescue and use specialized equipment. Therefore it is
Cassenna Parmeter of Team Response watches over a team from SaskPower as they act out a scenario on Codi Eagles in which the patient was found unconscious. very nice to get in and train with these people because we like to make sure everyone is working together and they are able to recognize familiar faces if they ever run into each other,” he added. Industrial sites are very complex and since they haven’t worked in them
every day, local fire fighters could get confused on where to go in the event of a call. “Having order, support and guidance coming form an on-site response team is a great asset to us,” said Feser. Feser himself started his firefighting career years
ago as a member of the mine rescue team while he was employed at the mines. “I got my start in emergency services with Estevan Coal, which has changed names many times over the years, but I started out being a specialized first responder,” said Feser. Being a first responder
can result in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and Team Response works to have money put in a PTSD fund. “Proceeds off of what we do in terms of our training and volunteering go back to support the PTSD fund for first responders in the province,” said Mitchell.
Estevan’s ranking improves slightly in annual report By David Willberg dwillberg@estevanmercury.ca
A report released last week shows where the city of Estevan and the rural municipality of Estevan compare with other municipalities in terms of residential and commercial property taxes. The Saskatchewan branch of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) released its annual property tax gap report on Dec. 6. The document measures the amount of commercial property taxes paid for every $200,000 in assessment, and compares it with residential taxes for every $200,000 in assessment. The document released is for 2016 property values. The city of Estevan’s standing improved slightly in the CFIB report. Estevan ranked third-worst out of the 15 Saskatchewan cities with a municipal property tax gap of 3.09, which means the municipal portion of commercial property taxes were a little more than triple their residential counterparts. The Energy City was 14th
City manager Jeff Ward in 2015 with a gap of 3.26. The 5.21 per cent improvement from 2015 to 2016 was the second-best among Saskatchewan cities. In Estevan’s case, the average commercial property paid $3,918 in municipal property taxes for every $200,000 in assessment, which placed Estevan 10th among the cities. The provincial average for commercial municipal property taxes was $3,536. Residential property owners in Estevan paid $1,267 in municipal property taxes for every $200,000 in assessed value, which left Estevan fourth. The provincial average for residential property
taxes was $1,476. The report also looks at total property taxes, including those paid to school divisions. Estevan remained in 13th for the property tax gap at 2.83. Commercial property owners paid $5,574 in taxes for every $200,000 in assessment, while residential property owners paid $1,971. Jennifer Henshaw, the senior policy analyst for CFIB Saskatchewan, said some municipalities are doing a better job than others at creating what CFIB views as fair property taxes for small businesses. In Estevan’s case, she is pleased the city has taken strides to reduce the property tax gap, but it’s still towards the bottom of the pack. “There’s still a lot of work to do in the city of Estevan,” said Henshaw. Henshaw said the CFIB receives concerns from tis members about the property tax gap. But they’re also concerned about annual increases in property taxes. “When we asked our small business owners across the province wheth-
er municipal property tax increases have negatively impact their business, 74 per cent agreed that they had, while only 16 per cent disagreed,” said Henshaw. CFIB also asked the specific impact of municipal tax increases, and 87 per cent of business owners said they had to delay investment in their business due to tax increases. Forty-four per cent froze hiring and 28 per cent reduced staff hours. Many of them are aware of the property tax gap between commercial and residential properties, she said. Henshaw said that while the CFIB’s top priority is to see the property tax gap reduced, the agency also wants to see municipalities limit year-over-year spending growth to a maximum of inflation and population growth; reform municipal banked sick day policies; review current programs and services to identify areas that can be streamlined or eliminated; and devise a plan to reduce the size of municipal civil service through attrition. City manager Jeff Ward
Estevan Chamber of Commerce executive director Jackie Wall said council looks at what it needs for tax revenue each year, and how the tax burden should be applied. Council has decided to reduce that burden for commercial properties and help the city be more attractive for businesses. “I think you’ll see that (property tax gap) number come down, and our ranking will move more to the middle of the pack,” said Ward. He noted that internal reports among the cities show that Estevan’s ratio has gone down this year, and he believes Estevan’s standing will improve for
CFIB’s next report. Council wants to make Estevan an attractive place for new business ventures to thrive, he said, but council is also cognisant of how a shift to residential property taxes will affect homeowners. “They look at fixed income individuals when they’re doing tax increases, so they can only push the residential tax revenues so high, knowing that they still need a base tax revenue to complete all the capital and operational works that are required,” said Ward. As for the rural municipality of Estevan, it ranked 12th among the 31 RMs with a population above 1,000 people with a gap of 1.79 for the municipal share of property taxes. Commercial property owners paid $1,800 for every $200,000 in assessed property value, and residential owners paid $1,008. The RM also ranked 12th in total property taxes with a gap of 2.02. Commercial property owners paid $3,456 for every $200,000, while residential property owners paid $1,712. A2 » CFIB
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