There was some big news from 15 Wing Moose Jaw on Wednesday as the Ministry of Defence continued to roll out $452 million in infrastructure packages this week for training bases across the country.

The local airbase will get $6 million dollars for upgrades towards military housing and just shy of $2 million worth of work for the airfield itself.

Colonel Alex Day says he's happy to see the upgrades because the housing is a very important part of the base.

"Since many of the students spend less than a year in Moose Jaw for pilot training, the availability of quality military housing in close proximity to where they train is essential so they can conduct their demanding military flying training without worrying about their housing requirements."

Day added that the ability for pilots to have to have a house and live with their family is a large part of their success. The Colonel continued to say that airfield repairs will certainly help the base, considering it is the busiest in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

The projects are expected to be completed over the course of the next two years.

Things have gotten a little better in the province when it comes to crime but Saskatchewan still leads the nation when it comes to the annual report on crime rate from Statistics Canada.

While the crime rate dropped 2% comparing 2013 to 2014, Saskatchewan was still the worst out of all the provinces in the country with 10,000 criminal code offences being recorded for every 100,000 people.  That's 2000 more cases compared to Manitoba who landed in second place.

Jillian Boyce is a Senior Analyst for Statistics Canada and says a drop in drug crimes helped to improve the overall situation in the province.

"Part of the reason for the decrease was fewer offences related to the trafficking, production or distribution of cocaine as well as a decrease in homicides."

Saskatoon takes over from Regina as the city with the highest crime rate, but Regina is right behind in second place when compared to all major Canadian cities.

Maggie Sinclair and Scott McMann of Conexus present James Murdock, Patti Shirkey and Dr Awie du Toit with the cheque

Another step closer to hitting their goal, the Moose Jaw Health Foundation celebrated another major donation to their Capital Equipment Campaign this morning.

Conexus Credit Union presented a cheque for $250,000 and Vice President of Conexus Business Solutions Maggie Sinclair can't wait to see the new regional hospital that their donation will help to furnish.

"We're very proud, and very excited. I can't wait to be able to go in and see the facility next week, I'm looking very forward to that," said Sinclair. "I think that for Moose Jaw and for the area, the surrounding area, I think the state-of-the-art that we're getting is phenomenal, so I'm very excited."

Health Foundation Volunteer Chair James Murdock was all smiles as he accepted the cheque, saying the support of Conexus is integral to their campaign.

"It is truly a special day, just to see the support that Conexus continues to do throughout the community," explained Murdock. "With their generous contribution, that puts us at about 90% of our goal. So we're getting close. We're getting very, very close."

There's a chance the campaign could be done before the hospital even opens but Murdock said they can't slow down just yet.

The donation brings the campaign to $7.26 million with a goal of $8 million total.

There might be rain in the forecast but one weather expert is telling local producers not to celebrate.

Drew Lerner of World Weather Inc says thunderstorm activity heading into the weekend won't be enough to counteract the drying trend that the province is in right now.

"The situation really is no different today than what it has been," said Lerner. "The computer forecast models are suggesting a better opportunity for rain in all of the drier areas in Saskatchewan as we go out into the last days of July and the first week of August, but that's always the case it seems."

Lerner is advising producers to be cautiously optimistic when they see rain in the forecast for any area of the province, especially in drier regions.

"These areas will have an opportunity for a few showers," explained Lerner, "but there certainly won't be enough precipitation to counter evaporation or to change soil and crop conditions in a major way."

Lerner says the computer forecast model is showing storm activity for the next seven days across the province with a chance for pockets of significant rainfall.

There's plenty of different vegetables coming up through the ground down in Wakamow.

The Mosaic Community Food Farm is well into their growing season, and Rachel Runnalls from the Food Farm says they're growing a variety of different vegetables.

"We have squash and cucumbers, corn, beets, onions, beans, peas, tomatoes, potatoes, chard, maybe a little spinach, we got lettuce, and that sounds like a lot but it is just really one kind of each of those things," said Runnalls. "People can eat immediately fresh, like the salad, or we'll store through the winter. It's all looking green and gorgeous and we're very pleased with how things are growing."

Runnalls says that although the province has been dealing with an ongoing drought, everyone who has participated in the food farm is happy with how well it has developed.

"Everything has come up out of the ground really beautifully," explained Runnalls. "The dirt was an unknown factor because we have never tried planting anything down there before, but it has been really retaining water well, which is really key when we're in a drought."

Runnalls explained to us what they plan to do with the home grown produce.

"When we harvest it, we have a few places that we immediately prioritize. The Moose Jaw Food Bank, we drop food off there and they wash it and bag it and give it out." said Runnalls. "So we're really delighted to be able to make those deliveries today, tomorrow and the next day."

The Riverside Mission also benefits from deliveries from the food farm.

Members of the Saskatchewan Dragoons helped to fight the fires in northern Saskatchewan this year

Premier Brad Wall and Prime Minister Stephen Harper will get together Friday in Regina to talk shop.

The PM in Saskatchewan as part of a tour of western Canada and wild fires is expected to be a talking point.

Wall has pitched an idea that there need to be a federal program to try and work with provinces to deal with fires in remote areas.

After being missing for more than a day near Old Wives Lake, Glennys Koraca has been found safe and sound, not far away from where her vehicle had become stuck in a pasture.

Moose Jaw RCMP say the woman called friends Wednesday evening saying her vehicle was stuck and her phone was about to die. When she didn't check in the next morning, her friends called police.  An air and ground search for her started Thursday but there was no sign of her or her vehicle.

Late Thursday evening she was finally found about 10 miles from her vehicle. She was transported to Moose Jaw Union Hospital for examination. 

Saskatchewan maintains the unfortunate title of being the crime leader in Canada and local numbers show crime is still an issue in Moose Jaw as well.

While we don't lead the nation like Saskatoon or Regina, we do have our own problems according to Police Chief Rick Bourassa. There were 3 more robberies in 2014 than in 2013, 3 more sexual assaults, 12 more cases of common assault and 4 cases of serious assaults.

That said, our small population can impact the appearance of large increase in the crime rate.

"It does set up the situation where a small increase in the number of incidents can have a big impact in terms of percentages." explained Bourassa. "We had an increase of three robberies, which turned out to be a 50% increase in robberies."

But he's not just shrugging off the numbers, saying any increase is a reason to take a look at what they're doing as a police service and they continue to work on preventative measures like meeting with students and at risk groups to try and keep them on a good path in life.

On the heels of five dispatchers being laid off a week ago, the union representing Moose Jaw Firefighters is ringing warning bells.

President of the Moose Jaw Professional Firefighters Association Gord Hewitt sees the loss of the dispatcher positions as a sign of things to come and has released this statement to Moose Jaw residents, on the association's behalf.

~~~~~~~~~~~

What does your fire service cost in Moose Jaw?

At a cost of just 47 cents a day to the average household, Moose Jaw has one of the most affordable full-time fire departments in Canada.

Despite this fact, the city of Moose Jaw continues to allow frontline fire department resources to dwindle, which will inevitably have a negative impact on public and firefighter safety, while saving taxpayers pennies, if anything.

The Moose Jaw Firefighters Association can stay silent about these cuts no longer. We believe you and your family have a right to know how city decisions about fire department resources might affect your family’s safety.

As many people may be aware, on Friday July 17th all Moose Jaw Fire Dispatchers were relieved of their duties. Dispatching for the Moose Jaw Fire Department is being moved to a Provincial call center in Prince Albert. This results in the loss of four full-time and one part time dispatcher, five good jobs in our community and people who lived and worked in our city of Moose Jaw. They were five people who understood the uniqueness of our neighbourhoods and rural areas. This is essential as a point of contact for the public when they have an emergency.

We were also informed that our Mechanic position will remain vacant, permanently.  Unfortunately our Mechanic, Garth Rogers, passed away in April. This position was included in the budget for 2015. Garth performed continuous preventative maintenance, so our equipment was ready to use when we and the public needed it most. This equipment is specialized, unique to our department and vital to the safety of our firefighters and the residents of Moose Jaw. Firefighters have continued to perform minor maintenance on equipment however; much of the work requires a mechanic trained to work with this specialized equipment. In addition, the mechanic is responsible for much of the building maintenance, performing double duty.

Additionally, in 2004 we had a Fire Inspector position and Training Officer position deleted.

The department is currently short staffed 2 Firefighter positions. They are currently being backfilled by overtime rather than the significantly cheaper option of hiring 2 junior firefighters. This leads to the speculation the next cut will be to our fire suppression division. This would reduce the number of firefighters that will respond to your emergency.

Last year the decision was made to no longer support the requirement of Firefighters to maintain an EMT or Primary Care Paramedic license. We had approximately 30 firefighters trained to this level that have now been reduced to First Responder status. The Fire department operates within a 2 tiered medical response system. We respond in conjunction with EMS to life threatening medical emergencies. Often, there is the possibility that we will arrive prior to EMS to initiate patient care. We also respond to several types of incidents where only fire has access to patients.

Having Firefighters trained to the Primary Care Paramedic level is a value added to the Moose Jaw Fire Department and to the residents of Moose Jaw. It changes nothing when it comes to firefighter wages, it’s just simply better for the community and more responsibility for the firefighters. Our Association supports a department that is well trained, operationally effective and trained to the highest standard. We want to be equipped to provide optimum service to the residents of Moose Jaw.

These changes are all a symptom of a bigger problem, the continued marginalization of the Fire Service in Moose Jaw.

Our current staffing level has been in place since 2000 when we entered into contract with 15 Wing to provide structural fire protection. At that time we had a minimum of eight firefighters on duty, four at each hall. 15 Wing took into consideration the minimum safety standards required for firefighters to perform basic emergency functions of our job and made it a requirement that initial response would be five firefighters from South Hill supplemented by additional firefighters from North Hill fire hall. The proposal to 15 Wing was that the department would hire eight additional firefighters and a deputy chief. We would have a minimum of five firefighters responding from each hall. This is an excellent benefit to the City of Moose Jaw. It is our understanding that in 2015, the City will receive $1.18 million dollars for this service.

In 1999, the City concluded its second independent fire hall review. Both studies showed the minimum number of firefighters that should be on duty at one time in the City of Moose Jaw should be 10. These studies were done by experts that evaluated the specific needs of our City. Since this time, research was done by the “National Fire Protection Association” (NFPA) and other institutes, to determine appropriate staffing levels for fire departments.

The result was the NFPA 1710 standard. NFPA 1710 tells us that in order for a fire department to operate safely at a two-story residential fire, there should be 15 to 17 firefighters on scene within 8 minutes. We have 10 to 12. Additional studies have now been completed by the National Institute for Science and Technology that reiterate the importance of staffing levels.

Over the past 2 years residents have been asked to participate in surveys related to City services. The first survey found Fire to be the top-rated service. It also found that citizens valued fire protection second only to ensuring quality in the water supply.

The second survey was the Citizens Budget Survey. Again citizens showed the value they put in the fire service by voting for an increase to the budget. Not a decrease. The third survey was the Cast Iron Replacement survey. Option 5 was to cut the operating budget and transfer funds to water main replacement. This would require 10% reduction in existing services. Again, the results showed an overwhelming majority did not want cuts to services.

So why is the City continuing to cut resources and staff from the Moose Jaw Fire Service despite the public’s feedback? Resident’s tax dollars were spent to perform these surveys and now the results are being ignored. This should be of utmost concern for the people of Moose Jaw.

Perhaps the reason many citizens are supportive of their fire service is because they realize the value they receive for their tax dollars. According to City documents the average residential household paid $170 per year in taxes for their fire service. That’s 47 cents per day for the average household. Each member of this department (that already operates well below the National Standard for safe firefighting operations) costs taxpayers a fraction of a penny per day.

Further reducing fire department resources and moving further away from recognized public safety standards would save each household pennies a day, if anything. By the same token, improving fire department resources can be done for pennies a day to the average household or with little or no impact at all if phased in over time or if City budget dollars are reprioritized.

For just 47 cents a day, based on the average taxable property assessment, each Moose Jaw household gets full-time fire protection 24/7/365, from a minimum of 10 firefighters on duty who are ready to respond to virtually any emergency in minutes. This includes fire suppression and rescue, vehicle extrication, medical emergencies, high/low angle rescue, confined space rescue, ice/water rescue, hazardous materials response and more including Dispatchers who live, work in and know our neighbourhoods. We have an inspection branch staffed by one Fire Inspector.

Fire protection is an investment in our community. An adequately-resourced fire department offering fast and effective emergency response saves lives, reduces property loss, reduces the economic impact of commercial and industrial fires and generally lowers commercial and residential insurance rates.

Protecting the citizens of Moose Jaw and their property should be the City's number one priority. Residents of Moose Jaw expect their tax dollars to keep them and their families safe.

The Moose Jaw Professional Firefighters Association is willing and ready to work cooperatively with the City in any initiatives that will help improve our ability to safely and effectively protect the citizens of this great city.

We are concerned that communication has broken down, and don't believe optimal effectiveness can be achieved without improving that. This was evident during the recent layoffs and the elimination of our Dispatch.

Despite all the facts and feedback from the public and the two fire hall reviews, our service continues to face cuts.

We have tried to be respectful and conduct ourselves professionally through this time. We are tired of looking over our shoulders continuously wondering when the next cut is going to be. Enough is enough!

The Moose Jaw Professional Firefighters Association

The first ever Western Canadian Outdoor Farm Expo is now in the books.

Ag In Motion Organizers are extremely pleased with the show’s success in the first year. Show Manager Rob O’Conner says while official numbers are not in yet, he believes they got around 5000 people thru the gates each day. O'Conner says one of the highlights was clearly the demonstrations.

"We're really happy with how many people are coming to see the equipment demonstrations, and using them in the ride and drive programs," said O'Conner. "I think that is the purpose of this show, so to see this success in year one shows us we're on the right path."

O'Conner says the exhibitors appreciate the concept of the outdoor expo.

"The exhibitors are really happy with this concept, and now that they've seen it for the first time they even understand it a little better," explained O'Conner. "I've had easily half a dozen meetings in the last day or so with companies that would like to either expand their space, or add something, or consider some sort of a demonstration to add to their investment here at the show. So I'm really excited about the anticipation for next year already."

O’Conner says now they’ll sit down as organizers to review and evaluate this years show.

It's all aboard the shortline as the Vulcan steam locomotive at the Western Development Museum will be running throughout this weekend.

Manager at the Moose Jaw Western Development Museum Kathy Fitton says we're lucky to have such a unique piece of history here in Moose Jaw.

"We're really fortunate here at the Western Development Museum because the Vulcan is the only operating steam locomotive in the province," said Fitton. "Also, the 101 Shortline is actually turning 101 years old this year. So, yes, it's very special to us here at the WDM."

Fitton says that they will be holding birthday celebrations in honor of the locomotive later this month. She told us how we can get tickets to ride the train.

"When you come to the museum, just stop in at the front, and if you're not going through the museum itself you can still buy a ticket for the Shortline," explained Fitton. "Tickets are $3 a person, and as I said they're available at the front desk."

If you'd like to take a ride on the shortline, it will be running Saturday and Sunday from 11 until 4pm.

New regional hospital nearly complete

On the heels of a big donation towards the Capital Equipment Campaign Thursday taking them to 90% complete, we're getting news from the 5 Hills Health Region that construction on the new hospital is nearly done as well.

5 Hills Vice President of Environmental Service, Jim Allen estimates that major construction is 97% done, with exception of the hyperbaric suite.

"The construction team is just cleaning up the last loose ends. We're going through and doing final inspections, pointing out paint touch ups or the odd little deficiency and that's what the construction team is cleaning up, along with a few mechanical systems that they're just cleaning up the loose ends on."

Allen says final inspections and transitional planning are now underway.

"All the department heads and directors and managers and a lot of the staff members are getting into the building and they're walking through those spaces and familiarizing themselves with how they are going to work in there, where exactly every piece of equipment is going to be, how their supplies are stored. We're simulating a lot of that work in the coming months, before our move in date."

Allen can't give a solid date for move in just yet saying they're still working on transitional planning, testing and walk through.  An announcement is expected late this summer explaining when the hospital will be opened and patients will be transferred.

This is the time of year when swimming and trips to the beach are the perfect way to spend a summer's day.

With this week being Drowning Prevention Week, the Saskatchewan Prevention Institute has some advice to keep everyone safe on the water.

"Because children can drown very quickly and drowning is something that's quiet - it's not something you're going to know it's happening necessarily- the importance of adult supervision and of teaching kids safety skills about the water," said Lee Hinton, Education and Promotions Coordinator for the Saskatchewan Prevention Institute.

Hinton says young children and non-swimmers should wear a life jacket.

"Some things that parents can do - first of all, is get personal flotation devices of PFDs. And kids should have them on at all times at the beach, lake or the pool. Teaching little kids roll on their back when they're wearing a PFD. So you're basically teaching them how to keep their face out of the water."

She adds to always check for hazards in and around water, know your limits and never swim alone or while intoxicated.

Last night around 10:00 P.M. a report came into Moose Jaw Police of a break and enter in progress.

Police arrived and arrested three males and one female individuals for breaking and entering a residence.

One male and the female have been released on conditions, while the other two males were remanded on outstanding warrants and will appear in court on Monday.

Liberal candidates Brenda Colenutt and Terry Gabel

The Liberal party has named their Moose Jaw candidates. Brenda Colenutt was born and raised in Moose Jaw and is slated to run in the spring Provincial election in Moose Jaw North against Warren Michelson.

Colenutt says that the Liberal's focus on aboriginals is what drew her to the Liberal party.

"What really drew me to the Liberal party is that they want to work with the aboriginal people, and I work a lot with the aboriginal people. The other parties don't really want to work with them and that's very important to me."

Colenutt says that she feels the Liberal party can improve on some aspects that the current provincial government isn't addressing.

"The people falling through the cracks. When I worked at the Metis office, I dealt with a lot of people falling the cracks, and that hasn't changed. The liberal party plans on working with the aboriginal groups and lower income people to see what they think they need and trying to address those needs."

Terry Gabel will be running in Moose Jaw Wakamow against Saskatchewan party incumbent Greg Lawrence, and he says that he feels with Moose Jaw's economy and population growing.. as well as record employment numbers, now is the time to focus on expanding our economy.

"And when times are good, I think those are the times we should be focusing on diversifying our economy, and that's something that I haven't seen a lot of."

Gabel says that he wants to focus on protecting individuals and their rights.

"I think there are a lot of people who are disenfranchised with the system. I think a lot of them are lower income people, and I am a lower income person, so I understand where they're coming from."

Gabel hopes to bring a unique voice to the provincial election scene.

Patti Shirkey and Laurie Albinet from the Five Hills Health Region

Moose Jaw residents and those from surrounding areas will now have another location to access lab services, bringing the total to three community-based locations for patients in Moose Jaw and the surrounding areas to utilize.

Regional Director of Diagnostic Imaging for Five Hills Health Region, Patti Shirkey.

"From listening to the voice of our patients we heard that they wanted broader access to lab services. With the opening of Crescent View, we were able to open up a lab area so patients can now present there to have their blood work or other services done there."

Shirkey says that the opportunity was right with the renovation of the clinic to open up lab services to the public.

"With the downtown location that they were asking for, because in the fall we are moving our hospital based lab services up to the new hospital, which is on the north end of town. When we looked at the city as a whole, we decided that was something we'd have to look at would be to offer that service to people downtown."

Laurie Albinet, Vice President of Clinical Services with Five Hills Health Region, says they were able to provide these services with convenient hours.

"Most people want to get to the lab early, either before work or if you have fasting blood work, you can't eat or drink for 12 hours, so they want to get that out of the way to get their day started. The only way to do this was to open the clinic at 7:30 A.M."

Albinet says that patients were voicing desires for a downtown location, and having lab services at the clinic will make it easier for patients to access them.

Keep the rain coat and rubber boots handy, it's about to get very damp around southern Saskatchewan.

60-80mm of rain is expected to be on the ground by Tuesday night and some very dangerous weather could be on the way. Environment Canada has issued a rainfall warning for much of southern Saskatchewan as a result.

While our national weather forecasters haven't mentioned it yet, Accuweather is calling for a severe storm cell to start developing Monday afternoon and there's a chance of tornado activity.  Stay tuned for the latest.

Moose Jaw Police are asking for our help in solving a stabbing that happened early Sunday morning on the 0 block of Manitoba Street West.

Around 2:30 that morning a man was stabbing with an unidentified object and rushed to hospital. He was treated and released.

The investigation continues and anyone with information is asked to contact police or crime stoppers.

After a lengthy ordeal, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan has agreed to extending Dr. Johan Kruger's license for another year.

Moose Jaw's Dr. Brandon Thorpe, President of the Regional Medical Association is one of Dr. Kruger's colleagues who has been striving to help Dr. Kruger keep his license, along with a number of other Moose Javians who signed a petition to try and keep Obstetrician-Gynaecologist in practice.

"After lots of negotiations and lots of writing and a petition and analysis by the college of the current status, along with some letters to the Royal College of Canada, the Royal College has agreed to do an assessment on Dr. Kruger over the next year. They will then determine if he will become Royal College eligible."

Dr. Thorpe says that Dr. Kruger will be able to continue to work with his patients at his practice while accredited specialists in his field will be assessing his charts, practice and the way he practices medicine with his patients over the next year.

Dr. Kruger recently failed, for a third time, the oral exam given by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, which is the maximum number of failures allowed before putting a medical license in jeopardy. When the word started to get around that he might be forced out, patients in Moose Jaw started the fight to save his license.

Wholesale trade in Saskatchewan has broken another record for the month of May.

Wholesale trade reached $2.3 billion, up 9.8 per cent on a year-over-year basis.

"What I think we can say is that Saskatchewan has a very diverse economy, and we've been growing our economy over the last several years and we continue to hold our own," said Acting Assistant Deputy Minister, Kirk Westgard. "We've seen the population continue to increase in Saskatchewan over the last couple of years, and we've seen record growth in employment, and job numbers continue to grow, so it's all leading to the same direction as a strong, diversified economy."

Westgard adds these figures, along with the increase in jobs and population, will continue to help Saskatchewan grow.

Saskatchewan has the second highest growth rate among the provinces.