WestCentral

Plenty of safety tips are here to deal with the Christmas season, though toys are also a key concern for anyone buying those for Christmas.

Health Canada sent out a recent release detailing some of the health risks that could come from those, ranging from what toy is appropriate for a child's age and what they're made out of.

A British Columbia community's "out-of-the-box" plan to ease its family doctor shortage by hiring physicians as city employees is sparking interest from across Canada, says Colwood Mayor Doug Kobayashi.

The mayor said the community has hired its first family doctor for a city-operated medical clinic, and the Victoria-area city is looking to hire seven more under the first-in-Canada pilot project.

The family doctors will be paid as community employees, receiving full medical benefits, vacation and a pension, he said.

An "overheated" immigration system that admitted record numbers of newcomers to the country has harmed Canada's decades-old consensus on the benefits of immigration, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said, as he reflected on the changes in his department in a year-end interview.

The system, he said, needed some discipline to get the country back on track.

Saskatchewan has seen good growth over 2023, with the latest Statistics Canada report showing that the province's GDP has been advancing rapidly.

According to their latest data, Saskatchewan is tied for second among all Canadian provinces for growth in 2023.

Real GDP rose by 2.3 per cent from 2022 to 2023, surpassing the national average increase of 1.2 per cent. Saskatchewan's real GDP value remains at an all-time high of $77.9 billion.

According to the latest quarterly population report from Statistics Canada, Saskatchewan's population has topped 1,246,000 for the first time.

Their report states that there were 1,246,691 people living in Saskatchewan as of October 1, 2024, with the province increasing by 6,826 people over the past quarter and 26,989 people over the past year.

That created a quarterly population increase of 0.55 per cent, which was the second highest among provinces and higher than the national average.  

As winter approaches many people will start planning trips to warmer destinations to avoid the frigid temperatures.

One form of preparation before leaving for a hot spot is ensuring your vaccinations are up to date. It's recommended that those travelling to a location where you may require a vaccine get their shots at least two weeks before leaving.

The short fall session of the provincial legislature saw Cypress Hills MLA Doug Steele take on some new responsibilities.

He became the governing Saskatchewan Party's caucus chair and was invited to sit in on cabinet meetings in that role.

The Chinook School Division put the focus on their student services team recently in a report delivered to the school board.

Donations have kept pouring in to the Dr. Noble Irwin Regional Healthcare Foundation even after wrapping up October's radiothon.

They surpassed their Heartbeat of Hope Radiothon goal of $150,000 by raising $161,990 during the 22 hour live broadcast.

Over $20,000 in donations have been added to the total since.

A judge's decision to stay charges against a driver involved in the death of a nine-year-old girl has sparked widespread public outrage, with supporters of the victim taking to social media to demand justice.

The case involved Taylor Kennedy, who was charged with impaired driving exceeding the legal blood-drug concentration of THC, resulting in the death of Baeleigh Maurice. The incident occurred on September 9, 2021, when Maurice was struck by Kennedy's truck while crossing 33rd Street West in a marked crosswalk on her way to school.