Keira Miller, Saskatoon Media Group

Phase Two of a project that aims to improve safety, sightlines, and highway quality is now at the halfway point of completion.

The Province’s Highway 5 Improvement Project began last June, and Phase Two is expected to wrap up in summer of 2025.

Once complete, drivers will notice new shoulder widening, resurfacing, and one set of new passing lanes around the St. Denis area.

Travis Hryniuk, Reeve of the rural municipality of Grant, says getting the highway widened will, hopefully, enhance safety and prevent potential accidents.

The seemingly endless rainfall the province was getting took some time off last week, and paired with increased heat, this has accelerated crop advancement and allowed haying operations to move forward.

Crop Extension Specialist from the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture Meghan Rosso says fall cereals are 6 per cent ahead of schedule, 90 per cent normal and 4 per cent behind. Pulse crops are 4 per cent ahead, 78 per cent normal, and 18 per cent behind. Spring cereals and oilseeds are still showing to be the furthest behind in their stages of development.

Canadian cities are facing both increased water demand and a strained capacity to store wastewater, so a researcher at the University of Saskatchewan is exploring the option of reusing wastewater and stormwater.

Dr. Kerry McPhedran recently received a five-year grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. With the money, he plans to host public engagement sessions and learn more about the public’s perception on wastewater reusage, as he believes the main thing that is keeping solutions like this from happening, is stigma.

s all of the province’s firefighting crews are actively engaged, the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency says there is no capacity to take on additional fires, hence the fire ban issued Thursday morning.

The ban is for open-pit fires on Crown lands and provincial parks, provincial recreation sites and the Northern Saskatchewan Administration District. This includes fireworks. SPSA vice-president of operations Steve Roberts encourages other municipalities and communities to consider implementing fire bans, as well.

Every day in Saskatchewan, the STARS Air Ambulance flies about three missions, taking people in need of urgent medical care from their homes in rural and remote Saskatchewan to hospitals in larger centres.

Bonny Fortin was one of those patients. During the cesarian section for her fourth son, her iliac vein was severed, and she began losing blood rapidly.

“So, STARS was dispatched. They flew me from Swift Current to Regina where I had a specialist repair my vein, but in the meantime, if I didn’t have STARS, I am certain that I would have died.”

Canadian cities are facing both increased water demand and a strained capacity to store wastewater, so a researcher at the University of Saskatchewan is exploring the option of reusing wastewater and stormwater.

Dr. Kerry McPhedran recently received a five-year grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. With the money, he plans to host public engagement sessions and learn more about the public’s perception on wastewater reusage, as he believes the main thing that is keeping solutions like this from happening, is stigma.

Canadian cities are facing both increased water demand and a strained capacity to store wastewater, so a researcher at the University of Saskatchewan is exploring the option of reusing wastewater and stormwater.

Dr. Kerry McPhedran recently received a five-year grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. With the money, he plans to host public engagement sessions and learn more about the public’s perception on wastewater reusage, as he believes the main thing that is keeping solutions like this from happening, is stigma.

Fifty years ago, Dr. Jim Blackburn at the University of Saskatchewan had a vision for a pharmacist helpline that both healthcare professionals and the general public could access when searching for medication-related information.

Half a century later, medSask is still answering the calls and emails of over 8,000 Saskatchewan residents per year. A team of 16 pharmacists are available to answer phone calls and emails from 9:00 a.m. until midnight, 365 days a year.

Through a recent agreement with an international partner, the Saskatchewan Research Council will soon begin to produce rare earth element products to be sold in the international market until the end of the decade.

Beginning in June 2025, Hung Thinh Group from Vietnam will be supplying the SRC with over 3,000 tonnes of rare earth carbonate per year for the next five years. SRC will be using this carbonate to process, separate and produce up to 400 tonnes of rare earth metals each year.

On Tuesday, the 2024-25 federal budget will be introduced, and the Canadian Federation of Independant Business is hoping small businesses will see measures that will provide them with some relief.

CFIB Director of National Affairs Christina Santini says the organization is calling on the government to implement several measures.

CFIB’s main ask is for the government to pay back the $2.5 billion in carbon tax revenue they’ve been promising since 2019.