May 14, 2020

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May 14, 2020

Locally Owned and Operated Celebrating Twelve Years of Community

VOLUME NO. 14 - ISSUE 19

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Waiting in Anticipation National Nurses Week

Many children across the country have been waiting for the opportunity to utilize the play structures in their local parks again following the closure due to COVID-19 precautions. See page 6 for more information.

Page 2 -MAY 14, 2020 - martensville messenger

JP Massage Taking Extra Precautions As They Prepare to Re-Open Jocelyn Ottenbreit, Martensville Messenger

When Tegan Chappell decided to purchase JP Massage Therapy in February of 2018, it was an easy transition as she was very familiar with the clinic, having originally joined the team in September of 2012. Things were transferred over to Chappell one by one and the clinic was officially purchased by Chappell in April of 2018. Former owner Pam Schepp stayed until the end of October.

The therapists that work at JP Massage Therapy are all self-employed contractors that rent their space and are free to set their schedules for what works best for them. “This is mutually beneficial, and works really well for all of us involved”, said Chappell. Currently, there are six therapists in total. They don’t have a dedicated frontend staff, but rather handle the calls, emails, or messages between clients themselves. “We like being able to speak with clients ourselves, and this allows us greater connection to the people we are working with.”

Two therapists have been around since 2011 - Amanda Livingston and Darcel Woytowich. Theresa Zeyha joined in 2016, Sharla Lindsay began in 2018, and the most recent therapist, Angelique Favelle joined their team in March.

Just like many businesses, they were forced to close their doors due to COVID-19 on March 19th. Massage Therapy was categorized as Phase 2 for reopening Saskatchewan and will be returning on May 19th. “We will have been closed two days short of nine weeks by then. Over the last week we have been rescheduling the appointments we had to cancel, and just opened online booking for the general public again,” Chappell explained.

Of course with reopening, they will have new protocols and procedures to follow for the clinic. They have marked their floors and adjusted the seating to allow for proper distancing for clients in the clinic, and have brought in hand sanitizer for everyone to use upon arrival. “We have always taken pride in how clean the clinic is, but are increasing our standards and cleaning our rooms and common areas between clients on a much higher level now.”

The therapists will be wearing masks, eye protection, and aprons when treating patients, or in areas where they cannot maintain the two metre distance required. Clients are not required to wear a mask, but are welcome to bring one if they like. They also are spacing treatments a little further apart and staggering appointments as best they can to avoid having too many clients in the lobby at one time.

All clients will be receiving a confirmation email when booking about the new protocol, as well as a reminder email the day before treatment with the most up to date information. This information can also be found on a dedicated page on their website (https://www.jpmassagetherapy. com/covid19), and the ‘JP Massage Therapy’ Facebook page will be updated as needed.

When asked what Chapell’s concerns about her business were during these uncertain times, she stated, “I am cautiously optimistic about the next weeks and months. We simply do not know how this time is going to go, and our first concern is always for the health and safety of our clients, their families, and our course, ourselves and our families.”

There are also concerns about the availability of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) as more businesses open and the supply chain becomes more strained. Along with many other businesses, Chappell has concerns about finances during this situation, as two full months of closure with all expenses still being paid was a big burden. Additional costs of PPE, specific cleaning supplies and disposable products like paper towels instead of the cloths that were currently used, add to the stress. Although she appreciates the ways that government has offered to aid small businesses, unfortunately their clinic was not eligible for most benefit or relief programs out there currently. “I feel fortunate to know that I can open the clinic again, as not every small business has that luxury and many will unfortunately be closed permanently.”

Chappell is very hopeful, yet a little nervous for the future. As they continue to follow to recommendations of the local health officials and government, she is optimistic that as the requirements lessen, things will become easier.

JP Massage Therapy clinic has been given a lot of support from their clients over the past months. As they had to cancel appointments that were very needed by the patients, they expressed their concerns about the welfare of Chappell and all the therapists. “They were asking how we were doing, if we were okay, and wishing us luck in the future. It feels like this little pocket of communities really pulled together when apart, and did their best to let us know they would be here for us if we needed. I feel very privileged to get to work here and call these people not only my clients, but my friends too.”

ABOVE: The JP Massage Therapy crew. L-R: Theresa Zeyha, Sharla Lindsay, Tegan Chappell, Darcel Woytowich and Amanda Livingston. Missing is Angelique Favelle.

martensville messenger - MAY 14, 2020 - Page 3

Civic Services During the COVID-19 PandemicWhat you Should Know!

At this time, all City facilities are closed to the public, including reception areas. City Staff are available to work with the public via phone or email. Questions or inquiries can be directed to City Hall via phone (306-931-2166) or inquiry@martensville.ca during this time.

Residents and Customers are requested to carry out transactions electronically such as online banking, preauthorized payments or TIPPS. Cheques may also be dropped off in the drop slot at City Hall.

After Hour Water and Sewer Emergencies - should still be directed through the Emergency line at City Hall, (306) 931-2166, ext.1.

Protective Services - There are no changes in duty or status to Protective Services such as the RCMP, Martensville Fire Department, and Ambulance Service.

Water and Sewer - These services remain unimpacted and unchanged, including water quality testing. Meter reading will continue to take place; however, staff will not be doing reads of meters located inside of homes or occupied buildings. In these cases, estimates will be taken or reads can be provided into City Hall. In respect to water and sewer emergencies, city staff will not be able to enter resident homes at this time and private contractors should be considered. The City of Martensville will no longer charging interest on water and sewer accounts indefinitely to assist residents impacted by COVID -19 impacts.

Garbage and Recycling - Services remain in place and on schedule with no anticipated service delays at this time. Organics collection has also commenced.

Road Maintenance - will continue as required, including snow removal, and is not expected to change at this time.

Contactless Payment Options Utilities and Taxes The City of Martensville offers a number of ‘contactless’ payment methods including: • T.I.P.P.S The Tax Installment Payment Plan Service - offers equalized monthly property tax payments.

• Utilities Pre-authorized Payment Plan -authorize automatic withdrawal from your account from your financial institution to pay for your utility bill.

• Online & Phone - Please contact your bank for assistance in setting up online and phone payments.

• City Hall Drop-Box- Cheques can be dropped off at City Hall in the mail slot at the front of the building at your convenience.

See all ways to provide payments or to inquire about any of these services please visit Martensville.ca

Organics/Green Bin Program and Pick-ups

Utility and Property Tax Updates - The City has implemented a number of measures to assist property owners and businesses during the pandemic, currently in place:

The City of Martensville offers a Green Bin program through Loraas Organics. This service is by subscription only. If you are interested in enrolling, please contact City Hall to sign up for this service.

• Interest charges on utility bills will be suspended until November 1, 2020.

• Water service will not be discontinued due to non-payment or overdue account status.

• The deadline for property tax payments will be extended from July 31 to October 30, 2020.

• All interest charges on property tax owing will be suspended until November 1, 2020.

• Business license renewal notices will be delayed until normal operations resume – all expired business licenses will remain valid until further notice.

Pick up of the Green Bins has commenced with regular scheduled bi-weekly collection alternating between North/South Martensville and running from May until the end of October Pick-up take place on Tuesdays. The pick-up schedule can be viewed at Martensville.ca

Stay Informed! -The City of Martensville has created a dedicated webpage to provide information, updates and additional resources around the COVID-19 pandemic. This page is accessible through the homepage at Martensville.ca.

For information or to sign up for this program contact the Utility Clerk at City Hall

Please continue to follow us, media sources and information from the Province of Saskatchewan for the most current information around updates or new measures for the prevention of the spread of COVID-19

Street Sweeping Season Street Sweeping has commenced in the community with the emphasis on an initial sweep and a focus on the arterial and collector roadways.

Sweeping will commence in residential areas so please watch for signs and posts in your neighborhood. We ask that vehicles be removed from the streets on your ‘sweep’ day however tickets will not be issued, nor vehicles towed away.

Friendly reminder to please stay back from Street Sweeping equipment as crews work.

For more information about street sweeping contact City Hall.

May - June Council Meeting Dates

Please Note: The upcoming Council Schedule may be subject to change based around any potential new developments around the COVID-19 Pandemic. Anyone interested in attending is strongly encouraged to contact the City Clerk prior to planning to attend.

Regular Council Meeting- May 19th Regular Council Meeting- June 2nd Committee of the Whole- June 9th Regular Council Meeting- June 16th The Regular Council Meetings are located at Martensville City Hall Council Chambers.

Martensville City Hall - 37 Centennial Dr. S. All meetings commence at 5PM. Those wishing to address or do a presentation to Council must be placed on the agenda.

To be placed on the agenda please contact the City Clerk’s office at City Hall or visit the website for details.

The full Council and Committee of the Whole Schedule can be obtained at martensville.ca

2020 Tax Notice Error- Penalties The Notices for the 2020 Tax Notices were recently delivered to property owners, however there is an error in respect to the ‘Penalties on unpaid current taxes’.

The 2020 Tax Notice should read, Penalties on unpaid current taxes will Commence November 1st at 1% per month.

We apologize for confusion around this error. If there are questions about this, assessment, taxation or ways to pay your taxes, please contact City Hall or visit us on Martensville.ca.

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City of Martensville Continues Work on Water/Wastewater Project With Saskatoon Shanine Sealey, Martensville Messenger

With spring in the air, Martensville residents may also notice something else in the air – the smell coming from our local lagoon. Although it may not be the most pleasant aroma, City of Martensville Director of Planning and Infrastructure Matt Gruza notes that it is a common experience for all lagoons. “A certain period of odour can be expected in the spring as the lagoon warms up and the bacteria and enzymes become active. Last year, additional aeration was added to the primary treatment cells of the lagoon, and has already had an improvement on the lagoon odour. Our sewer and water crews are also performing regular cleaning and maintenance of the lagoon aerators, which helps to ensure everything is functioning as designed. We are also treating the lagoon with chemicals to help minimize the period of time when lagoon odour is an issue,” Gruza explained.

With more people at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as an early spring thaw, lagoon levels increased faster than originally anticipated this year, therefore, in addition to draining treated effluent into the river, they were also required to discharge treated effluent to the Opimihaw Creek to gain capacity. Currently, the City is discharging treated effluent into the river through the drain-line, and Gruza noted that comparable to other years, there were sections of pipe that were frozen and/or plugged, which crews worked diligently on to get the pipe open and fully operational.

The current lagoon system began seeing increased pressures on the holding capacity and treatment ability due to continued growth in the community; therefore the City began looking for alternate options. In March of 2019, the City of Martensville announced that they received a $20.16 million grant through the New Build Canada Fund, which would be used towards upgrades to the City’s wastewater treatment and water distribution systems. Through the New Building Canada Fund, all approved projects are funded one-third by the Government of Canada, one-third through the Provincial Government and one-third at the municipal level.

With this funding, the City of Martensville will be upgrading the existing lagoons, building a new gravity conveyance system to connect to the City of Saskatoon’s sanitary sewer system, and upgrade the existing sewer lift station.

Gruza stated that the project is still moving forward, with Phase one completed, which included upgrades to Pump Station #1 and communication upgrades at the other lift stations. “This increased the capacity of pump station number one, as well as modernizing the controls, testing equipment and the building itself. We are continuing to work with administration from the City of Saskatoon on the detailed engineering for a wastewater line and a water supply line between Martensville and Saskatoon.” This project is expected to be completed by 2022.

In the meantime, there are ways that residents of Martensville can do their part to help. “Residents can help keep the sanitary sewer system (lift stations, sanitary sewer mains, and lagoon) functioning properly by only flushing waste and toilet paper. There is a major issue in the wastewater industry with “flushable wipes” causing blockages in pipes, and damaging equipment,” stated Gruza. He continued to note that although products are advertised as “flushable”, they do not break down the same way that toilet paper does, and ultimately, need to be removed from the sanitary system by some mechanical means. “This is not a problem that is isolated to Martensville. Many communities are having issues with “flushable” wipes in the sanitary sewer system.”

ABOVE: The City of Martensville began looking at options for their water/wastewater systems after the current lagoon system began seeing capacity issues due to an increased population. Currently, work is being done towards a project which will see water purchased and provided to Martensville by the City of Saskatoon, rather than through the Saskatchewan Water Corporation. This project is expected to be completed by 2022.

Building

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Shanine Sealey, Martensville Messenger

The Martensville Farmers Market will once again be running this year; however there will be a few changes made.

Marjan Petter, who is in charge of organizing this year decided to change locations in order to be more visible in a higher traffic area, therefore the Farmer’s Market will now be located in the Corner Store parking lot, across from Canadian Tire and Dollarama.

“When we had it at the rink, we had some vendors that felt we weren’t getting enough customers and lots of the vendors decided not to come back. We wanted to move to an area where we ABOVE: A variety of items will would see more traffic, so be available at the Martensville Farmer’s Market once again; this seemed like a good place to have it this year,” however, they are still looking for more vendors to take part.

Petter said.

The first market of the year will be held on Wednesday, July 8th and will run each week until September 16th (weather permitting) from 10am – 2pm.

With restrictions set in place due to COVID-19, Petter noted that they would be taking the required safety precautions to ensure the public’s safety.

“We have a new start this year, and are looking for new vendors to participate in the market. I am also looking for someone to help me out with running it. If I hadn’t offered to run it, there was no market this year and I thought that would be too bad,” added Petter.

The Martensville Farmer’s Market is looking for vendors who do homemade, home baked, homegrown and home raised products to participate. If interested, contact petterfarms@gmail.com. Those participating are required to commit to participate in 80% of the market days. For anyone selling home baked, processed food; they are required to have their food safety.

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martensville messenger - MAY 14, 2020 - Page 5

Schutz Sees Much Success Both On and Off the Ice Jocelyn Ottenbreit, Martensville Messenger

Levi Schutz of Martensville started with his first reffing clinic in 2007 and since then, he has been officiating over the past 11 years since 12 years of age. His first games were in Martensville at the Initiation level. From there, he began officiating in the SJHL at only 16 years old, which was one of the youngest at the time.

To take it to the next level, Schutz was selected at Level 4 to attempt to earn his Level 5, which opened the door for him to officiate at the highest level of hockey in Saskatchewan.

This includes potentially the WHL level, although not all Level 5 officials are offered a position with the Western Hockey League. Only a few individuals are selected from the Level 4 officials in the province every second year to attempt this. They are chosen by the Referee’s Division Executive Board for the Saskatchewan ABOVE: Levi Schutz Hockey Association.

Getting his level five as an official involved many hours of evaluation, testing and getting officiating hours in. It also involved much travelling - four or five games a night from Flin Flon, LaRonge, Estevan and in between. To get to level five designation, you must have above 90 on rule knowledge, pass fitness and skating testing, and pass an on-ice evaluation. Schutz received his Level 5 from Hockey Canada in 2017, and joined the WHL Officiating team, skating in 48 WHL regular season games. This included 14 games during the 2019-20 season.

In the fall of 2019, Schutz was selected to attend the Hockey Canada Level 6 seminar in Brossard, QC. “The Level 6 designation is the highest level an official can receive in Hockey Canada, and I am honored to have been the youngest selected official in Canada,” stated Schutz. The Level 5 designation is awarded to the top officials in their member province, while the Level 6 is awarded to the top referees in the country. “Being a Level 6 allows you to be chosen to represent Canada as a referee at international events such as the Olympics, IIHF World Juniors, World Championships, etc.”

There are very few Level 6 officials in Canada and to achieve this level, you must first be identified as one of the top Level 5 referees in the province. Just like there is scouting of players, there is also scouting for referees.

The SHA Referee’s Division prides itself on supervising officials at almost every game in the WHL and SJHL. Both on-ice evaluations and a significantly difficult rule knowledge exam must be passed to attain the Level 6 designation.

“The Level 6 seminar that I was selected to attend in 20053da0 Quebec was truly a once-ina-lifetime experience. While in Quebec, as part of our on ice evaluation by a qualified national supervisor, we were given the opportunity to referee University and Junior AAA hockey games.

It was extremely eyeopening and challenging to referee completely French players, and experience the different culture in the Quebec arenas.”

The seminar consisted of active NHL and alumni guest speakers, off-ice workouts and power skating sessions led by Dave Smith, the NHL Official's Director of Fitness, and rule knowledge sessions. At this camp, all of the referees were exposed to referee scouting by the American Hockey League, National Hockey League, and the International Ice Hockey Federation (AHL, NHL, IIHF).

“Every year, the officials in every hockey game are the third team on the ice battling for a playoff position. At the elite levels, your on ice performance dictates your post-season opportunities. Throughout the past couple of seasons, I’ve had the opportunity to referee the playoff finals in Midget AAA, SJHL, and Canada West University Championships, as well as being selected to officiate at the 2019 Canada Winter Games in Red Deer. As a now Level 6 official, I can hopefully continue to officiate at elite national and international events, and perhaps an opportunity at the professional level.”

The group of referees at the elite level in Saskatchewan and the WHL is very closely knit. “Although it’s a treat to be able to officiate every hockey game with my friends, it’s the on-ice competition with one another that continues to drive each other to get better, and this can be seen at even the minor hockey levels in small-town rinks.”

Refereeing elite hockey presents great travel opportunities, and Schutz has met many distinguished people in the hockey community. “It’s an honor to step onto the ice in every hockey game, but especially in WHL games where I once dreamed of being involved. It is truly a unique feeling to be able to perform in front of up to 15,000 fans, even when the hometown fans aren’t happy with you. Although I was once a player - I wouldn’t trade the opportunities that officiating has provided me for the world.”

Schutz spent this past winter juggling his hockey officiating with his schooling.

He just graduated from the U of S from the Anatomy and Cell Biology program. He is also a big part of the Martensville Community serving as a Fire Fighter/Medical First Responder. When asked how COVID-19 has affected the way the department trains and responds to calls, Schutz said, “We have greatly increased our decontamination procedures at both the fire hall and in the field as well as implemented online training programs for all of our members to stay up to date with our constantly changing protocols and procedures due to COVID-19.” The Saskatchewan Health Authority is consistently providing specific direction for all First Responder agencies in the province to ensure the safety of both the public and emergency responders.

Congratulations on all of your achievements, Levi, and the best of luck to you in the future!

Council Discusses Donation of Lot to MCRP and Lane Complaints at Committee of the Whole Shanine Sealey, Martensville Messenger

Martensville City Council held their monthly Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday, May 12th where a number of items were discussed.

The first item on the agenda was regarding an item that was brought to Council at last week’s meeting from representatives of the Martensville Community Recreation Project (MCRP) that asked for Council to approve their request for the City to donate a city owned lot, located on the corner of 4th Street South and MacCormack Road. If approved, the MCRP plans to construct a home; through donation of services by local tradespeople; to be sold with proceeds going towards the construction of a new multi-purpose sports facility in the community. Council was provided with a background report about the history of the property and given potential conditions of the sale. Council was in favour that administration continues to work on this project, which will then be brought back to a future meeting for formal approval. City Manager Scott Blevins noted that he would be in communication with the MCRP regarding their plan to move forward with this request.

The next item on the agenda came from Matt Gruza, City of Martensville Director of Infrastructure, regarding the lane behind Hiebert Cres, Bendel Cres and Ginther Pl. In May of 2017, the City received a letter which outlined concerns over the volume of traffic, speeding, dust and noise caused by vehicles using the lane. In June of 2017, Council was

presented with this issue; however, since that time, the situation has not improved.

On April 25th, another letter was sent to Council from the same resident that submitted one in 2017. The resident expressed concerns that no changes had been made to address this issue, and that the problem still continued. Gruza recommended that Council approve the request for concrete barriers to be installed to control the flow of traffic, as well as the installation of posts, chain and signage to ensure that this is visible, safe and prevents motorists from driving around the barriers. Gruza also stated that the area be monitored to ensure that the requested solution is effective and does not create any further maintenance or operational issues. It was decided that more information would be collected and the item would be brought back in June for further discussion and formal approval.

Lastly, Community Economic Development Manager Dillon Shewchuk presented his monthly report to Council, which included an update on the Regional COVID-19 Task Force, which was created in partnership with the City of Martensville, City of Warman and Prairie Sky Chamber of Commerce. This group is in place to help businesses navigate their way through the COVID-19 pandemic.

The next regular Council meeting will be held Tuesday, May 19th.

More information on upcoming meetings, as well as the agenda for each meeting can be found at www.martensville.ca.

For details on Council meetings, see more information on page 3 of this issue.

ABOVE: The MCRP provided a conceptual design of the home that they want to build on the lot they requested from the City of Martensville in order to raise funds for the new multi-purpose sports facilty planned for the community.

Page 6 - MAY 14, 2020 - martensville messenger

Provincial Politics with

Murray Mandryk

COVID-19 Contradictions an Inevitability

The novel coronavirus is under control and the curve is being flattened … except where it isn’t and the plan to reopen Saskatchewan is proceeding in a sensible, methodical way … except where that’s not happening.

If COVID-19 developments of the past week have sounded like an incomprehensible riddle, it’s likely because it’s been just that. Really, there’s only one or two things predicted that have actually come to fruition: As our politicians suggested would happen, there have been setbacks. And as one would think would happen in a crisis of unprecedented nature and proportion, some mistakes were inevitable. So let’s look at what’s happened in the past week ... and maybe what’s worked and what hasn’t.

Yes, Premier Scott Moe and doctors with the Ministry of Health and the Saskatchewan Health Authority are right that the virus is mostly under control. We have had 487 cases as of the writing of this column, but only 171 are considered active. In what government classifies as southern and central rural Saskatchewan, there are zero active cases and less than 20 cases in the two major cities.

The problem is the “north” (specifically, an outbreak in the Lloydminster hospital) and the “far north” (specifically, La Loche 500 kilometres north of Saskatoon) that now account for 37 and 114, respectively, of those 171 active cases right now.

The La Loche situation is exceptional, in that it was brought into the community by returning oilsands workers from Alberta’s Kearl Lake and spread like wildfire through the impoverish community with a severe housing shortage where people live in close quarters.

While government officials were quick to point out this is an isolated outbreak, they were equally quick to point out such outbreaks brought in from the outside could happen in most any community (as was the case in Lloydminster) and we need to be vigilant as a result.

The government said it was doing its part by excluding Lloydminster and the north from last week’s first phase of the Re-Open, Saskatchewan Plan.

It wasn’t exactly consistent with the overall message that now is a good time to start the province wide re-opening process; but, as earlier suggested, virtually nothing in the situation we are now in lends itself to consistency.

So the Saskatchewan Party government forged ahead with the re-opening of dental, optometric and chiropractic services last week, notwithstanding the obvious difficulty of providing such procedures while keeping a safe social distance.

This was accompanied by allowing golfing, fishing and camping that can more easily achieve social distancing.

Again, some would argue that this is a misplacement of priorities. But maybe it’s a reflection of how tough it is to provide consistent policy, leaving plenty of opportunities for the second-guessers to complain how we are either proceeding too fast or too slow.

The only solution is to try and fix such problems as they arise, which seems to be what the SHA did last week when it unveiled its schedule to return to other medical procedures.

That begins on May 19 with procedures ranging from cataracts to hysterectomies to cochlear and thoracic procedures to MRIs, CTs, X-rays and ultrasounds, to breast biopsies to orthotics and prosthetics to chronic disease support to baby and prenatal care to home care and public health nursing, immunizations, public heath inspections, dialysis and mental health and addiction services including small group therapy.

Why some of these procedures didn’t happen earlier has a lot to do with what could realistically be done and maybe what government and health experts got right and wrong.

There have been mistakes and there have been the need to make exceptions; but what this whole COVID-19 crisis has really shown us we all need to adapt, to be patient to simply figure things out as we go.

Community Parks Remain Closed Due to COVID-19

Due to COVID-19, all playgrounds within Martensville were closed to the public this past March.

This closure included all parks with play structures or fitness pods, school playgrounds and the Kyle Syrenne Skatepark.

Since then, with school also being shut down for the remainder of the year, many children are disappointed that they are unable to play at their favorite parks.

Although there is no specific date set for when parks will be open to the public, they are included in Phase 4 of the Re-Open Saskatchewan Plan.

Pathways and the Dog Park remain open; however, residents are reminded to maintain physical distancing and proper hygiene protocols.

BELOW: All parks in Martensville, including the fitness area in Kinsmen Park are closed to the public until the province announces re-opening dates for Phase 4.

Reducing Gun Violence in Canada Cathay Wagantall - Member of Parliament for Yorkton - Melville

This Liberal government is not serious about reducing gun violence. If they were they would be going after dangerous criminals instead of targeting law abiding firearms owners. But instead, Justin Trudeau is using the current pandemic and the immediate emotion of the horrific attack in Nova Scotia to push the Liberals ideological agenda and make a major firearms policy change while Parliament is not sitting.

Taking firearms away from law abiding citizens does nothing to stop dangerous criminals who obtain their guns illegally. In fact, an engagement paper by this government found that, “the vast majority of owners of handguns and of other firearms in Canada lawfully abide by requirements, and most gun crimes are not committed with legally owned firearms.” Moreover, “any ban of handguns or assault weapons would primarily affect legal firearms owners.”

The reality is, the vast majority of gun crimes are committed with illegally obtained firearms. Nothing the Trudeau Liberals announced addresses this problem.

Any serious measures to make Canadians safer should not focus on punishing legal firearms owners It should be on funding and supporting initiatives that would directly impact smuggling and illegal sales of firearms in Canada.

I side with all Canadians on the importance of supporting common sense firearms policies that keep guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals.

Why is the Prime Minister choosing to potentially spend billions of taxpayer dollars to buy back guns from honest, law abiding citizens who continue to follow all the rules Would a wiser decision not be to make funding police anti gang and gun units and a CBSA Firearms Smuggling Task Force their first priority?

How about investing more in youth prevention programs, getting serious about rural crime, creating tougher sentences for violent offenders and supporting courts and prosecutors?

How about getting serious about increasing access to mental health and addictions treatments?

Twenty two innocent people lost their lives in Nova Scotia at the hands of a deranged killer. Canadians are rightly upset by this horrific attack and want answers The RCMP has made it clear the shooter did not have a firearms license so all of his guns were illegal. As the RCMP s investigation un folds we will have greater clarity on the source of his firearms.

The Prime Minister and his Minister of Public Safety need to explain why they are targeting law abiding firearms owners when their government s own research shows that the data does not conclusively demonstrate that handgun or assault weapon bans have led to reductions in gun violence.

A serious plan to reduce gun violence after all, is what all Canadians want.

Letter to the Editor The Martensville Messenger welcomes letters to the editor for publication. Letters must be signed and a phone number and/or email address included so the writer’s identity can be verified. ALL letters are the opinion of the writer and NOT the Martensville Messenger. We reserve the right to edit letters for length, clarity or compliance with the current standards of public taste. Submit your letter to news@ martensvillemessenger.ca or mail to Box 333 - Martensville, SK S0K 2T0.

martensville messenger - MAY 14, 2020 - Page 7

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WMBEXA 2017

BUSINESS OF THE YEAR RECIPIENT

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Back to Business

On May 19th, phase 2 of the Re-Open Saskatchewan Plan will begin.

During this phase some of our local businesses that we all support will be reopening their doors.

Reopening means something different to everyone. Common reasons for opening when they can include: for their family, for their mental wellbeing, for their community, for their financial health, for their employees and for their customers.

To support businesses during this re-open phase, the Warman & Martensville Regional Business Task Force has launched a Back-toBusiness Toolkit with important information about PPE and health and safety guidelines.

All business owners want to ensure everyone’s safety and will be following all guidelines to ensure a safe experience for all.

We respect that some businesses may choose to remain closed for the time being. We support all businesses and their decisions at every stage of the Re-Open Plan.

Local businesses appreciate your support and understanding and look forward to seeing you soon!

Virtual Prom Is On! Cadderly Kingsbury, Martensville Messenger

With Covid-19 cancelling all of the graduation ceremonies, the seniors of 2020 are missing out on a very important and exciting moment of their lives. For many of us, it seems like our 13 years of work is not being rewarded the way we hoped. That is why the Student Life Network, an organization based out of Toronto, decided to host a nation wide virtual prom. With the help of 36 students from across the country and Kids Help Phone, this event will be put on by students for students.

The event, titled #PromIsOn is a live-streamed ‘virtual prom’ to give Canadian students a way to celebrate their senior year together, while staying apart. The students attending can show off their graduation outfits, win prizes, dance to a live DJ set from Loud Luxury (Juno-winning artist) and hear messages from Canadian Heros. The best part is that for every student that participates, a donation will be made to Kids Help Phone, an organization that helps with the mental health of children across Canada. Students can take part in the #PromIsOn challenge on Tik Tok, and the promposal challenge at the @studentlifenetwork instagram page.

The live event will be streamed on YouTube on May 22, 2020, at 8pm ET. Those who RSVP by going to promison2020.com will be updated on the live stream and giveaways. Tik Tok and Instagram are sites being used to promote #PromIsOn, so check it out on those platforms to find more details.

Kids Help Phone is Canada’s only 24/7 e-mental health service that offers free and confidential support in English or French. As the country’s virtual care expert, they give millions of youth a safe, trusted virtual space to talk over the phone, online chat or through texting with Crisis Text Line powered by Kids Help Phone at any time. Our goal is to raise $100,000 through virtiual prom.

For any other questions, visit promison2020.com or go to @studentlifenetwork on instagram for more information and updates on the event. See you there!

Warman & Martensville Regional Business Task Force #LoveWhatsLocal

402A First Avenue South, Martensville, SK

20053ns0

Telephone: 306.244.2242 Facsimile: 306.652.0332 www.wlawgroup.com

The W Law Group is pleased to welcome JASON BRUNTON Jason has practiced in the area of Family Law for a number of years. His wealth of experience will strengthen our ability to provide exceptional legal services to the residents of Martensville and surrounding district.

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