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Issue 18

SERVING THE ENERGY CITY SINCE 1903

Mailing No. 10769 | Publication No. 40069240

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

ESTEVAN’S

SOURCE FOR LOCAL & REGIONAL NEWS

Deep Earth enters next phase By Brian Zinchuk brian.zinchuk@sasktel.net

With a recent $5 million private placement of funding in place, in addition to previously announced federal and provincial government money, Deep Earth Energy Production Corp. (DEEP) has begun flow testing of its first well for a geothermal electrical power production facility south of Torquay, within sight of the U.S. border. The first well, drilled in late 2018, was put on production on Aug. 25. But it’s not producing oil or gas. It’s producing really, really hot briny water, hot enough that you can feel the heat coming off the tanks the water is being stored in. The intention is that when all is said and done, that water from a hot aquifer will be used in an Organic Rankine Cycle power plant to produce electricity. But long before they get to that point, DEEP needs to get a few things sorted out, and that’s where August’s test comes into play. DEEP president and CEO Kirsten Marcia showed Tina Beaudry-Mellor the operation Aug. 26. Beaudry-Mellor holds three ministerial postings; minister of Advanced Education, minister responsible for Innovation Saskatchewan, and minister Responsible for Status of Women Office, all three of which she felt were applicable to this project. “It’s interesting how much those three things intersect today,” she said. “Kirsten Marcia, a young female entrepreneur in a kind of non-traditional space. We just did some lab testing with a young female chem tech; again, a non-traditional space. Doing some great work on renewable energy that Innovation Saskatchewan is funding,” she said. The province, through Innovation Saskatchewan, has been one of the backers of the project. SaskPower has signed a power purchase agreement with DEEP to buy the electricity produced. Beaudry-Mellor made a point of asking those involved about their educational backgrounds, where they got their training and how the got to Saskatchewan. “I’m interested in all those

things,” she said. “I’m really impressed. The renewable energy and drilling space is a bit new for me, so I have a lot of questions to ask. I think there’s a tremendous potential here.” She noted a bit of a “bluesky discussion” about a renewable energy hub, minerals and the possibility of monetizing other products from the geothermal work that’s being done here. “I think that’s really exciting,” she said. Dave Brown is the project engineer for drilling and completions. He said the approximately 220 metres of core retrieved from the 3,530 metredeep vertical hole was analyzed during spring breakup. Now the hole saw a downhole electric submersible pump (ESP) at the end of 3 1/2-inch tubing. “It’s now sitting at 2,500 metres,” he said. There’s a dedicated onemegawatt (500 horsepower) diesel generator adjacent to the hole, powering the ESP. There’s enough fluid in the well that the ESP is placed roughly 1,000 metres above bottom, which means it takes less energy to bring that fluid to surface. Also, deeper than 2,500 metres is the prairie evaporite formation, so thicker casing is required beyond that point. This phase of flow testing has several purposes. “We started production at a lower rate and ramped it up over 12 hours,” Brown said. The hot water, really a brine, first goes through three settling tanks before entering the 27tank farm which will be used as temporary storage. While the initial flow from the well was dark, it soon cleared up, as evidenced by samples drawn into a bucket. “We got some solids initially, but not anymore,” he said. The storage tanks are filled one at a time. The expectation was they would be filled in three days. There are high tech reservoir analysis flow and pressure data acquisition recorders placed downhole in addition to surface pressure and flow sensors. Brown said the well would then be shut in for 12 days after the initial three A2 » CLOSED

Starting young The youngest participant of 2019 Kids Rodeo, Blaise Ebert, was only two years old. She participated in different disciplines, and it seemed that she really enjoyed her mini horse rides, crowd support and a beautiful sunny day at the Estevan Exhibition arena. Photo by Anastasiia Bykhovskaia

Dr. Krickan is heading home By Ana Bykhovskaia abykhovskaia@estevanmercury.ca

Another doctor is leaving St. Joseph’s Hospital this fall. Dr. Edward Krickan came to Estevan in August 2017 after a two-year residency training in family medicine and an additional year of enhanced surgical skills training. Two years later, Krickan told the Mercury, it was now the time for him and his family to move back home to B.C. “My last day will be November 30th,” said Krickan. “The main reason that I’m planning to leave is that my family and I are from British Columbia originally. And after five years away from home and family, we’ve decided it’s time to go back. We’d like to bring our girls back home to be with their family and friends. And we want to be close to home again.” They’ve been thinking about the possibility to move back to B.C. for a while, but it was the recent trip that helped them make up their minds. Krickan said, “The St. Joseph’s Hospital has been a fantastic place to work, and the staff and the patients

Dr. Edward Krickan, left, who rounded out the local obstetrics program in Estevan, will leave St. Joseph’s Hospital in November. Pictured here with executive director for St. Joseph’s Hospital Greg Hoffort. File photo here have been amazing.” Unfortunately, like many smaller communities keeping physicians is a big problem. “I think physicians staying in smaller communities is an ongoing problem throughout the country. I can’t necessarily pinpoint

any one specific reason why it might be a problem here in Estevan, but I do know that a lot of the physicians that I spoke to over the years who have come and gone, it’s quite often related to either physicians wanting to get back home to their families who

GEORGE C.

live elsewhere, or also it can be related to the physicians burnout,” said Krickan. He noted that doctors often get a big load of work with their regular family medicine patients and the emergency room coverage. A2 » THE

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New coal transition co-ordinator hired The new coal transition co-ordinator for the City of Estevan is already familiar with the community. Craig Johnston was officially introduced during Monday night’s council meeting. Johnston was hired for a two-year term thanks to funding through the Canada Coal Transition Initiative (CCTI), which is offering support to communities affected by the pending phase-out of conventional coal-fired electricity. Monday was his first day on the job. “My primary responsibility is going to be to try to give some focus to the efforts to mitigate the problems that are going to be coming down the pipeline during the phasing out of the coal-fired electrical plants,” he said. There are a lot of unknowns at this time, he said, and there’s a lot that could be happening in the community. Mayor Roy Ludwig said Johnston will be tasked with helping with the transition due to the pending closure of Units 4 and 5 at

the Boundary Dam Power Station. Unit 4 comes offline in 2021 and Unit 5 will be retired at the end of 2024. “We’re very happy that you have decided to make Estevan your home,” Ludwig said to Johnston. He responded by saying that he wishes he was here under happier circumstances, but he is looking forward to working with council, the mayor and the people of Estevan to try to find solutions. Johnston hopes to bring economic development, public health, education and other elements together, while working with the private sector and the different levels of government. “There’s so much that we don’t know, and there’s a lot that could be happening here,” said Johnston. He says it’s important for the public to know how serious this is, and the potential impact it could have. “Most of my time will probably be spent with public consultations, consulting with business and trying to get some input in on this. They don’t want this to be

Craig Johnston a top-down process. They don’t want somebody just coming in and imposing this. That’s just not sustainable. You need something that’s going to fit within the community.” Among his previous work experience was working in economic development for the Estevan Chamber of Commerce in 2012. “I loved the people,

loved the community, and I’ve been a big supporter of the energy industry throughout my career. And I heard about some of the decisions that were made in Ottawa, and I knew the effects that it would have this community, and I was concerned and a little bit upset.” He believed his experience would be beneficial for Estevan.

The hospital continues physician recruiting « A1 “It’s too much here for a lot of physicians. They need to boost the number of physicians quite a bit in order to make it more sustainable,” said Krickan. He has recently confirmed his future plans and will be soon working in a smaller hospital similar to Estevan on the B.C. coast. But he underlined that the workload wasn’t his main motivation to leave Estevan. “ There are lots of reasons that physicians are overworked. But I just want to stress the fact that it’s not that I’m feeling too overworked. It’s not my primary motivation for leaving. I think overall the community and the hospital have been a wonderful experience here in Estevan. And the reason that I’m leaving is mainly related to the family and getting back close to home,” said Krickan. Even though Krickan’s departure will be a big loss for the hospital and the community, his decision to move was understood by the hospital management.

“As tough as it is for us I absolutely appreciate that he is moving home and it makes perfect sense for him. And we are extremely grateful for all he’s done for Estevan for the past two to three years. He’s provided a tremendous service from the moment he arrived to, I’m sure, the moment he leaves,” said executive director for St. Joseph’s Hospital Greg Hoffort. In the meantime, a Canadian-trained physician Dr. Ryan Cormier will join the clinic in September and will take over Krickan’s family practice patients once they transition over the next few months. And to make sure that St. Joseph’s Hospital is still capable of providing obstetrics services after Krickan’s departure, the management has two plans underway. “We are recruiting for a full-time replacement for Dr. Krickan and to provide obstetric services and other services as well. And secondly, over the past year, we have composed the group of physicians who

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His wife Marie loved the city when she came to visit during the hiring process, which clinched his decision to come here. Johnston hails from Cupar, and had a business degree from the University of Regina and a master’s in public policy. While he was in university, he had an internship that took him to all parts of the Western Hemisphere, working in economic development. He also started working with the U.S. government, and worked in such countries as China, Micronesia and Afghanistan. He has also taught at universities in a number of countries around the world. Johnston joins Dwight “Fitz” Bramble in the city’s economic development division. The federal government announced in June that it was allocating funding for three projects in Estevan, including one for the City that will provide $260,000, which the city used to hire Johnson to help with the coal transition.

are able to do obstetrical services. So what we are looking to do is expand on it a little bit and until we have a full-time solution in place, to provide the services collectively with the group of qualified physicians who would all do part-time work at St. Joe’s in Estevan,” said Hoffort. He noted that it’s a work in progress, but their ultimate goal is having no interruption with obstetrical services. Hoffort also said that the hospital has an internationaltrained physician slated to start in December. No more details were announced at this time. “Certainly a physician that served our community to the extent of Dr. Krickan will be tough to replace as far as services he provided and the volume of service. But our recruiting continues... We are doing everything we can to bridge the gap for sure,” said Hoffort. “We are unfortunately in the environment where there are still way more physician positions in the country than there are physicians. There are a lot of physicians being trained, but not enough to replace those vacant positions and the physicians who are retiring.” Once Cormier arrives and Krickan leaves St Joseph’s Hospital will have 10 practising physicians, with 9 of those focused on family medicine.

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Closed loop system allows pressure maintenance

Minister of Advanced Education Tina Beaudry-Mellor, in red, was toured around the DEEP geothermal site by DEEP president and CEO Kirsten Marcia, right, and reservoir engineer Claude Ghazer on Aug. 26. Photo by Brian Zinchuk « A1 days of flow. “After 12 days, we’ll move a service rig back in, pull the pump and recorders, and then recomplete it as an injection well for the next step. We’ll put a packer in and a triplex pump and run it through a filter system, reinjecting it into the hole.” The reinjection is also expected to take three days. The total duration of the test work is estimated at 50 days. Overall, he noted this phase confirms the resource is there. Furthermore, this supplementary data collected will be analyzed by subject matter experts to identify other brine constituents that may extracted to be of additional

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value to the Williston Basin Geothermal Power Facility. “The plan is to drill the next well,” Brown said. That’s planned for the latter half of September. That second well is expected to be drilled adjacent to the first well, but instead of going straight down, they will use directional drilling to go off at an angle such that the toe of the well will be at roughly the same vertical depth, but end up 1 1/2 kilometres to the southwest. The result will be something of a triangle. The second well will be the producer, pulling hot brine from the ground. When the power plant is in place, the brine will run through the plant. But for testing purposes, it will be reinjected into the first well, which will function as an injector. That test is expected to take 60 days. That will create something approximating a closed loop in that they will re-inject into the same formation they are drawing from. “Ideally we want to do the closed loop test before Christmas,” Brown said. Claude Ghazer is a reservoir engineer working on the project. He said the core had been one piece of the puzzle, and now all the pieces need to come together. They’ve done

XRD testing, elemental analysis, and determined porosity and permeability. “We’ve done some reservoir modelling to build a test program to gather subsurface reservoir data to find the boundaries and reservoir potential,” Ghazer said. This phase of testing will provide the fluid rates. But by pumping fluid out of the formation, the resulting pressure drop will help them map out the boundaries of the reservoir. Ghazer offered an analogy, saying, “You’ve got a pond and you’re dropping a stone into the middle. It creates ripples and when it hits the boundaries, it can come back.” Understanding that response is important to developing the geothermal field. Measuring the pressure transient data and analyzing it with software allows for reservoir modelling. “You do a lot of this analysis in wildcatting exploration,” he said. Since there are few wells drilled into the Deadwood formation, the target for this project, they’re in essentially virgin territory. Ghazer said it was a unique opportunity to gather this data because it is undisturbed. The injectivity test is another key point. “It’s a flow, build up, injectivity and fall-off test,” he said. Earlier statements from DEEP implied that a much shallower formation, the Mannville, could be used for injecting the high volumes of brine produced during operations. But Marcia said that could be problematic for nearby oil producers who also use that formation for water disposal, and they “want to be good neighbours.”

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Rodeo brought plenty of action this year

Local rodeo fans were treated to two days of competition this past weekend when the Canadian Cowboys Association (CCA) made its way to the Energy City for the annual Estevan CCA Rodeo. Crowds filled the stands at the Estevan Exhibition Association’s grounds Friday and Saturday night for the competition. Participants were also entered in several events during the slack performance on Saturday morning. I n t h e b u l l r i d i n g, Chanse Switzer was the winner with a 77. Kade McDonald was second with a 71, Trinity Bear was third at 70 and Jud Colliness was fourth at 64. Calder Peterson finished first in bareback with a 68, followed by Justin Carrier at 66 and Cruz McNulty at 60. Keagan Crossman was the winner in saddle bronc with a 66 and Kaden Paton was second with a 64. In the tie-down roping, Colt Cornet was with winner with a time of 8.6 seconds. Shawn Williamson was second with a time of 9.4 seconds, followed by Scott Sigfusson (9.7 seconds) and Justin Bridgeman (9.8 seconds). Jeff Heggie won the steer wrestling with an impressive time of 3.7 seconds, followed by TJ Loeppky (4.3 seconds), Kal Klovansky (4.6 seconds) and Zane Marenko (6.3 seconds). Haley Glasr ud won the women’s barrel racing in a time of 15.90 seconds. Rachelle McCannell was second in 16.16 seconds, Mallory Mayert was third in 16.19 seconds and Calonna Slade was fourth at 16.23 seconds. Team roping was won by the team of Clint Kelly and Cody Kelly in 5.4 seconds. Bruce Dunham and Denton Dunham were second in 5.7 seconds, Tuftin McLeod and Tyce McLeod were third at 6.1 seconds and Wyatt Stu-

ber and Clint Schreiner were fourth at 6.2 seconds. Junior events were offered in several disciplines as well. In junior steer riding, Line Chapman was the winner with a 75, followed by Cody Fitzpatrick (72), Tanner Skene (71) and Ryder Zunti (68). In novice bareback, Kade Cheney was first with a 72, followed by Cruz McNulty with a 69, Casey Bear with a 68 and Kenton Francis with a 63. Blaine Lee had the only qualifying ride in the novice saddle bronc, and received a score of 57. Maddy McGee won the junior girls barrel racing in a time of 16.18 seconds. Lily Wilson was second in 16.33 seconds, Macie-Rae Warken was third (16.39 seconds) and Emily Lehr was fourth (16.55 seconds) Duane Gillespie, who was the chairperson for this year’s rodeo, said it was a great event this year. “The performances were good, we had lots of people and the weather held up,” said Gillespie. He didn’t have a tally for attendance, but he said the stands were largely full. A powerful thunderstorm on Saturday morning did cause some delays for the slack performance, but they were able to complete it. The rodeo performers were good to work with, he said. They enjoy coming to Estevan and have a good time. The numbers for the timed events were high and the marks for the judged disciplines were strong. The livestock also put on a good show. “Ground Breaking Rodeo brough good stock. They always do.” A cabaret was held on Saturday night, with Rustic supplying the music. Gillespie said it was well attended as well. He hopes it can once again become a tradition.

Kaden Paton of Estevan was entered in the saddle bronc competition. Photo by Anastasiia Bykhovskaia

Austin Ameel of Oxbow and Roger Dunham were part of the team roping competition. Photo by Anastasiia Bykhovskaia

Denton Dunham of Indian Head was among the tie-down roping competitors. Photo by Anastasiia Bykhovskaia

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A good picture of local police Estevan residents must be pretty satisfied with the level of protection offered by the Estevan Police Service. According to a survey carried out by the University of Regina, 88.9 per cent of respondents were satisfied or very satisfied with the level of service offered by the EPS. Also, 93.2 per cent said they felt the EPS had a visible presence in the community. The document has a whole host of other information and data that reflects what the public thinks. And while it is a fairly small sample size at about 250 people, it’s still large enough for a community the size of Estevan to give people more than just a glimpse of what people think of our municipal policing force. There’s also a long list of other questions that were posed to the public through this survey that range from trust to professionalism to response times. You can argue that there are better things that could be done with taxpayer dollars, but when you consider the University of Regina helped pick up the tab on this, it’s not quite such a bad idea. If the EPS is going to be responsible for the full cost of this initiative in the future, then hopefully, it will happen only once every few years. Still, it’s good for the EPS to know where the public views its strengths and weaknesses, and for the public to know where it views the

local police’s strengths and weaknesses. It’s better to have this data, than to base opinions and evaluations on social media and coffee row. Sure there are things that we wish the police would do differently. We wish they would spend more time in a certain areas. (Additional patrols on Wellock Road a few years ago would be a good example of this). We wish there was more enforcement for speeding, especially in residential areas and restricted speed zones, such as playgrounds and schools. Other people wish that the EPS would have priorities more in-tune with their own ideas for policing. You’ll have those who felt they were wronged by police who just won’t be happy with the police. And there will be others who will accuse the EPS of having a double-standard, enforcing the laws for some but being lax for others. (We know of a recent fundraiser that the EPS shut down that has a gripe with police). There were also concerns with call times in this survey, with only 57.6 per cent of people saying the EPS responded to calls in a prompt fashion. Some people will tell you that the police in this city are overpaid, or that there are too many officers in Estevan. This city currently has 26, with 16 in patrols and 10 for the dedicated units such as the Drug Intelligence Unit. Even though

four of Estevan’s officers are funded through Saskatchewan Government Insurance, some believe that we could stand to lose a few officers. Maybe you wish they didn’t have traffic enforcement blitzes, or you wish they didn’t hand out so many tickets, or that they didn’t give out so many warnings. The percentage of satisfied residents came in a little higher than you might expect, but not that much higher. The EPS is doing a pretty good job. They’re out in the community and engaging with the public. They’re doing a good job of nabbing people for such charges as impaired driving and drugs. Events like the police open house on Saturday give people reason to think the EPS members are approachable. And they’re still pretty busy. The EPS has not seen a significant decline in call volume that you might have expected since the price of oil crashed in 2014. Last month they reportedly had 1,200 calls, making it one of the busiest months they have had in a while. (And that spike in calls wasn’t just due to the enforcement blitz happening early in the month). Sure there are areas that could use improvement, but most people will tell you they’re happy with the EPS, and they still feel safe living and working in Estevan.

The drilling rigs have worked most of their industry out of a job

I have spent a lot of time looking at numbers over the years - numbers of active drilling rigs, oil production, investment in the patch, etc. A significant segment of my efforts is in sorting the wheat from the chaff, picking out the key figures of what matters. One really good source is the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources.Their director, Lynn Helms, has been director of the department quite literally for decades. And as a “director,” he likes to make the allusion to Hollywood, so his regular report is known as the “Director’s Cut.” He’s actually a very affable guy who starts every speech with a pretty decent joke, so he’s entitled to call it whatever he wants. He’s overseen the growth of North Dakota from 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2007 to 1,424,555 barrels per day today. I wrote out that last figure instead of rounding it off because there was something about it that struck me. I recall a conversation with a senior Saskatchewan government official about seven years ago at the Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show. He pointed out that, for much of the prior decade, Saskatchewan’s oil production had remained relatively flat at about 425,000 barrels per day. And that, he noted, was actually quite an accomplishment, given the natural declines every oil well has. North Dakota is now producting a million barrels a day more than what we were so proud of back then. I just came across an interesting resource. On the Saskatchewan.ca website, there is a dashboard which includes oil production statistics. (Where have you been these last 11 years? Did you exist and I not know it?) Unfortunately it speaks in cubic metres, whereas the oil industry often uses barrels. The most recent data shows 2,396,696.8 cubic metres in the month of May. My math says that’s 486,282 barrels per day. If my calculations are

From the Top of the Pile BRIAN ZINCHUK correct, it corresponds very closely with the little infographic on the page which says, “In 2015, the province produced 486,000 barrels of oil per day and shipped about 65 per cent of that production to the United States.” So, we have now finished five years of downturn, and four years ago we were producing pretty much precisely what we are now. All told, that’s not bad given the aforementioned natural declines. But we’re also running a lot fewer rigs. I routinely use Rig Locator, a sister publication within our parent company, for my rig analysis. It says on Aug. 23 we had 45 drilling rigs working. That’s about half of what we had prior to the downturn. Yet we’re still producing the same amount of oil. One of the interviews I did this month pointed out a similar thing. Josh Biggs, owner of Top Torque Services Ltd., said, “You keep hearing all the buzz how the States is booming, but I disagree with that. I look at Baker’s rig count. We’re five years into this downturn. When the rig count drops off, it’s a great time to look. North Dakota, five years ago, 185 rigs. Now? 47. So they’re at 25 per cent of what they were at.” Baker’s numbers differed from the Director’s Cut, which said 61 rigs, but close enough. Biggs’ point is there aren’t nearly as many drilling rigs out there. Canada’s drilling rig fleet has shrunk from 800 five years ago, to 549 today. And now the whole, much-reduced fleet, nation-wide is currently running at only 29 per cent capacity. So what does all this tell us? Not good news

if you’re in the drilling business. You, and your competitors, have largely worked not many, but most of your industry, out of a job. That’s right. Most. When just 29 per cent of a fleet that is already down by 31.4 per cent is working, most of the drilling industry is out of a job. Rigs have simply become too efficient for their own good. The last time I spoke to Helms, a year ago at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference, he noted that the rigs in their state have become 300 per cent more efficient. It used to take an average rig a month to drill a North Dakota Bakken well. That same rig is now drilling three wells in a month. (I should add, a North Dakota Bakken well is not only twice as deep vertically, but twice as long horizontally, compared to a typical Saskatchewan Bakken well.) I’ve been told that advances in bits, with polycrystalline diamond cutters, solids control, and much larger mud motors have all played a factor. But the sorry conclusion of all this is that the Canadian drilling rig fleet is still overbuilt by a very large measure. If we can keep producing the same amount of oil with so few rigs, eventually the conclusion will be that we don’t need that many rigs anymore. I’ve heard tales of long ago of trees growing through rig substructures. I’m pretty sure that’s happening today with the idle rigs, many of which haven’t spun a pulley in years. A lot of that iron is going to be cut up. A lot of capital is going vanish in stranded assets. I understand one rig recently sold at auction for the price of what just one key component cost. They essentially got the rig for free. I don’t know when I will see a new drilling rig in Saskatchewan, but I expect it will be a long time from now, while the fleet continues its merciless cull. Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at brian.zinchuk@sasktel.net.

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Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Ana Bykhovskaia Twenty Lines About…

Let’s come together Throughout these past several months as a reporter covering a lot of the community events, I’m constantly hearing organizers talking about numbers being down. A bit fewer participants join the activities; a bit fewer funds being raised. The situation seems to be quite common no matter what kind of events we are talking with a rare exception like Glow Paddle that is still somewhat new entertainment and so far keeps peeking up the numbers. But look at the community calendar, almost all activities you can see scheduled for a week will have fewer people attending. The Estevan community is awesome. When it comes to supporting the local initiatives, people are so generous. And people are also very conscious, understanding that if we don’t participate, then there will be nothing for our kids and us, that there will be no us, not here. Our shopping local promotion that had thousands of entries in a city of our size once again proved that. But let’s face it, there are only that many rigs drilling around. The future of coal is very unclear. The big Boundary Dam’s carbon capture facility building project is long complete, and there are no new big projects planned. So far, we don’t see any Canadian or international businesses being all over Estevan planning to settle down here. The financial situation in Western Canada has known better days. I’m not sure what’s going on in the east, but since it’s the global economic problem (there are a lot of explanations to this phase, but I’ll leave it aside for now) I’m guessing that they might be experiencing tough times as well. Getting back to Estevan, we now see that a lot of events are slowly losing attendance. But on top of that, some of them are losing public interest as well. There might be few explanations to it. First, when something follows the same scenario every year, it may get old. We are not that big of a city, so same people participate in activities from year to year. Like it was with the Estevan Idol, which then became Estevan Sings. Being an annual event, it had same people performing on stage and same people cheering for them in the stands. So after a few years, the numbers went down and the event disappeared from the Estevan annual calendar. (But when brought back this year after a break it was a hit again.) Another problem is that many of us just cannot afford to attend every single event and support all the great causes. We only have so many dollars a month that we can use to help something or someone, to buy raffle tickets (that even if we win, turn into Christmas presents for people we usually don’t know very well), to send kids to camps, to help local charitable groups, centres and initiatives. More and more often I hear that people have to skip some great events, because, since they are fundraisers (for very important and needed organizations) everything is quite expensive and the current middle class can afford to attend probably one or two a year max. So maybe it’s the time to come together and start combining some of the activities Estevan has to offer. Be it summer camps, or rodeo and fair as it used to be, or any other kind of event. I wasn’t here when rodeo and the fair were held the same week, but now I hear a lot of good memories and raves to that format. Estevan summer camps are wonderful (I think I visited a good dozen and wrote about many more). They have a lot to offer, they are creative, they are goal-oriented, but most camps this summer also had fewer kids attending. Cultural, educational, entertaining and community-building events that different groups put together also have a hard time attracting the crowds. (EPS are doing good with their events, but not only are they well thought through and really entertaining, but they are also free of charge, and that’s hard to beat). I always was taught that when hard times hit, you have to start thinking out of the box. Even if you were eaten, there are at least two ways out. I’m sure Estevan organizations have many options to keep going and serving their goals, but it’s not the time when we can just follow our regular paths. And I believe some Estevan events and activities combined together or reorganized will get a second wind and will only win from that. Hard times are tough to live through, but wonderful for creativity. Hard times bring people together (the lone wolf dies but the pack survives, if you know what I mean), so why not stand to gain from it?

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Drug testing centre sees an increase in “surprisingly” positive results By Ana Bykhovskaia abykhovskaia@estevanmercury.ca

It seems that Estevan has been hearing about methamphetamine or other drugrelated arrests at least once a week lately. Tara Smart, who runs the drug-testing centre SE Options Consulting, believes there might be a frightening explanation to the increased presence of these drugs. “I’d say especially in the last year or so we are just seeing things that we never used to see. For so many years basically, we just saw a lot of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical in marijuana responsible for a euphoric high). We never saw anyone really positive for meth or fentanyl. It was very, very rare. And now we are just seeing a lot more of it,” said Smart. Her mother was running the business for over 20 years. Recently Smart and her husband bought it, and while being even closer to the operation they started noticing very alarming tendencies. The centre has very strict confidentiality policies. They just collect information and are not enforcers of any kind. But the rise in the alarming cases they are seeing made them spread the word. Because even more frightening than just the traces of dangerous and highly addictive drugs was the facts that more and more people whose tests came positive for those narcotics weren’t aware that they consumed anything like that.

“ We see people that come in and … (they) are genuinely shocked with the results of their drug tests because they were certain that they were maybe positive for THC or something. And then meth and/or cocaine shows up as well,” said Smart. The centre is coming across more and more cases like that, which makes specialists assume that people consume strong drugs not directly but mixed into something, allegedly, marijuana. “Marijuana and things like that are being laced with things like fentanyl, meth,” said Smart. “Drug dealers, they don’t care about people’s safety. They just care about business. So the faster you can get someone hooked…” People think that they may just smoke a joint and might be positive for that, but the results show that they are in more trouble. Besides high, methamphetamine and fentanyl get people chemically addicted very quickly. Smart said they see less fentanyl use than meth, but there was none before. She believes that’s been going on all across Canada and in general, isn’t something new, but for Estevan, it is a problem that didn’t exist in the community throughout the past few years. “We haven’t seen a lot of it until more recently.” To a certain degree, the tendency might be a sad spinoff of cannabis legalization. The prices at the licensed cannabis stores remain higher

than at the black market, while the consumption of marijuana was normalized. Which means that people are more likely to smoke a joint, but trying to save money still buy it from illegal dealers not knowing what exactly they are getting. “People need to be careful what they are buying and using,” said Smart. “It’s frustrating because prices at dispensaries are probably double what you can get say from a dealer. That’s why so many people aren’t using the dispensaries because they can get it cheaper. However, they don’t know exactly what they are getting. They think they do. But our tests sometimes show otherwise.” Smart also noted a rise in positive tests for opioid use, which also may be a sign of a growing heroin problem in Estevan. “ We are seeing more tests that have multiple ‘not negative,’” said Smart, recalling cases where they saw cocaine, THC and fentanyl all on the same screen. Another scenario that the centre hears more and more about is situations where people get so drunk they don’t remember consuming drugs until others remind them after. That’s not the first drug wave in Estevan, however, during the last Estevan boom years, most tests were positive for cocaine, which people could afford then and were consciously consuming. Now when most citizens don’t have

the money to feed their addictions but feel the craving for a high, meth and fentanyl come into play putting the community’s safety under threat. Smart has recently written a post on Facebook, outlining a dangerous tendency she and her staff are witnessing in the Estevan area. The post has been shared over 800 times. She is a parent of three kids, and all of the centre’s employees have teenage children, so for them, the increasing presence of drugs in Estevan was not only a professional concern but also personal. Besides, Estevan is Smart’s hometown. So the post was aimed at creating a safer environment, educating about the current situation and also encouraging parents to talk to their teenagers and make sure they know what they may get into without even knowing it. “If you choose to smoke a joint or something like that, you must be aware that it may not just be that kind of thing.” And this problem is relevant to not just teenagers. “For us everything is about safety… And these are community members out there working in safetysensitive jobs. These are our families, our husbands…” Smart believes not just teenagers, but the entire community should be aware of a possible danger “What you see isn’t always what you get. Just be very careful with your decisions,” said Smart.

Patron joins field for upcoming federal election A third candidate has joined the field for the upcoming federal election in SourisMoose Mountain. Travis Patron of Redvers is currently on the ballot as an independent, but he is hoping to be a candidate for the Canadian Nationalist Party. Patron is the leader of the party, which has yet to be approved by Elections Canada. If the party receives the green light, then he hopes they will have some candidates for the Oct. 21 federal election. Patron said they have some people who are interested. He decided to run in Souris-Moose Mountain because it’s his home riding. He knows more people here than in any other constituency, so as a new political party, he believes it’s easier to spread their message. “I feel like I can serve this

district better than any other, given my background in the agricultural community as well as the financial technologies industry. In this district, having a background of agriculture, oil and gas and some of the development in terms of startup businesses and start-up technology is uniquely fitted towards my skill set.” He said it would take a lot of hard work, a good strategy and some luck to win. He has been visiting communities, distributing pamphlets and letting people know there would be another option on the ballot. “I find that people are interested in a new party regardless,” said Patron. Patron also hopes to get their ideas out. “In order to effectively get our ideas out into the public consciousness so to speak, it’s

Travis Patron important to actually be able to compete and win electorally,” said Patron. He has received criticism online for statements that have been described as anti-Jewish and even racist. The party lists anti-Zionism for party ideology, saying that the State of Israel has acted in a way that does not meet the

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standards of an ally. He also calls for immigration reform and demographic change, which he said are based on the feedback they have received from Canadians. “Demographic stability is something that people implicitly want to see. And we are a political party that has this at the forefront of our campaign. We believe our current system is unsustainable, not only in the rate of immigration, but the type of immigration and the sources of immigration that we are using.” He would also like to see Canada drop the British monarchy and have its own domestic head of state. Patron joins incumbent MP Robert Kitchen of the Conservative Party and Phil Zajac of the People’s Party of Canada in the field for the riding.

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Wednesday, August 28, 2019

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Police release results from satisfaction survey

By David Willberg dwillberg@estevanmercury.ca

The Estevan Police Service (EPS) has released the details from a public satisfaction survey carried out earlier this year. Dr. Rick Reddell and Dr. Nicholas Jones from the University of Regina compiled the report following a telephone survey of 250 Estevan residents in June and July to gage the public’s feelings towards the police. According to Police Chief Paul Ladouceur, the university covered the majority of the costs, while the EPS was responsible for the remaining expense. According to the findings, 88.4 per cent of respondents ranked their overall level of satisfaction with the EPS as being satisfied or very satisfied. Police chief Paul Ladouceur said the EPS was quite pleased with the findings, as they exceeded provincial and national standards when comparing with other agencies. “It does give us a good earmark figure of the areas we need to improve on, and that’s part of the strategic plan moving forward,” said Ladouceur. “Obviously we look at that and see it as one measure of what the community thinks we can improve on.” But he pointed out the survey is opinion-based, and is not based on data. The one area that was lower than expected was only 57.6 per cent of people thought the police did a good job of promptly responding to calls. It’s something the EPS

will look at by studying its internal data. “Some of the rationale behind that is often related to the size of the community. In Estevan, there’s a certain expectation by the community that the police will respond to every type of call, while in larger centres, the community isn’t necessarily as accustomed to that.” Seventy-six per cent of people thought the EPS did a good job of enforcing the laws, 76.4 per cent viewed the EPS as approachable and easy to talk to, 59.2 per cent thought the EPS was good at supplying information to the public on ways to reduce crime; 76.8 per cent thought the EPS ensured the safety of citizens in the area; and 63.2 per cent thought the EPS treated people fairly. Also, 68.2 per cent indicated they felt safe or very safe in Estevan, and 69.6 per cent believed crime in their neighbourhoods had stayed the same or decreased in the previous two years. Other findings from the report were: • More than nine in 10 respondents (93.2 per cent) somewhat or strongly agreed that the EPS officers had a visible presence in the community, and 95.6 per cent of people felt that police visibility was the same or had increased in the previous year; • Eighty-four per cent of respondents somewhat or strongly agreed that the EPS demonstrates professionalism in its work; • Over four-fifths (83.2 per cent) of respondents somewhat or strongly agreed

Police Chief Paul Ladouceur that the EPS is an organization with integrity and honesty, while 82.4 per cent of respondents said EPS officers understand the issues that affect their community.

When asked about local policing, the respondents strongly agreed or somewhat agreed that the following activities should be prioritized: responding to gang offenders

and drug trafficking (85.2 per cent); reducing drinking and driving (78.4 per cent), responding to property crimes such as break and enters (66 per cent) and reducing aggressive and dangerous driving (65.2 per cent). Slightly less than half of respondents felt that a greater emphasis should be placed on enforcing municipal bylaws. Almost two-thirds of respondents (62.8 per cent) said that the police should place a greater priority on increasing interactions with different community groups, and particularly with young people. When asked about whether they would pay an additional $10 in funding per year to assign a community education officer to work in the Estevan schools, 60 per cent of respondents said they would. They were less willing to increase their taxes by $2 per month to improve police visibility. Ladouceur admits he

was surprised to see that residents would be willing to pay a little more if they knew that money was being directed to crime education in schools. “The public felt that there could be more education and crime prevention in our community,” said Ladouceur. “While we may see as a police service ourselves doing a very good job in that area, clearly more needs to be done” This marked the first time in a number of years that such a survey has been completed regarding the EPS. Ladouceur couldn’t find anything from the past decade. “One of the best ways to measure your success as a police agency is to look at public perception. They’re the ones paying the tax dollars for the service. A good business asks its customers how it’s doing. A good police service asks its citizens how they’re doing.” The police chief doesn’t expect this is going to happen every year, but it’s good to embark on every few years.

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Selling Burgers to Beat MS Kim Robinson, left, and Brooklynn Hayward from the Estevan A&W hold Teen Burgers that were sold at the restaurant Thursday morning during the annual Burgers to Beat MS Day. Two dollars from the sale of every Teen Burger at the restaurant, and other A&W locations across Canada, were directed to the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society of Canada to help find a cure for the disease, and to support individuals with MS and their caregivers. Just over 1,000 burgers were sold. Combined with the revenues from the MS jars at the front of the restaurant, games that were organized by the staff, and a raffle of a wooden Canadian flag that was created by Living Skies Woodwork, a total of $2,890 was raised locally. Local celebrities also helped sell burgers that day.

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2019 5:30PM-8:30PM REGISTRATION Estevan Leisure Centre TUESDAY, Multi Purpose Room SEPTEMBER 10, 2019 TUESDAY SPIN 6:10 AM - 6:50 AM, 9:10 AM - 9:50 AM 5:30PM-8:30PM LAND AWE 9:00 AM - 9:45 AM CHAIR YOGA 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM CITY OF CORE 2.0 10:00 AM - 10:30 PM, 12:15JOIN PM - 12:45A PM ESTEVAN PIYO FLOW 10:40 AM - 11:10 PM FITNESS CLASS MOM & BABY PIYO LIVE 11:15 AM - 12:00 PM FITNESS Find out more information about the fitness ZOOMER 1:00 PM - 2:00 classes PM offered at the Leisure Centre. CLASSES TEAMWORK SPIN 5:30 PM - 6:10 PM CITY OF GRIT 6:15 PM - 6:55 PM WEIGHT ROOM 6:00 AM - 9:00 PM SOURIS ESTEVAN VALLEY FITNESS WEDNESDAY GRIT 6:10 AM - 6:50 AM, 9:10 AM - 9:50 AM MUSUEM LAND AWE 9:00 AM - 9:45 AM CLASSES CHAIR YOGA 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM SKATING REGISTER FOR EASY STRETCH 10:10 AM - 10:50 AM PROGRAMS BROOMBALL ESTEVAN SOURIS MOM & BABY /Register STROLLER BOOTCAMP 11:15 AM - 12:00 PM in the Multi Purpose Room Register in the Multi Purpose Room GRIT 12:15 PM 12:45 PM more information on next page. more information on next page. BOWL VALLEY SCULPT LIGHT 1:15 PM - 2:00 PM MUSUEM P90X 4:30 PM - 5:10 PM SPECIAL CORE 2.0 5:30 PM - 6:00 PM BEGINNER BOOT CAMP 6:15 PM - 6:55 PM OLYMPICS ESTEVAN WEIGHT ROOM 6:00 AM - 10:00 PMRED CROSS BOWL THURSDAY SPIN 6:10 - 6:50 AM, 9:10 AMSWIMMING - 9:50 AM ESTEVAN LAND AWE 9:00 AM - 9:45 AM LESSONS MINOR SPECIAL Register at the Leisure Services FITNESS ZOOMER 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Office or online at estevan.ca HOCKEY OLYMPICS CORE 2.0 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM, 12:15Course PM -selections 12:45 PM will be PIYO POWER MOM & BABY PIYO LIVE ZOOMER SPIN GRIT WEIGHT ROOM

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Coop Kids Curling | Grades K - 2 | Nov 3 - Dec 15 | Sundays 1-2pm | $60 Coop - 5 |toNov 3 - Dec 15 | Sundays 2-3pm | $60 SeasonKids runsCurling October| -Grades March.3Fees be determined U15 & U18||age Grades 6 -12 | Oct 29 - Feband/or 11 | Tuesdays | $185 CanSkate 4 and older | Monday Thursday6-7pm 6:15-7pm For more information email estevancurling@accesscomm.ca Figure Skating | Passed CanSkate 5| days and time to be determined For more information email estevanskatingclub@gmail.com

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Season runs October - March. Fees to be determined CanSkate | age 4 and older | Monday and/or Thursday 6:15-7pm Season runs from September - mid November Figure Skating | Passed CanSkate 5| days and time to be determined Recruitment night | Females grades 4 -12 | Sept. 12 & 15 | 5:30 - 7:00 For more information email estevanskatingclub@gmail.com Practice | Females in grades 4 -12 | Thursday & Sunday $180 fee For more information email wcn157@hotmail.com

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U15 | under 15 | twice a week U18 | under 18 | twice a week Senior | 19+ | twice a week For more information please email Season runs from Sept 22 - Dec 8 kristinamuhr@outlook.com Sundays from 2pm - 3pm Challenger Baseball is an adaptive baseball program designed to empower athletes living with physical and cognitive disabilities. Season runs from Sept 22 - Dec 8 For more information email Sundays from 2pm - 3pm challengerbaseballestevan@gmail.com Challenger Baseball is an adaptive baseball program designed to empower athletes living with physical and cognitive disabilities. For more information email challengerbaseballestevan@gmail.com 10 week Fall session $135- Sept 20th Babies (3-11 mths) |Fri 9:15am or Sat 9:15 Tykes ( 12 - 24 months ) Sat 10:45am Tots ( 2-4 years ) Fri 10:45am For more information please email jenniferdunne@intellidance.ca 10 week Fall session $135- Sept 20th

CHALLENGER BASEBALL

INTELLIDANCE ESTEVAN

Babies (3-11 mths) |Fri 9:15am or Sat 9:15 Tykes ( 12 - 24 months ) Sat 10:45am Tots ( 2-4 years ) Fri 10:45am For more information please email jenniferdunne@intellidance.ca

A8 August 28, 2019

See the ads created by Estevan kids! For the first time this summer, the Estevan campus of the Southeast College gave the younger kids a chance to have a taste of the professional world. The summer camps that ran throughout July and August gave children exposure to different career paths and taught many new skills, including advertising.

Seven participants of the last camp of this summer, which was called Performing Arts Week, had a chance to try their talents in the Estevan Mercury and SE College Back to School promotion, and create real adds for businesses of their choice. “The kids were able to pick the ad they wanted to start with. Many chose businesses their

parents or grandparents work at,” explained Janay Marr, summer camp co-ordinator. It wasn’t that easy of a job and some of the young ad designers were a bit frustrated in the beginning. “When we brought it up the kids seemed quite confused and unsure,” said Marr. “As a group, we read through each

ad and brainstormed ideas. Together we drew our ideas on board and the kids would choose what to draw.” They also discussed the Estevan community and different businesses that kids are surrounded by. Then students could choose from markers, crayons and pencil crayons for their

ads. Most of them used pencils first and then coloured their pictures in. “The kids enjoyed creating advertisements. Once we could make connections to the businesses the kids had a lot of fun with it,” said Marr. She noted that when doing it again, she would give children more area to work with.

“The kids needed to have a larger drawing area. On some advertisements there was not much space to draw or create a descriptive picture,” said Marr. But all ads turned out to be really unique and personal. All kids’ creations can be found on the pages of the Mercury.

Ready for the movie Addison Fleck, left, and Nixon Fleck were among the young people who attended the drive-in movie at the Southern Plains Co-op’s Estevan grocery store on Monday night. Billed as The Last Family Party of the Summer, it was a chance for people to gather for a fun evening out. Young people built cars out of cardboard to watch the movie, and a fundraising barbecue supper was served. Students from the Estevan Comprehensive School’s band program provided music.

WESTMORELAND MINING HOLDINGS LLC A Subsidiary of Westmoreland Mining Holdings LLC Estevan Mine

GRAZING LAND FOR LEASE

Sealed bids will be accepted at the oﬃce of Prairie Mines & Royalty ULC (“PMRU”) Address: Estevan Mine, Box 3000 Estevan, SK S4A 2W2 A�n: Stephen Kitchen un�l 12:00 noon CST, on Wednesday, September 11, 2019 for the lease of the following parcels of land for grazing purposes: 1. Ptn of the W ½ lying east of the RM road, all in Sec15-2-6W2 of na�ve grass land totaling 158 acres. 2. Ptn of W ½ 15-2-6W2 and Ptn NW10-2-6W2, lying west of RM road and, north of haul road, and east of spoil piles totaling 103 acres. 3. Ptn of NW¼, NE¼, SE¼ 10-2-6W2, lying east of RM Road, northeast of haul road totaling 245 Na�ve grass land. 4. Ptn of S½ 10-2-6W2, Ptn of N½ 3-2-6W2 lying southwest of haul road and east of old mine buildings totaling 77 acres of reclaimed land and 32 acres of old spoil. 5. Ptn of NW, NE, and SE9-2-6W2 lying east of haul road, south of access road, west of end cut, and north of old ramp of reclaimed land, totaling 150 acres. 6. Ptn of all of 16-2-6W2 and Ptn of NW17-2-6W2 lying west of spoil edge, north of access road, and east of old haul road of reclaimed land, totaling 360 acres. 7. Ptn of SE¼, SW¼, NW¼ 17-2-6W2 and Ptn of NE¼ and SE¼ 18-2-6W2 lying north of haul road, and west of Bienfait Plant Site totaling 147 acres. 8. All that Ptn of N½ of 18-2-6W2 lying north of haul road, totaling 120 acres of Na�ve grass and 60 acres of old spoil.

19085ps0 19085ps1

Condi�ons: a. The installa�on and maintenance of at least a three-wire barbwire fence on all four sides of each parcel except for the length of the large water bodies shall be the responsibility of the successful bidder. b. The area of all water bodies is included in the parcel acreage specified above. c. The RM taxes assessed against the land will be paid by the successful bidder. d. Bids (cost per acre) are to be placed on an individual parcel basis with the parcel number and land loca�on clearly marked on the outside of the sealed envelope. e. GST will be added to the successful bid. f. Cash rent is to be paid in advance each year for the dura�on of the poten�ally renewable yearly lease. 2019 invoice will be pro-rated to 25%. 2020 and beyond will be paid in full. g. PMRU reserves access rights to all leased land, including the right to remove lands from Lessees as needed for mining opera�ons. h. Terms will be cash upon no�fica�on of the successful bidder. i. PMRU reserves the right to award leases at its sole discre�on, and the highest or any offer will not necessarily be accepted. j. Bids (cost per acre) will revert back to a pre-determined cost per acre by PMRU, at the discre�on of PMRU a�er the 2022 Grazing season. k. Successful bidders will be required to execute PMRU’s standard form lease agreement.

For more informa�on, contact Stephen Kitchen at (306) 636-7841 or Clayton Stenhouse at (306) 636-7809

Aspen - 8 Southeast College for kids

68 Souris Avenue N., Estevan | 306. 634. 2654 | www.estevanmercury.ca

Energy

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Working at Deep Earth Energy The Deep Earth Energy Corporation’s site outside of Torquay has been very busy, thanks to the work that is proceeding on the project, which is the first of its kind in Canada. Photos by Brian Zinchuk

A key piece of hardware is the electric submersible pump, the pipe in the centre of the photo, seen here just before it was lowered into the well.

It might be a geothermal project, but all the service providers are oilpatch related, and most come from Estevan. In this picture, the service rig is from Independent Well Servicing, the tanks and containment come from Black Diamond, the bed truck and foreground picker are Camion Trucking, the distant picker is from Bert Baxter Transport. A few days earlier, the mud being mixed in the tank came from Prairie Mud, and L&C Trucking had brought in the tubing.

FREE the ALIENS

The Rig 9 crew from Independent Well Servicing ran the tubing in.

all of in

Print and

Online

Hot Seat Draws beginning at 6pm - 12am

COMMERCIAL SAND BLASTING & PAINTING

FEATURING

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SPECIALIZING IN INDUSTRIAL COATINGS AND LININGS We’re ready to meet any of your protec�ve coa�ngs and linings needs. We can work on your site or in our facili�es, with large shops (60,000 sq. �.), 40 acres of yard space, and cranes and forkli�s on site. INCLUDED IN OUR SERVICES ARE: PROTECTIVE COATINGS PLANT MAINTENANCE SHOP & FIELD SERVICE TANK LININGS ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAINMENT INDUSTRIAL FIBERGLASS NACE CERTIFIED INSPECTORS

This is a closeup of the electric submersible pump used downhole.

September 20 | Show - 8pm

CONCRETE PROTECTION STRUCTURAL STEEL ENGINEERED LINERS SHOTCRETE SPRAY POLYURETHANE FOAM INSULATION FIRE PROOFING

Dress your best in alien attire!

Saskatoon Office PO Box 26053, Saskatoon, SK S7K 8C1 306-931-2820 office@csbp.ca Esterhazy Office 1010 Commercial Drive, Esterhazy, SK S0A 0X0 Chad Lussier, Area Manager 306-222-7116 esterhazy@csbp.ca www.csbp.ca

Bear Claw Casino (306) 577-4577 Growlers Restaurant (306) 577-4258 Bear Claw Hotel 1-877-909-2327 Highway 9, White Bear First Nation North of Carlyle, SK www.BearClawCasino.ca

THE ESTEVAN MERCURY DRILLING REPORT CARLYLE / ESTEVAN ¼ PAGE - 4.854” x 8”

Drilling Licenses

12 new licenses issued to Monday, August 26 133276 127339 133609 133839 133856 132728 134590 131546 131544 134370 134590 131545

Vermilion Energy Hz ............................................................................................................. 6-9-6-14 Torc Oil & Gas Hz ................................................................................................................. 1-32-9-8 Vermilion Energy Hz ............................................................................................................. 4-14-4-3 Burgess Creek Exploration Hz............................................................................................... 6-35-4-8 Vermilion Energy Hz ........................................................................................................... 7-27-2-14 Crescent Point Energy Vert ................................................................................................... 1-28-8-9 Highrock Resources Hz ........................................................................................................ 13-2-6-7 A-1 Drilling Corporation Vert .......................................................................................... 13-35-14-33 A-1 Drilling Corporation Vert ............................................................................................ 13-5-16-30 Astra Oil Corp Hz ................................................................................................................ 16-34-2-4 Highrock Resources Hz ........................................................................................................ 13-2-6-7 A-1 Drilling Corporation Vert ............................................................................................ 3-34-14-33

Rig Report 111108 Lasso Drilling Corp. ................................ Aldon Oils ........................................................... 16-26-5-7 131619 Horizon Drilling..................................Vermilion Energy...................................................... 7-23-6-15

124496 122089 124544 125794 124562 125873 120907 115693 120925 123274 131730 128282 132981 133276 132695 133320 115721 124200

Akita Drilling .................................. Western Potash Corp .............................................. 12-20-14-17 Precision Drilling ......................Canadian Natural Resources ............................................. 16-4-4-31 Akita Drilling .................................. Western Potash Corp .............................................. 12-20-14-17 Alliance Drilling..............................Crescent Point Energy.................................................. 16-20-8-7 Akita Drilling .................................. Western Potash Corp .............................................. 12-20-14-17 Alliance Drilling..............................Crescent Point Energy.................................................. 16-20-8-7 Horizon Drilling..............................Crescent Point Energy................................................ 13-10-1-12 Ensign Drilling ...............................Crescent Point Energy.................................................. 12-28-6-8 Horizon Drilling..............................Crescent Point Energy................................................ 13-10-1-12 Precision Drilling ...........................Crescent Point Energy.................................................... 1-27-8-9 Panther Drilling..................................Vermilion Energy.......................................................... 1-8-3-1 Trinidad Drilling .............................Crescent Point Energy................................................ 12-25-2-19 Betts Drilling ........................................Triland Energy ........................................................ 12-31-6-4 Horizon Drilling..................................Vermilion Energy........................................................ 6-9-6-14 Trinidad Drilling .............................Crescent Point Energy.................................................. 14-7-1-13 Stampede Drilling ...............................Fire Sky Energy ....................................................... 15-10-5-9 Ensign Drilling ...............................Crescent Point Energy.................................................... 4-17-7-7 Precision Drilling ...........................Crescent Point Energy.................................................. 13-21-8-9

A10 August 28, 2019

EPS Open House: Building a safe community together By Ana Bykhovskaia abykhovskaia@estevanmercury.ca

Up until the last minute it wasn’t clear if the Estevan Police Service (EPS) would proceed with their open house event. The rain was pouring Saturday morning, but Police Chief Paul Ladouceur checked the radar and decided to proceed. The decision proved to be right. “(The EPS Open House) went really well. The weather did co-operate in the end, so it was a huge relief,” said EPS programming co-ordinator Monica Rae. Shortly after the rain, the EPS invited the community to come over for a great day full of activities and entertainment. “It’s a very good turnout, similar to years past,” said Ladouceur. “To connect with the community, there is no better way.” And seemed that the public was very grateful for this opportunity. “It’s nice to raise awareness with the Estevan police. We are really enjoying it, and the kids really like it,” said local resident Maria Walter, noting that her son Kade’s favourite part was interaction with K9 unit Max. The station was open for tours, who could learn all about the world of policing, check out the cells, have a peek at the shooting range and much more. At times people would line up in front of the

station waiting for their turn to go inside. “This is the community’s police service. They should be able to see where their funds are going and how their dollars are being spent,” said Ladouceur, explaining why they open the station. There is always a concern about how much the police should show. But even though anybody could explore the station, Ladouceur said it still remained safe. “We have a high level of security that we don’t advertise, so we know what’s going on,” said the police chief. Fortunately for the tourists, there was nobody in custody so the cells were open to the public that day. The Estevan Fire Rescue Services, RCMP, EMS, SGI, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, the Estevan Family Resource Centre and the Southeast Newcomer Services joined the event. Kids with painted faces and balloons in their hands could have their fingerprints taken at the ID station. The fire truck, ambulances, police and RCMP vehicles were also open so guests could go inside, check out the systems and start the sirens. Kids had a blast interacting with the funny and smart SGI Bucklebot. Bert Baxter had donated their BBQ for the police use on Saturday. So EPS members cooked a barbecue launch, which was greatly appreciated along with all the activities.

Damian Gervais made sure that everyone in Estevan could hear the sirens of the police van. “I think it’s a great event. There is a lot for kids, there is a bouncy castle, face painting, balloons. They are being totally spoiled with treats,” said Misty Pennington whose daughter Sadie’s favourite was a hotdog cooked by Deputy Police Chief Murray Cowan. In general the bouncy castle set up in front of the Court House was one of the biggest attractions for kids. “ The kids loved the bouncy castle. It’s always a hit, and ours is unique being

The second EPS Open House attracted many families on Saturday.

a police car,” said Rae. She outlined, that the event wouldn’t turn out the way it did without the volunteer help and community support. “We were just so grateful to have volunteers and members of EPS, and everybody just pulling together as a community to make this event happen,” said Rae. “We were really thrilled that people are taking an active interest in our police service. It means a lot to us. And our community is

a huge part of our community being safe. And their commitment to safety is really appreciated.” To keep the event interesting and exciting the EPS plans to have it every couple of years. But the next one may happen a bit earlier. “I would assume that when we do the expansion to the facility we probably will have one for that, as an exception, an open house so people can see why we are doing it and what we are do-

ing,” said Ladouceur noting that it will be nice to have that extra office space for the EPS operations. The hope is that the shovel will be in the ground this year. Throughout the afternoon the EPS had bike patrol and traffic services units, CID and K9 vehicles, van and the Challenger on display. And even though a number of the EPS members were involved with this PR activity, the main work went as usual for patrols.

The SGI Bucklebot was there to talk to children about road safety and answer their questions.

Avi - 6 Southeast College for kids

Senchuk Ford Sales Ltd.

1102 4th Street (306) 634-1800

118 Souris Ave. N., Estevan 306-634-3696 • www.senchuk.com

August 28, 2019 A11

SOUTH EAST CORNERSTONE PUBLIC SCHOOL DIVISION #209 2019-2020 SCHOOL BUS SCHEDULE BUS NUMBER

*** Any questions please call Evelyne at 306-636-7458 *** SPRUCE RIDGE/ESTEVAN COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL

82-220

a.m. route

HILLCREST ELEMENTARY/ESTEVAN COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL 82-218

Approximate Pick up Time

a.m. route

Henry & Popular Bay