MooseJaw

Moose Jaw city council heard Monday that nearly one-third of the city’s parking meters are out of service, with vandalism cited as the main cause.

A quarterly report to council showed that 292 meters — about 31.5 per cent of the stock — are currently unusable. Staff said damage ranges from coin slots being jammed to entire heads being disabled, to meters being entirely ripped out of the concrete.

Councillor Heather Eby raised the issue early in the meeting, stressing that residents and businesses need to understand the situation is not a matter of city neglect.

The long-running dispute over property assessments and the Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency (SAMA) resurfaced at Moose Jaw city council on Aug. 25, leading to a unanimous confirmation of Councillor Chris Warren's delayed motion from last meeting to require regular public reporting.

Pastor Godwin Ezizor, a former city councillor candidate, was the latest in a series of residents who have presented to ask council for more oversight of how SAMA calculates property values. He argued that without clearer explanations and independent checks, taxpayers are left vulnerable.

According to the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) the province's wildfire situation is steadily improving, thanks in part due to recent weather conditions. As of the most recent update it was noted that there are no communities under evacuation orders and all highways are open to traffic.

School will soon be back in session, and this year's grade six and grade eight students will be eligible for routine immunizations. Doctor Stanley Enebeli, Medical Health Officer for the region, explains this is part of the province’s routine immunization schedule program.  

Grade six students will receive vaccines for human papillomavirus (HPV) and hepatitis B, while grade eight students receive vaccines for meningococcal meningitis, tetanus, diphtheria, and hepatitis A.  

The Canada Revenue Agency has offered contract extensions to around 850 call centre employees as their union sounds the alarm over staffing levels. 

CRA spokesperson Etienne Biram says the workers, whose contracts were set to expire in September, were contacted about the decision last week.

The federal union representing workers at the tax agency recently launched an online campaign denouncing staffing cuts. 

Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc is set to meet with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in Washington this week after Ottawa announced it would be lifting some retaliatory tariffs.

LeBlanc's office said he will travel to the United States capital on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced last Friday that Canada will drop some retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products to match American tariff exemptions for goods covered under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement on trade, called CUSMA. .

The dates are set Premier Scott Moe's trade mission to Asia runs September 6th to 12th.

It's a very important region for the province ... In 2024, Saskatchewan exported over $10 billion to Asia—$4.4 billion to China, $929 million to Japan and 162 million to South Korea.

The goal is to reinforce future trade opportunities and engage with China on their temporary duties on peas and canola.

The Premier has invited Prime Minister Mark Carney and any other federal ministers  to join the trade mission.

After a week marked by some frankly scorching conditions, Moose Jaw is in for at least one more dose of pleasant summer weather before the season wraps up. 

The week opens with sunshine today through to Thursday, and the daily highs are nothing to sneeze at either. 

“Definitely getting back into some warmer air for today and the next couple of days, probably until the middle of next week,” said Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) meteorologist Crawford Luke. 

As global trade dynamics shift and tariffs become more of a concern, Canada’s canola industry is looking inward.

Andre Harpe, chair of the Canadian Canola Growers Association and a farmer from Grand Prairie, Alberta, says the industry needs to focus more on renewable fuel as a strategy to support growers and build long-term resilience.

Customers in the Assiniboia-Lafleche-Hazenmore area will find themselves without power for a couple of hours tomorrow.

The planned outage is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and will affect all customers in Melaval and rural areas east of Lafleche to areas west of Limerick, north and south of Highway 13.

Electrical service is expected to resume by 2:30 p.m.