1-877-465-8279 6305 - 44 Avenue, Ponoka SILVERADO 2015 SILVERADO 2015 SILVERADO 2015 0%/84 OR $10K LDs / $12K HDs • Continues Till February 1 2016 Vol. 68, No. 3 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016 | 403-783-3311 | WWW.PONOKANEWS.COM CONNECTING THE COMMUNITY Three losses in a week jeopardize playoff chances for Stamps Story on page 21 Ponoka was really looking forward to the ‘roaring 60s’ Story on page 5 Science demos Xander Sinclair (right), a Grade 6 student at St. Augustine, reacts to the bottle of pop bursting bubbles of carbon dioxide in one of several science demos for Grade 4 to 6 students at St. Augustine School on Friday, Jan. 15 by Dr. Lucio Gelmini. Please see our story on page 16. Photo by Jordie Dwyer
Transcript
1-877-465-82796305 - 44 Avenue, Ponoka
SILVERADO 2015SILVERADO 2015SILVERADO 2015
0%/84 OR $10K LDs / $12K HDs • Continues Till February 1 2016
Xander Sinclair (right), a Grade 6 student at St. Augustine, reacts to the bottle of pop bursting bubbles of carbon dioxide in one of several science demos for Grade 4 to 6 students at St. Augustine School on Friday, Jan. 15 by Dr. Lucio Gelmini. Please see our story on page 16.
Photo by Jordie Dwyer
2 PONOKA NEWS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016
UPCOMING PROMOTIONS
FEBRUARYIS NATIONAL
HEART MONTHA good occasion to address this alarming condition. Take care of your heart today!
PUBLISHES: FebruaryDEADLINE: Fridays @ 5 pm
VALENTINE’S DAYSunday, February 14
Let the community know your special plans for this special occasion.
PUBLISHES: February 3 & 10DEADLINE: January 29 & February 5 @ 5 pm
403-783-3311Reserve your advertising space by calling
PUBLISHES: February 10DEADLINE: February 5 @ 5 pm
In today’s economy more than ever, readers are looking for ways to save money and improve their fi nances. Our focus is to give readers encouragement, information and resources to investigate their current fi nancial situation. This brings a targeted advertising opportunity for you.
That’s what makes Money Matters section an opportunity your business can’t afford to miss.
Ponoka Bottle DepotReceive your deposit back on your beverage containers!
Items accepted are: Pop cans, pop bottles Beer cans, beer bottles Water bottles Milk products (plastic and cardboard) Liquor containers (glass and plastic) Juice containers (cardboard, plastic and glass) Wine containers (glass and cardboard).
(We no longer accept used oil and oil products)
We can help you with fundraisers or charities with bottle drives!
The Town of Ponoka has rolled out the blue bag program this year but no refund on bottles will be provided. If you are not interested in receiving a refund, remember there are many groups in town that will gladly accept your empties to raise funds for their causes.
You can also drop off bottles at the Bottle Depot and let us know you want them donated to the Cans for Kids charities. For more info on this please visit http://www.albertacansforkids.org/
0 -1 litre 10 cents/each over 1 litre 25 cents/each
OPEN Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm | Closed on Sundays and holidays
403 783 6875 | 5520 HWY 2A PONOKA, AB
Town council votes for separate fi re services
There will be two separate fi re services in the Ponoka area after town council voted by 4 to 3 to refuse to be part of the county-led regional fi re services.
Council’s decision was made Tuesday, Jan. 12 during the regular meeting where each town councillor weighed in on the decision. For the fi rst time in many weeks, the gallery for visitors was full with members of the Ponoka Fire Department (PFD) and their spouses as well as residents who wished to see how council would decide.
Ironically enough, the de-cision was made in county council chambers while the East Ponoka County Fire Department was training in the next room.
Prior to the decision no fewer than fi ve people, including Justin Graham, chairperson of the Economic Development Board, spoke against separation with the main concern being an in-creased cost to taxpayers. The EDB sent a letter to the town concerned with some confl ict of interest with town representatives rumoured to be related to fi re department members.
“As an elected offi cial, you must remove the personal ties from the decision and do what is best for the taxpay-ers,” states the letter.
One resident suggested there would be some benefi t not only to the region but to fi re department members. “I wish that you would support the town sign on with this regional fi re services agree-ment with the county,” said resident Rob Joss.
Les Oberst added his com-ments stating that the town and county must work to-gether and a regional fi re service agreement would be no different.
“I think it would be an illogical move to separate from the county, fi nancially and otherwise,” added Frank Bergman.
Jim Hamilton added that safety of residents would be the same regardless of one or two fi re departments but he suggested councillors
EDB unhappy, Chamber to analyze costsBY JEFFREY HEYDEN-KAYEPONOKA NEWS
should be prudent in their decision. He added that personal issues needed to be removed when making a decision.
“There will always be per-sonality confl icts with any job and that should be left to management to solve,” said Hamilton.
Councillors’ perspective with a 4-3 split
Council discussed the issue in camera with Fire Chief Jamie Wilkinson for approx-imately 30 minutes.
After council went back into a public meeting, Coun. Carla Prediger made the mo-tion to approve entering into an agreement with Ponoka County.
In the motion, she detailed
the outline of the three-year proposal, which confi rms the split of operations at 25 per cent to the town and 75 per cent to the county plus a 50/50 split of capital costs. Ultimate decision making would fall to a joint advisory committee with the town and county CAOs and the regional fi re chief as ex-offi cio members of the committee and a town fi re chief running the fi re hall. It would also maintain the town’s ownership of the fi re hall.
Coun. Marc Yaworski did not see this as a collaborative agreement. He is concerned that the town’s costs would increase if the county’s de-partment grew. He suggested the regional department would be dedicated only to the county and not to the town. “They will become the county fi re department running the entire county and it won’t be a regional fi re department.”
There is enough means and personnel to handle a separate system, added Coun. Tim Falkiner who suggested the same service
“IF WE DO GO ALONE WE’RE GOING TO NEED TO RESTRUCTURE THIS ORGANIZATION IN THE WORST WAY AND FIND DOLLARS AND CENTS BECAUSE I’M NOT PREPARED TO GO TO THE CITIZENS AND ASK FOR A TAX INCREASE AT
THIS TIME.” MAYOR RICK BONNETT
levels will remain for town residents.
However, Coun. Teri Underhill disagreed. She looked at the fi nancial side of the fi re department and how the separation will af-fect revenue. Ponoka County would no longer contribute $140,000 of the town’s ap-proximate $360,000 annual operations, said Underhill. “We would no longer have those sources of revenue,” said Underhill.
She added that a one per cent increase to taxes will amount to approximately $57,000 and residents would have to bear the brunt of that after paying out the county for assets of the fi re hall, inferring a three per cent increase might be necessary.
Coun. Loanna Gulka sug-gested the blame falls on the county for the split. “We did not do this. We had a fi re de-partment that was inclusive of town and county.”
“I cannot support the motion because I cannot support an agreement that doesn’t have 50/50 say,” Gulka added.
continued on page 7
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016 PONOKA NEWS 3
CARRIER OF THE MONTHCongratulations to
Nathan Sluggett
Susan Whitecotton, Circulation Supervisor, presentsNathan with a $50 cheque recognizing excellent service in
delivering the newspaper for the month of December.
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Y O U M A Y Q U A L I F Y F O R D E N T U R E S T H R O U G H
T H E S E N I O R B E N E F I T S P R O G R A M .
C A L L T O D A YF O R I N F O R M A T I O N
PONOKA D E N T U R E C L I N I C
• Danny Jones •
5101 - 49th Ave • 403-783-3771
Police responded to a domestic dispute at the Leland Hotel on Jan. 16, when, upon arrival, RCMP offi cers noticed that the door to the apartment was completely torn from the hinges. Both parties in-volved were found to have been drinking. A 50-year-old male from B.C. was charged with assault and
Man pleads guilty to assault in Greyhound bus incident
A man has another 114 days of jail time after pleading guilty at Ponoka Provincial Court Friday, Jan. 15 to assaulting a Greyhound bus driver on Highway 2.
Crown prosecutor Steve Degen told the court that members of the Ponoka Integrated Traffi c Unit were called Dec. 2 to deal with an individual, identifi ed as Clinton McGeough, who was running around on the highway. EMS attended the scene, said Degen, where they found
Two domestic incidents in one day
PONOKA NEWS STAFF
BY JEFFREY HEYDEN-KAYEPONOKA NEWS
mischief after he threw to the fl oor the other party in the dispute, a female. He is to appear in court Feb. 19, 2016
On the same day, Ponoka RCMP responded to a do-mestic assault in progress on 50 A Street. As they arrived at the scene, police found a female was bleed-ing from the nose and was in distress. The suspect in the incident, a 41-year-old male from Ponoka, was located and arrested without any resistance as he was pacing outside by the garage. EMS attended the scene and the female was transported to Ponoka hospital. The Ponoka man was charged with assault and uttering threats, after it was found that he had grabbed the female by her hair and had slammed her head into the baseboard register several times.
There is no information as to when the accused will appear in court.
Hit and run in townRCMP responded to a
complaint of a hit and run, which occurred on 57 Street on Jan. 13. An un-known suspect hit a mo-torhome that was parked in the yard and then went through the trees leaving a mirror behind No infor-mation was made avail-able about the type of the vehicle responsible for the incident. File is currently under investigation.
Roll over on Highway 2Police attended to a sin-
gle vehicle roll over on Highway 2, north of exit 437 on Jan. 15. A white Ford Ranger lost control on an icy patch of high-way and veered into the west ditch, rolling several times. EMS was requested to attend the scene to treat
minor injuries to both the driver and passenger of the vehicle. There was no information as to whether charges were laid.
Stolen vehicle located damaged
Ponoka RCMP attend-ed Range Road 270 and Township Road 442 to in-vestigate a report of a pos-sible stolen vehicle. The vehicle, a red Dodge fl at deck truck with a quad on the back, was in the ditch on the south side of the road, with exten-sive damage on it and the side windows broken. No one was inside the vehi-cle. After investigation, the vehicle was found to be stolen out of Lacombe and the quad was stolen from the Bentley area. The fi le is currently under investi-gation.
Liquor theft Police were dispatched
to a business on 50 Street Jan. 11 in connection with a theft of a bottle of vodka. A male was reported as having come into the li-quor store and grabbed a 15-pack of beer from the cooler and proceeded to the till area. He was then said to have asked the ca-shier about a certain type of beer and requested the cashier to retrieve it for
him. While the employ-ee was getting the beer, the male took the bottle of vodka and put it in his jacket. When the cashier came back the male tried to pay for the beer, but his debit card was declined. The male then exited the store with the stolen vodka. File is currently under investigation.
Anyone with information on
these incidents is requested to call Ponoka RCMP at 403-783-4472. To remain anony-mous, individuals can contact Crime Stoppers by phone at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), or by internet at www.tipsubmit.com. No revelation of identity is required to contact Crime Stoppers, and information supplied to Crime Stoppers leading to an arrest may be eligible for a cash reward.
passengers and the bus driver restraining McGeough.
Witnesses stated that McGeough said he was having a heart attack and then attacked the bus driver while he was in control of the bus. The driver acted quick-ly and fended off McGeough then pulling the bus over on the highway.
“This could’ve been certainly a lot worse than it was had the driver not been able to respond,” said Degen.
continued on page 4
4 PONOKA NEWS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016
Your Guide To Local Houses
of Worship
CHURCH DIRECTORY
PONOKA WORD OF LIFE CHURCHPastor Rob McArthur 403-783-5659
9 miles east on Hwy 53 403-782-9877Jr. Church during service for children
Sunday Service 10:30 am
PONOKA RISINGSUN CLUBHOUSE
Community BlueBox Program
For $12.00 per month
We will pick up your paper, clean tins, glass, No. 1-5 plastic and cardboard.
We also pick up cardboard from local businesses.
For more information on these programs please call
403-783-5810 Weekdays
Living with uncertainty
A few years ago, I was out in the mountains in June with one of our camp leaders scouting out a new hike around Littlehorn Peak. We circumvented the mountain, actually going up and over a high pass, which we came upon from a different direction a cou-ple of days later. Just be-fore our last push over that pass, we were sitting on a rock having lunch when I noticed, what appeared to be a another backpacker coming our way from on top of the pass. Taking a closer look, it was a large
Religion
PASTOR TOM CNOSSEN
MaskwacisFellowship Church
Member of the Ponoka Ministerial Association
grizzly with a large hump (that’s why he looked like a backpacker!). On seeing us, he stopped and turned around and went back to the pass.
Now we were faced with a problem. We needed to get out of there and we needed to go over that pass. The only other way would take a day or more of hiking. The problem was how we would do it with as grizzly in our way After some thought, we decided to each grab our bear spray, spread out our arms and make ourselves look big and shout our way up and over the pass and hope and pray (we did pray, too!) that the grizzly would disappear. And you know what? It worked.
Going into a new year, this year, there is lot of uncertainty for people. It always happens. There are times in life where we fi nd ourselves in situations be-yond our control. A pend-ing job layoff, awaiting a diagnosis, a rocky relation-ship. Fear and uncertain-ty about the future. Like a grizzly bear standing in
our path, we don’t know what to do and we desper-ately need a plan.
A lot of time, when faced with uncertainty, we spend a lot of time wor-rying. I know I do. I can tell this when I wake up at three and listen to the trains coming and going out of Ponoka. (We sure have a lot of trains.) Then I remember that Jesus and the Bible has a lot to say about this. He says:
“…do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat or drink, nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? And who of you by being wor-ried can add a single hour to his life? But seek fi rst His kingdom and His righ-teousness, and all these things will be added to you.” ( Matthew 5:25,27,33)
Jesus is talking to his followers here and He is telling us to put things into perspective. When you think about it, none of us are in control of our lives anyway. It is by the grace of God that I draw
my next breath, that my heart continues to beat, that I can even put my feet on the fl oor in the morning. According to the Bible, God has it all fi gured out already – each day I am supposed to live on his good earth. So instead of wasting this valuable time I have fretting about things I can’t control any-way, I need to trust Him with my life and seek out a deeper and growing rela-tionship.
I like the advice Paul gives Pastor Timothy, who was facing his own chal-lenges in his ministry. He says in 2 Timothy 1:7:
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
Along with that “sound mind”, God will give us a plan to thread our way through those uncer-tainties. He won’t leave us hanging or throw us under the bus. His love for his children is certain and true. We can trust Him, and He will give us a plan for any situation that works.
Man pleads guilty
He suggested the aggravating factor in the incident was the attack on the driver while transporting pas-sengers. McGeough also pleaded guilty to obstructing a peace offi cer and being in possession of a controlled substance. Investigations showed that McGeough had taken cocaine prior to the incident.
When asked by Judge James Glass if he had anything to say, McGeough apologized for his actions. “I’m thankful
that nothing worse happened,” said McGeough.He added that he hopes to turn his life around to
change the cycle of drug use and is looking into reha-bilitation.
Degen, using a joint submission with the defence, sug-gested a total of 180 days jail time for the assault charge, and 30 days concurrent to the 180 days, for the obstruc-tion and possession charges. McGeough was given time and a half credit for his 66 days in jail leaving him with another 114 days.
continued from page 3
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016 PONOKA NEWS 5
Refl ections of Ponoka
RememberWhen...
Photo from 1961 Ponoka Herald
In honour of the long-standing Ponoka Town and Country Bonspiel on this week at the Ponoka Complex Curling Club we will feature this local January 1961 local team who were the district champions in the play downs leading to the big Massey-Ferguson sponsored Curlerama in Winnipeg. Shown from left to right are sponsor Bob Como, skip Alan Lewis, Ken Stickney, Ivan Lewis, and Wayne Hagemann.
Ponoka was really looking forward to the ‘roaring 60s’For those of us who were lucky enough to grow up
in and around Ponoka we will always enjoy looking back on our favourite memories, and for yours truly it had to be heading in the 1960s. I guess it was at that time of my life when I settled down a little, got married, took on my fi rst permanent job at the Ponoka Herald newspaper, always loved to cheer on our local sports teams and events, and watched as our friendly little town was booming on all fronts of urban and rural growth and successes. Here are some of the milestones and highlights of that great era:
*The Provincial Mental Hospital (PMH) at Ponoka proudly celebrated their 50th anniversary in 1961, and over that hectic period of time had become one of the top psychiatric treatment and training facilities in North America. Admissions at the facil-ity would reach an all time high of 1428 patients in 1965, with ongoing new programs and treatments that would now include: alcoholism, assistance for patients 20 years of age and under, part time out-patient clinics and employment opportunities, increased staff training and new methods and ap-proaches to mental illness, which all resulted in a much higher discharge rate by 1969. Unfortunately the long-standing hospital farm was phased out in 1962, but new nationwide treatment methods and outlooks would result in many exciting changes in the national programs, which would indicate new facilities and benefi cial changes for the PMH long into the future. Over the past half century from 1911 to 1961, the town and the hospital have grown and developed together, the communication and co-op-eration has always been close and friendly, with the hundreds of patients, staff and students always being welcomed into the community.
*During the 1960s, Ponoka’s 50th Avenue became some sort of a ‘Wall Street’, which featured four chartered banks, the provincial Treasury Branch and no less than fi ve insurance offi ces to serve custom-ers. The rest of the town also grew very quickly in all directions, which included many new business-es and homes as well as great family recreational
and social facilities. Rumours from the Alberta Government have also hinted that many changes are in the works to encourage Highway Commercial development as well as the planning of new subdivi-sions into expanding towns and Counties.
*The Ponoka Town Police Force may have been looked upon a little as ‘the Grinch who stole Christmas’ early in 1961 after handing out a record 321 parking tickets in December, but also were kind enough to warn and inform local businesses that 243 doors were found left unlocked during their nightly patrol beats in 1960. Meanwhile it is always busy around the Town Council table as they contin-ued to work on the rough plans for the new town hall, announced that a record breaking number of 62 new residences were built in the community in 1960 and received word from the government that a new post offi ce and federal building are in the plans for Ponoka over the next three years.
*The County of Ponoka has asked Alberta Highways Minister Gordon Taylor to act on the proposed plans to complete the hard surfacing of Highway #53 from Ponoka to Rimbey by 1961. With the assistance of the County of Ponoka and the provincial government, the development of the pristine Ponoka Fish and Game Lake Pofi anga Recreation Area has been com-pleted just north-west of town.
*The January 26, 1961 edition of the Ponoka Herald carried a report from very reliable sources that 1961 could be one of the best years that the town and county have enjoyed in history, especially in the fi elds of oil and gas. Discussion is also now under-way for the construction of a new $20,000,000 Petro Chemical Plant in the Home Glen area.
*Big news. …the prize money for the June 30/July 1st 1961 Ponoka Stampede will be $6,425, the highest of any two day rodeo in Canada, and to add to the excitement, an extra out-rider will be added to each team in the chuckwagon racing event. The Ponoka Lions’ Club have announced a new ‘Play-at-Home’ Bingo, with proceeds going to our busy minor hock-ey programs in the community. On March 8, 1961 the Calgary Power switch will be turned on to serve over 140 new modern homes on the Samson Band Indian Reserve at Hobbema.
Photo submitted
The Provincial Mental Hospital at Ponoka celebrated their 50th Anniversary in 1961, while saluting the community for the kind ongoing support of their vital treatment programs, and looking forward to many more exciting changes and additions over the next 50 years and long into the future.
BY MIKE RAINONE FOR THE NEWS Whatever the case, the future certainly looks great for everyone in our town and county.
6 PONOKA NEWS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016
Opinion
5019A Chipman Ave., Box 4217, Ponoka, AB. T4J 1R6Phone: 403.783.3311 Fax: 403.783.6300 Email: [email protected] every Wednesday by PNG Prairie Newspaper Group in community with: Regional Publisher, Michele Rosenthal
All editorial content, advertising content and concepts are protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is forbidden.
And so it happened, the dragged-out saga of the fi re services dispute be-tween the town and the county ended with a vote by the town council in fa-vour of separation, but not without controversy, and much to the consternation of Ponoka townsfolk.
Even just a short glance
It was a bad decision
MUSTAFA ERIC
Editor
at the comments on Ponoka News Facebook page from residents of the community gives a clear impression of the wide-spread damnation of the decision taken by a majori-ty of 4 to 3 votes, with most of the comments blaming specifi cally the four coun-cillors who voted in favor of separation.
It goes without saying that the decision is push-ing the limits of rationality, to put it mildly. And let’s not forget that represen-tatives of the community who were present at the town council meeting did indicate, in no uncertain terms, their opposition to creating a division in the provision of a vital ser-vice for community safety. Yet, councillors, supposed-ly representing members of the community, voted against their wishes re-gardless of what was said.
Given the circumstances,
people are more than jus-tifi ed to question the rea-soning behind the choice made by the four coun-cillors.
Let’s look at the com-ments made by them: Coun. Yaworski is reported to have said town’s costs would increase if the coun-ty’s fi re department grew. Well then, what about the costs taxpayers of Town of Ponoka will incur when the town will have to buy a lot of new equipment to maintain a full-fl edged fi re department for only a few weekly calls, if any? Because in the new order of things, county’s fi re de-partment will be respon-sible for all highway calls and bush fi res, etc. Town of Ponoka fi re department will only be responsible for calls within the town limits. How many fi re calls have there been in the town over the years? One wonders if the proper
math has been done to back the claim that town’s costs will increase if it joins the county’s regional umbrella.
Councillor Gulka said “We didn’t do it,” sug-gesting the county did it. Really? If one goes back through the reports pub-lished in Ponoka News, it is very easy to see that the whole controversy start-ed with the now ousted CAO Rachel Kunz making arbitrary decisions, includ-ing recruitment decisions, affecting the fi re depart-ment, without consulting the county, which was ac-tually paying half the costs of the town’s fi re depart-ment. Paying half the costs, county should have had a 50/50 say in decision-mak-ing, but the town adminis-tration deprived the coun-ty of the right to be a part of that process. And Gulka said ““I cannot support the motion because I can-
not support an agreement that doesn’t have 50/50 say,” demanding an equal power to affect decisions in an arrangement where the county will bear three fourths of the overall costs of maintaining the fi re ser-vice in addition to half of the costs of any operation within the town limits. In other words, Gulka wants to have 50/50 say when town bears much less than half the costs of the new regional fi re service. One wonders why… Could it be related to the rumours and the controversy surround-ing the confl ict of inter-ests (actually allegations of nepotism) which the Economic Development Board considered serious enough to mention in of-fi cial correspondence to town council?
Councillor Lyon said “I don’t think you can put a price on something that is an essential service.” Then
the question comes what made Lyon think that the essential service wouldn’t be provided to town res-idents if the town joined the county’s regional orga-nization.
It looks like many people think that separation is a disservice to the commu-nity of Ponoka. The ques-tion is whose interests this decision serves.
After the local elections in October 2013, there was such a positive at-mosphere in the commu-nity with talk of a “fresh breeze” and a “new direc-tion”. Now, 28 months and a bad recruitment decision later, that atmosphere has vanished completely and “negativity” seems to have made a comeback with residents back to wonder-ing how Ponoka will ever fi nd the right kind of lead-ership to take the town to growth and more prosper-ity in harmony and unity.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016 PONOKA NEWS 7
East County FD already preparing for takeover
A sense of disappointment combined with a feeling of fi nally being able to move forward is what can describe Ponoka County’s sentiment regarding fi re protection service last week.
On Tuesday, Jan. 12, the Town of Ponoka voted to not join the regional fi re pro-tection service with Ponoka County, which meant the county could press on with their plans to establish a new fi re department to cover the other half of the county when the present agreement expires at the end of April.
County Reeve Paul McLauchlin expressed his feelings on the issue in an interview last Friday (Jan. 15).
“It’s tough, with the split (town council) has and with as much as has gone on with them recently, to govern,” he said.
“It’s tricky to interact (with them) until they work out their issues. However, (coun-ty council) will always keep the door open.”
McLauchlin reiterated what he has stated for the last few months, that the county will work with the town to fi nd a suitable mutual aid agree-
ment - to provide assistance on fi re calls when request-ed - but acknowledged that could be diffi cult or next to impossible in the short term to achieve with what’s transpired.
“The fact is the relation-ship has been strained and while we would like to come together on a mutual aid agreement, with the com-plexities involved and the negativity surrounding this issue, it will be very hard to get done,” he added.
Some of those hard feelings showed through during the town council discussion with one councillor placing the blame squarely on the county for the situation, something McLauchlin found disappointing.
“As council’s represen-tative, we took a bit of an exception to the comments that the county started all of this. We simply responded to a situation that only makes sense for us,” he said.
“This issue has been dis-cussed a lot over the last few years and really, from our perspective, came to the forefront when Rimbey asked for help in support-ing their fi re department and the pressure we have been getting from our lake
property residents to meet their needs for improved fi re protection due to the growth in that area.
“The regional fi re service model is the economic re-ality in this province, with us being one of the last re-maining parts to go in this direction, so it’s not some-thing that is new. We have never said this was about response to calls. The Ponoka Fire Department has always been excellent, but this is simply about the delivery of that service.”
With the decision, the county is pushing ahead with putting the pieces together on the new East County Fire Department that has been in the works since the hiring of Regional Fire Chief Dennis Jones back in November.
County chief administra-tive offi cer (CAO) Charlie Cutforth explained the pro-cess has already begun with the town’s CAO Doug Wright to determine just what com-pensation is owed to each municipality regarding the buying out of the shared as-sets and with Jones moving ahead with making decisions on where a new fi re hall will be, coordinating the lease and purchase of fi re
Negotiations, discussions regarding assets to be completed by end of monthBY JORDIE DWYERPONOKA NEWS
apparatus and equipment for fi refi ghters as well as setting up a new communi-cations system and hiring a new deputy chief for the department.
No dollar fi gures have been made public regarding compensation, as discus-sions are still to take place on what shared equipment will become property of the county or of the town. The county wholly owns one 2007 pumper, two tanker units, an older pumper unit as well as the emergency livestock incident trailer and the 6x6 off-highway wildfi re-equipped vehicle with its trailer.
All of this was part of the plan presented and approved by council at its meeting last month, where the regional fi re service was given approv-al for a $500,000 operational budget for 2016. Council will now also look at a request to buy a new combination rescue/pumper unit at an estimated cost of $436,000.
Cutforth added they are presently looking at a one- to two-year lease on a build-ing - noting there are at least four options currently being looked at - and that if needed, East County Fire Department could be fully operational in three to four weeks
“We have the fi re appara-
tus we own at the Ponoka Fire Department (PFD), plus access to other apparatus and gear for the fi refi ght-ers from various sources that could get us up and running shortly. There are also 26 people, almost all of which are very experienced and trained fi refi ghters that are currently or previous members of the Ponoka Fire Department, signed up to be part of East County,” he said, adding that when they heard there was a possible rift in that department last year and there was a risk of losing that experience on the front-line of fi ghting fi res, that was one more reason to look at moving to a regional service.
“When the elephant in the room - about some possible internal issues (at PFD) - came to us out of the blue, I took it to the town’s (now former) CAO and was promptly told not to threaten them and that we were just a client. That was also followed later that we would not be involved in the hiring of the fi re chief’s replacement.
“I had always thought of the fi re service from Ponoka with a sense of pride and one of the top departments in the province. We were not interested in seeing more money being spent to operate both departments,
but we will do what it takes to provide for our residents. A number of times we tried to extend an olive branch to the town, but were turned down each time.”
Both Cutforth and McLauchlin said it’s been a diffi cult period of nearly a year in dealing with the issue and with a governing structure and organization that, from the outside, looks somewhat dysfunctional.
Meanwhile, as has been stated previously by McLauchlin and the rest of county council, residents are urged to remain confi dent they will be well protected by the new department and that they are heading in the right direction.
“It’s regrettable the town has decided to go it alone, but there are things that go beyond just this situation on both sides,” Cutforth stated.
“Whatever the numbers are, starting up a new depart-ment is going to be expen-sive. However, the long term plan for us is that this is our most important service to our residents and, that while changes are being made, this isn’t the end of the world and (the town) feels this isn’t the road they want to take at this time and there are other things at play.
“We are going to now just continue moving forward.”Separate fi re services
She suggested if the town grows, it would have to create a new fi re department and pay additional costs, however, she said Wilkinson stated the same or better level of services would be maintained for town residents.
Coun. Sandra Lyon agreed. “I don’t think you can put a price on something that is an essential service.”
For Mayor Rick Bonnett the issue boils down to resources. “We’re looking at giving up a signifi cant amount of money.”
With a 75/25 split in operations with the county, the town would be on the hook for approximately $40,000 annually. “It’s a good deal. There’s some tweaks that’s gotta be worked out with it,” said Bonnett.
He added the province favours collabora-tion with municipalities but splitting goes against that.
“If we do go alone, we’re going to need to restructure this organization in the worst way and fi nd dollars and cents because I’m not prepared to go to the citizens and ask for a tax increase at this time,” Bonnett stated.
For Prediger there are three considerations: fi nancial, safety and strategy. She said coun-cillors have muddied the waters so much and the responsibility falls on councillors to fi x the issue.
She added that residents want safety and residents want taxes to remain low.
“We can’t allow someone else to decide how our town will operate,” stated Yaworski.
He suggests councillors have to make the right decision as citizens. Prediger replied that the decision must be as a representative of the community. She said both town and
county residents shop at the same stores and use the same amenities but putting a dividing line between town and county is not ideal.
“We have to move forward collaboratively,” she stated.
After the decision to split, interim CAO Doug Wright said he would be working with Wilkinson the next day to begin the process of working as a standalone fi re department.
Response from the chamber and EDBAfter the decision Jim Hamilton, speaking
as the chairperson of the Ponoka and District Chamber of Commerce made a statement.
“The chamber is sure that the citizens and businesses are well protected and safe with this decision of council. We are not sure if you peel back the emotional side of the decision, if it is in the best interest of the town’s taxpayers.”
“We will certainly be interacting with our members and be guided accordingly once the cost is known,” Hamilton added in the statement.
EDB chair Graham, who spoke briefl y at the meeting said it was clear that residents wanted a regional system. On a personal level he suggests the decision against a regional system by councillors appears “clouded.”
From an economic development stand-point, Graham suggests voting on a regional system should have been made purely from a business and cost-savings point of view.
Training would fall under one roof with a larger pool of volunteer fi refi ghters rather than two training days and duplicated in-frastructure, said Graham. The statements of councillors voting against a regional fi re system added to his questions rather than answered them.
continued from page 2
16013LL0
a s s e m b l y . a b . c a / c o m m i t t e e s / e t h i c s a n d a c c o u n t a b i l i t y
Whistleblowing, Conflicts of Interest, Elections, Election FinancingWhat do you think?
Are you interested in how candidates and parties are financed; how provincial elections are run; the balance between an MLA’s private interests and public duties; and whether public servants who report wrongdoing are adequately protected? We want to hear from you!
The Legislative Assembly of Alberta Select Special Ethics and Accountability Committee is reviewing legislation and would like to hear from you on the above questions and on other issues regarding:
• Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblower Protection) Act• Conflicts of Interest Act• Election Act• Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act
Visit the committee website to learn more about these Acts: assembly.ab.ca/committees/ethicsandaccountability
Written submissions will be accepted until Friday, February 26, 2016.
Select Special Ethics and Accountability Committee3rd Floor, 9820 - 107 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, T5K 1E7
Note: Submissions and identities of authors may be made public.
8 PONOKA NEWS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016
“Let the Good Times Roll”with an evening of bowling, food, 50/50
raffl e plus fabulous prizes to be won! 2 full day Nakiska lift tickets Green fees plus power cart to Ponoka Community Golf Club Admission passes to Lazerforce Laser Tag Photo shoot with Paige Takes Pictures Tickets to the Ponoka Stampede Family pass to Calaway Park $50 gift certifi cate to The Brick Gift certifi cates from local businesses
Celebrate Big Brother Big Sisters of PonokaBowl for Kids Sake!
FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2016at Leisure Lanes Bowling Centre
Form teams of up to 6 people with family, friends or employees. Register your team and collect pledges online to raise the team entry fee of $400. Win some amazing door prizes, pledge-collection prizes and costume prizes. Dress up in costumes and participate in this year’s Mardi Gras theme.
EARLY BIRD BONUS!Register your blowing team before February 1, 2016
and receive $50 off your team entry fee!
ONLINE FUNDRAISER CHALLENGE! Teams who collect their team registration fee online will have more chances to win great prizes! Grand prize to be won by the team that raises the most money online!
You’re invited to a
MARDI GRAS SOIREE!
BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF PONOKA NEEDS YOUR HELP IN REACHING OUR GOAL OF
$20,000.00!!!
For more information, to become a sponsor or to
register a team, call 403-783-3112
Keep it real.
The Town of Ponoka is seeking two members at large and a youth representative for the new Police Advisory Committee.
The overall objectives of the Police Advisory Committee are to act as a liaison between Council, the R.C.M.P. Detachment, the Chief Administrative Offi cer of the Town of Ponoka and the citizens of Ponoka and foster responsible community actions towards the creation of a safe secure community. The Committee shall endeavor to do this by encouraging an environment, which allows for public concerns to be addressed by all affected parties.
All persons appointed to the Committee must reside in the Ponoka community, and be 18 years of age. The youth representative must be at least 16 years of age. All committee members will undergo a criminal records review and suitability screening through the R.C.M.P.
If you are interested in joining this Committee, please submit a completed application form on or before February 5, 2016 to the Town of Ponoka.
Application forms are available at Town Hall: C, 4900 – 54 Street, Ponoka, AB T4J 1N8 or on the Town’s website: www.ponoka.ca
TOWN OF PONOKA BOARD VACANCIESGreat Opportunities to get involved!
Join the Ponoka Junior Lifeguard Club!
Personal Challenges for Personal BestsJunior Lifeguard Club members work to develop and improve swimming and other aquatic
skills with emphasis on: Swimming skills, Lifesaving skills, Lifesaving knowledge, Leadership &
teamwork, Community education, Competition, Personal fi tness.
Leadership development - including teamwork and decision-making skills - is an important aspect
of the Junior Lifeguard Club. Members apprentice with working instructors and lifeguards.
The Junior Lifeguard Club(JLC) off ers serious fun for
kids 8 years and up who
can swim at least 25m and
tread water for 2 minutes.
Fridays from 4–6pm (February 5 – April 29) Cost: $150A Junior Lifeguard Club Coach who is a fully qualifi ed
Lifesaving Society Lifeguard leads the Junior Lifeguard Club.
For more information or to register visit Ponoka Aquaplex or phone: (403) 783-0131
Bad fi scal management decision
Dear Editor,A few days ago, Ponoka Town Council faced their fi rst
real test. Unfortunately they failed — or at least four of them did. They were tasked with deciding whether the Ponoka fi re department should go it alone or amalgam-ate with the county.
In spite of the fact that every one of our residents that spoke at the meeting strongly supported amalgama-tion, in spite of the fact that the Town’s own Economic Development Board — by defi nition, set up to be adviso-ry to Council — were in favour of amalgamation, in spite of the fact that Mayor Rick Bonnet clearly indicated the cost there would be to Ponoka if we were to go alone, and in spite of the fact that regional fi re departments
are reportedly becoming the norm around Alberta, a move encouraged by the Provincial Government, in spite of all that, four of our councillors saw fi t to reject the proposal, in favour of running — and paying for — our own, stand-alone fi re department.
This is not good fi scal management. Rumour has it that at least some of the “no” vote was infl uenced by personal circumstances, not objective decision; I cer-tainly hope this was not the case. Whatever the reason, Ponoka now has to fi nd a way to run, and more impor-tantly fund, their own fi re services. I hope we’re ready for the cost.
Danny LinehamPonoka
Dear Editor,We all need a reminder from time to time, and for me
this came as I read the front page story from last week about one resident’s opposition of our new garbage collection program.
What began as a few chuckles as my wife and I dis-cussed the story became a time of a more in depth refl ection upon the issues of life. I began to think about how a grateful attitude seems to have disappeared from much of society.
Instead of considering how blessed we are to have a collection program while others in the world literally live in fi lth and garbage, we are upset over what may be a small inconvenience to our lives. Now, please don’t take this as an attack to the gentleman who has made his concerns known, but rather as a challenge to each and every one of us to give thought to how good we really have it.
Even in this trying economic time, we are still far better off than vast majority of others on this earth. And while we can’t always do much to change things for someone half a world away, we can count our blessings and be grateful for the many things we enjoy and be mindful and alert of the people around us and the small things we can do to help them… whether that be a smile and a thank you at the till, or boosting someone’s car if their battery has died, or shoveling a neighbor’s driveway.
I could go on and on, but my point is this: Let’s be grateful for what we have, challenge the things that matter, and do our best to leave a footprint of grati-tude, love, and kindness behind us wherever we go.
Joel Peters
Being grateful for
what we have
Letters
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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016 PONOKA NEWS 9
Ponoka Fire Department Weekly ReportPONOKA FIRE WEEKLY REPORT
TOWN COUNCIL APPROVES NEW TRAFFIC BYLAWAt the regular Council meeting of January 12, 2016, Council passed 3rd ready of Traffi c Bylaw No. 348-15. The new Bylaw improves the effectiveness of the amount of time it takes to respond to citizen concerns. The Bylaw also covers traffi c control signage, vehicle routes, rules of the road, parking and stopping, restricted vehicles, sidewalk clearing, street events, parades and pedestrian movement and safety. The new Traffi c Bylaw also allows for better Enforcement Services to deal with matters that were previously covered under provincial statute.For a complete copy of Traffi c Bylaw 348-15 please visit our website, or stop by Town Hall.
UTILITY SERVICES BYLAW IS BROUGHT UP TO DATECouncil also approved Utility Services Bylaw No. 331-14. This bylaw deals with Water, Wastewater, and Storm Drainage Services.One of the changes to this bylaw is utility accounts in rental suites and homes. A review of utility accounts will be undertaken; the Town will provide a 60 day written notice to all property owners of accounts that are in the name of agents and/or tenants that are in arrears, giving 60 days to have the accounts in the owner’s name. Failure by the property owner to comply will result in disconnect of service to the property until such time as they comply.Tenant and agents in whose name Utility Services are currently provided to a property or improvement and whose account is in good standing at the time this Bylaw comes into effect may continue to receive Utility Services until such a time as the tenant or agent closes the account, or the Utility Services are discontinued for any reason pursuant to this Bylaw.For a complete copy of Utility Services Bylaw 331-14 please visit our website, or stop by Town Hall.
The Fire Department responded to 3 emergency calls:
• 1 Alarm • 1 Motor Vehicle Accident • 1 Vehicle Fire
HOMETOWN NEWS
HOMETOWN EVENTS
FEATURE NEWS– NEW WASTE & RECYCLING SCHEDULE
HAS BEGUN WITH PICK-UP OFGREY waste carts in Zone 2 on Monday’s (between River and Highway 2A); Zone 1 on Thursday’s (east of Battle River) and Zone 3 on Friday’s (west of Highway 2A). Recycling pick-up will occur every alternate week starting January 11 for each of the above zones.
COUNCIL UPDATESNext meeting of Council: Tuesday, January 26, 2016. Please note this meeting will be at 6 pm at the Ponoka County Boardroom. Agenda packages are posted on the website under ‘Town Hall’ in advance of every Council meeting. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Next Committee of the Whole: Thursday, January 21, 2016 at 6:00 pm.
Volunteer Opportunities - Volunteers are needed for two Special Event Planning Committees (Canada Day & Ponoka Day in the Park). Interested community members can contact Wes Amendt at 403-783-0118 or [email protected]
Recreation Facility Pre-Design Report Open House - Monday, February 1 6:30-8:30 pm at the Hudson’s Green Nature & Activity Centre
Playground Development Committees are needed for Westview Park and Co-op Park playgrounds. Interested community members please contact Wes Amendt at 403-783-0118 or [email protected]
Family Day Activities 2016 – Come on out on Family Day for a whole lot of fun – many activities throughout the Town of Ponoka. Please visit our website’s Event Calendar (February 15) for all activities and times. www.ponoka.ca or call Wes Amendt at 403-783-0118 [email protected] The Junior Lifeguard Club will begin on Friday February 5. We will be hosting a National Lifeguard recertifi cation on February 16 and a National Lifeguard course from Mar 28 to April 1Designated lap lane all day (except during morning aquasize and swim club), pools are open all day (except during swim club)Register for Swim Lessons now! Call 403-783-0131 for more information
TOWN NOTICESCo-op Subdivision – ***Please Note**** your garbage and recycle days have changed from Friday’s to Thursday’s, effective immediately. Your next garbage pickup will be on Thursday, January 21.
Monthly Tax Installments – Please note that if you are already signed up, payments will come out as usual. Payments are withdrawn on the fi rst business day of each month.
Christmas Tree Pick Up started on January 11 – Please place trees in the back alley of your home or out front if you do not have back alley access.
Dog Licences are on sale until January 31, 2015 for $25 each. After this date they will be $40.
Are you a Town resident interested in Land Use Planning? The Town’s Subdivision and Development Appeal Board has one upcoming vacancy for a member at large. Training is provided by Municipal Affairs. The purpose of the Board is to hear and decide upon appeals against decisions of the Subdivision Approving Authority or Development Authority. Application forms are available at Town Hall or on the website.
10 PONOKA NEWS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016
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Recycling question remains unanswered for county residents
With the recent change in town household waste collection, Ponoka County residents have been left out of the loop when it comes to recycling.
That has seen several county councillors receive calls since the beginning of the month regarding what is going to happen and how they can continue to keep helping the environment and not just simply trash or burn items.
Councillors Bryce Liddle and Doug Weir as well as Reeve Paul McLauchlin all brought up the topic at the county council meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 12. However, after some discussion, council was left with more questions and even fewer answers than when they began talking.
What they did learn was that the present recycling facility in town, located along 50th Street, will remain open until sometime in March. At that time, it will be closed and everything moved to the town’s transfer site northeast of Ponoka. That will also mean everyone - including county residents - will have to pay in order to drop off waste.
With that being the case, chief administrative offi cer Charlie Cutforth explained he met with representatives of GFL (Green For Life) - the same company the town recently contracted for waste collection - and was told it could provide one large bin for recycling to the county transfer facility. They esti-mated it would be collected every other week to be taken to its Edmonton facility where the sorting would be done.
However, when councillor Mark Matejka asked about the bin and whether the county could collect the re-cycling on its own then take it to the town site, council quickly found out it will cost them one way or the other.
Cutforth told council they will have to pay GFL for the bin, and since GFL is doing the same for the town, it makes no sense for the county to spend the time and money to collect recy-cling and transfer it to the town site.
“There really is no market anymore for a number of items including clear plas-tics and glass, which is why they only now accept things like cardboard and couple of other things,” said Cutforth.
He added he will be looking into the issue further, in-cluding if some of the items are simply just being sent to another landfi ll. If that’s the
Highway artists to showcase work at Siding
14 Gallery
A collection of artwork inspired by Cowboy Trail, also known as Highway 22, is making its way to Siding 14 Gallery in Ponoka.
The exhibition of six artists, local and from around Alberta, has its opening night Friday, Jan. 22 from 5 to 8 p.m. and ends Friday, Feb. 19. Gallery owner Danny Lineham said in a press release the showing is from a group who calls them-selves the Alberta Highway Artists.
The group’s work depicts scenes of highways from various angles.
“Last year they did Highway 22, and we will be presenting an exhibition of some of the work that came out of that trip,” said Lineham.
The artists are Sandra Bingeham, Magreet Beekman, Colleen McGinnis, Cindy Brown, Sonja Zacharias and Dee Poisson.
The work is a culmination of two years of work with artists using acrylic, oil and water colours.
Siding 14 Gallery is along 50 Street near the North Bridge railway crossing.
County Briefs
BY JORDIE DWYERPONOKA NEWS
BY JEFFREY HEYDEN-KAYEPONOKA NEWS
case, Cutforth stated they could do that themselves. He will also be talking more with the town to see if there is a way to better coordinate on recycling.
Crime Watch comebackLiddle spoke briefl y about
some residents in his area expressing some interest in renewing the Rural Crime Watch program.
“There has also been a gain in interest from the Ponoka RCMP, which will be a big help in resurrecting it if we can get enough people involved,” he stated.
The hope is that this surge in interest will help gain some momentum and Liddle is trying to gather more in-formation on the number of interested people before try-ing to put a meeting together.
Take It OffCouncil approved a motion
to participate in a program called Take It Off, run by Lacombe County.
The voluntary program involves participants reg-istering their ice fi shing shacks, which helps to en-sure they are removed on time. Cutforth told council the program has worked well for Lacombe with no shacks left on Sylvan Lake
for the past two years and they seem quite happy.
“What they are really look-ing for from us is help in providing education and awareness of the program to those in our area, specifi cally on Gull Lake,” he said.
Sweeping upTo clear off the rest of the
agenda, council approved sending representatives from administration to a meeting in Drumheller of the Red Deer River Municipal User
Group along with a pair of donations for curling events in Ponoka.
The hope at the meet-ing is they can learn more about issues surrounding water delivery and quality. Meanwhile, the donations of $200 each will go toward sponsoring the upcoming 2016 high school curling championship being host-ed by Ponoka Secondary in March and this week’s Town and Country Bonspiel.
The future of culture and recreation in Ponoka has now been set on a track after town council approved a new recreation and culture master plan during a regular meeting Tuesday, Jan. 12.
The plan, which sets specifi c dates for the replacement of recreation buildings and the construction of cultural buildings in town, shows an almost immediate need to replace the aquaplex.
Planner Gary Debney of McElhanney Consulting said the long range plan of the document lays out a road map of what the town needs to prepare for. Mayor Rick Bonnett voiced concern over dates forecast in the plan, which sees replac-ing the aquaplex with a leisure pool by September, 2019.
“Those dates are coming up rather quickly,” suggested Bonnett.
Debney replied that the mechanics of the pool, plus a leaky roof, means the town needs to act quickly otherwise there will be no pool for residents at all. “It could fail at any time,” said Debney.
The fi ltration system, roof, basin and other walkways have issues but the struc-ture itself is in reasonable shape; how-ever, putting a new pool in place of the current pool within the same building is estimated to cost somewhere between $7 to $8 million, Debney said. If council decided to go that route, residents would again be out of a pool for some time during the construction phase.
Debney advised that the whole com-munity, residents of both the town and county, need to come together as a group to help make the pool a reality. The esti-mated cost to build a leisure pool is $12 million.
Coun. Loanna Gulka asked if something else could be built in the aquaplex space. She wondered if a skate park would work.
Determining that will take some time until the town receives a structural report of the building. A report is in the works, said Dave McPhee, director of operations and property services.
An open house on the plan is set for Monday, Feb. 1 at the Hudson Green and Nature Activity Centre from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Traffi c bylaw approvedThe new traffi c bylaw has been ap-
proved by council with little discussion.The bylaw gives the town some powers
when it comes to snow removal in the downtown area and in residential streets as well as parking, sidewalk clearing and violation tickets for offences.
Approving this bylaw will help the new peace offi cer the town has budgeted for.
Clarifying the peace offi cer positionThe peace offi cer position the town
approved for 2016 needed to be clarifi ed.Interim CAO Doug Wright told council
that there are two levels for a commu-nity peace offi cer (CPO): CPO 1 and CPO 2. Wright said the former will be able to patrol, educate and enforce bylaws while the latter is more of an administrative roll.
For the CPO 1 position, council would need to budget another $7,000 to $10,000 in addition to the $67,000 already bud-geted for. Coun. Carla Prediger suggested that the CPO 1 position was what they intended to have during deliberations.
“Are we overlapping the RCMP?” asked Coun. Marc Yaworski.
Wright replied that is not the case as a peace offi cer cannot deal with criminal code cases. He also recommended coun-cil approve the increase to pay for a CPO 1 position.
Council approved the request with Coun. Tim Falkiner opposed.
Utility services bylaw approvedThird reading of the utility services
bylaw was approved with little discussion after seeing how other municipalities ac-cess utility penalties to building owners.
McPhee told councillors there is a trend with municipalities to apply utility ar-rears to taxes. “A lot of municipalities have gone that route.”
He added the bylaw allows the town some fl exibility when dealing with resi-dents in good standing. He said a roll out plan is underway to inform homeowners.
Other approvalsCouncil appointed Clayton West to the
Subdivision and Development Appeal Board for two years starting Jan. 1 and administration will continue to look for someone to fi ll the other vacant position.
Wright told council that only one appli-cation was received.
Council also approved third reading of the police advisory committee bylaw with a new CAO and RCMP Staff Sgt. to set up the committee.
Council fi elds budget requests
Town councillors heard from several community groups looking for funds to benefi t their program-ming during their regular meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 12 starting with Shannon Boyce-Campbell, exec-utive director of Family and Community Support Services (FCSS).
She explained that due to provincial funding in-creases, the town and Ponoka County would need to increase their con-tributions as well. Funding for FCSS is provided through an 80/20 per cent grant arrangement with the province paying the larger share and munici-pality taking on the small-er portion. In this case, as Ponoka FCSS serves two municipalities, the town pays 10 per cent and so does Ponoka County. To proportionally match the increase by the provincial government, both mu-nicipalities will pay FCSS $36,700 in 2016, up from $33,000 in 2015. In 2017 the amount will rise to just over $40,000 each.
“The province is asking you to match them a lit-tle bit more,” said Boyce-Campbell.
Because of the increased funding, Boyce-Campbell suggests FCSS will also have greater responsibility in the near future but how that will look remains un-clear. She added that the agency will continue its
BY JEFFREY HEYDEN-KAYEPONOKA NEWS
BY JEFFREY HEYDEN-KAYEPONOKA NEWS
programming but the goal is to offer services that are more than just preventa-tive programs by working more closely with commu-nity groups.
The Early Child Development Mapping Project (ECMap) was a standalone service of the provincial government, but will now fall under the umbrella of FCSS.
She added that with the stagnant economy, other issues and gaps in services have arisen. The goal is to determine those gaps in the near future.
Fort Ostell Museum re-quest
The museum is looking for $20,000 for 2016, up from $18,000 in 2015.
Chairperson of the board of the museum Craig Robinson explained the main reason for the in-creased request was that grant funding normally available from the Alberta Museum Association was no longer readily provided.
Robinson said the board will still apply for funds from the association, the money helps pay for sum-mer students, but it wasn’t set in stone they would get it.
Coun. Teri Underhill is
in favour of approving the increase. “They do a phe-nomenal job on very little money,” she said.
Library to continue free membership
For the Ponoka Jubilee Library there will be no increase in dollar requests over last year.
Library manager Jaclyn Berry said the free library membership program was partly covered due to staff changes. She added that the program is so popular that membership has in-creased by 35 per cent with almost 300 new members. “With public libraries that is huge.”
“We had 164 different programs in 2015 with over 2,200 participants,” added Berry.
Wheelchair Van Society request
The society is looking for $20,000 for help with its regular operations.
The money will help op-erate its two new vans, said board member Keith Bresee. He said the society was able to buy two new vans last year with help from the community and grant.
No decisions were made regarding budget requests by council.
12 PONOKA NEWS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016
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Baby’s name as you want it to appear:
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All pictures will be published in the Feb. 10, 2016 issue and will be entered to win a prize, compliments of the Ponoka News.
$1,000 to the food bank:Central Alberta Vintage Motorcycle Group helped raise $1,000 for the Ponoka Food Bank. Here Violet Smith accepts the cheque Friday, Jan. 15 from group member Skinny La Bine.
Photo by Jeffrey Heyden-Kaye
Extra! Extra!
Read all about itonline at
www.ponokanews.com
14 PONOKA NEWS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016
Ponoka OutreachSchool
Getting to Know the Outreach
Friday, January 22Biology 30 Diploma Exam
Monday, January 25Math 30 Diploma Exam
Tuesday, January 26Physics 30 Diploma Exam
Wednesday, January 27Chemistry 30 Diploma ExamNight school — All staff here
Thursday, January 28Science 30 Diploma Exam
All diploma exams start at 9:00 am.Please be at the school by 8:45 am.
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Council approves LED lights for Centennial Park
Development stays steady, struggles seem certain in 2016
Development in Ponoka County has been strong and steady for several years though the outlook on the hori-zon is certainly stormy.
In 2015, there were 54 subdivision appli-cations fi led and ap-proved, down slightly from the numbers the three previous years of 68 (2014), 69 (2013) and 71 (2012) though about the same as 2011 when there were 55.
Meanwhile, a total of 219 building and devel-opment permits were issued by the county, which was down a bit from the 249 issued in 2014. However, the
number was on pace with the 212 approved in 2013 when the huge jump in the economy spurred a mini-boom from 2012 and 2011 when the numbers were 164 and 158 re-spectively.
While the fi gures look decent, the reasoning behind the numbers speaks volumes about where the economy is leading things.
“In previous years, subdivision applica-tions were done for three reasons - farm-ers parcelling off pieces of land to support their operations in times of fi nancial need or to pro-vide a piece of land for a family member to live on and mainly around
the lake areas for hous-ing developments,” said Charlie Cutforth, Ponoka County’s chief administrative offi cer in an interview last week.
“Last year, the ma-jority of the subdivi-sion requests were for single parcels, likely being split off for fam-ily members or in order to fi nance their current operations.”
Cutforth also agreed that the downturn in the oil and gas industry last year, and seeming-ly getting worse in the early part of this year with no sign of an up-swing on the horizon, will defi nitely affect the numbers in 2016.
“I believe that activ-ity will certainly slow
down, especially with the large number of properties that are cur-rently available on the market. There looks to be a bit of an oversup-ply (of subdivisions) that wasn’t there when the oil and gas indus-tries were humming and people wanted those kinds of lakeside properties,” he said.
“I am not looking to see anywhere near the same numbers in 2016 as we had even last year, since the real es-tate market is slowing down as well. Years ago, people could fi nance 100 per cent of their purchase, but with the marked shift recent-ly, things are changing and you might even see
people having problems hanging onto proper-ties.”
Cutforth also foresees a substantial drop in the number of permits that will be requested in 2016.
“Last year, the ma-jority of permits were issued for people con-structing garages or shops or simply doing small improvements to their home or property,” he said.
“Usually, the fi rst thing that people quit doing when the economy dips is spending money they don’t feel they need to do. I’m not going to be surprised to see the numbers far lower than the 200-plus we have seen in the past.
“The county is fortu-nate that development is not diffi cult here. The process to get it done is minimal with cost just $25 for permit regard-less of who it is for - an individual or business - or how much the de-velopment is worth. I think it is one of the big attractions for the county as well as us having among the low-est taxes in the prov-ince and our work to ensure the county is a good place to do busi-ness. We know it works as witnessed by the property taxes helping us pay for the paving of a road for some in-dustrial properties that have been built in re-cent years.”
After hearing of the benefi ts of bright light LED
BY JEFFREY HEYDEN-KAYEPONOKA NEWS
BY JORDIE DWYERPONOKA NEWS
lighting in Centennial Park, town council approved the current ones to be replaced.
No poles will be replaced, explained Larry Henkelman, president of the Ponoka Lion’s Club who made the request to council. But the feeling from the club is that it will curb vandalism in the area. “These problems still continue in the park,” said Henkelman.
The proposal is for the club to split the $27,500 project between the club and the town with Phase 3 Electric doing the work, explained Henkelman.
He did ask if the town is able to provide the light replacement work but Dave McPhee, director of operations and property services, said the town would have to contract that work as it needs spe-cial electrician certifi cation.
Council approved the request with $15,000 com-ing from the town’s 2016 playground and Hudson Green projects. The Lion’s Club will pay for the $12,500 difference.
Town proceeding bylaw clarifi edWording and clarifi cations have been made to
town council’s procedural bylaw, which lays out how a meeting is to function.
Council approved second reading of the bylaw, which adds some clarifi cations to in camera meet-ing confi dentiality as well as formats for the public forum. The proposal limits the total time of the public forum to 10 minutes.
It also provides that council can meet in cam-era within one of the three exceptions set in the Municipal Government Act: legal, land and person-nel. Councillors are expected to keep in confi dence matters discussed in camera.
Interim CAO Doug Wright told councillors that the current procedures bylaw did not include committee of the whole meetings, which has been rectifi ed.
Third reading for bylaw is expected at the next regular meeting.
UP-TO-DATE NEWSWWW.PONOKANEWS.COM
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016 PONOKA NEWS 15
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The joys of growing up in a small town
MIKE RAINONEHAMMERTIME
For those of us who grew up in a small town, we have now hopefully gotten used to all the new chang-es, but will always love to browse through the family photo albums and school yearbooks and share how great it was to be a kid right here in and around good old Ponoka.
*You could name every-one who you graduated with and can’t wait to get to that next reunion. In those days, everyone went
to the same graduation party, and most of us had some sort of a ‘nickname.’
*You knew what 4-H was and how great it was to raise your own calf or learn how to drive the tractor. Just about all of us kids had sampled a cigar or cig-arette behind the shed and weren’t shy about having to pee in the cornfi eld.
*We went to parties at a pasture, barn, gravel pit, or in the middle of a dirt road, and on Mondays
you could always tell who had been at the party be-cause they had scratch-es on their arms and legs from running through the woods when the bash was busted.
*We used to ‘drag’ Railway Street and hope that the town police were on their coffee break, and we learned quickly which offi cer was the toughest. If we wanted to walk to get some exercise there would likely be fi ve people who would stop to offer us a ride or to chat.
*If we even dared to whisper the ‘F’ word, our parents knew about it within the hour, and the word ‘grounded’ was non-negotiable.
*You could never buy beer because all the store clerks knew how old we were, and if you were old enough, they’d tell our parents anyway. If we could somehow scratch up enough money and fi nd someone brave enough to
buy us some booze, we had to drive out into the country to drink it.
*We couldn’t help but date a friend’s ex-boy-friend/girlfriend, but it was real cool to date someone from neighbouring towns, which were just like us but were often referred to as trashy or snooty.
*Your teachers called you by your older sib-ling’s names, and many remembered when they taught our parents. Our gym teacher suggested that we should haul hay or get a job for the summer to get stronger, but most of us played lazy games and hung around the golf course, which only had nine holes then.
*If we had a car, it stayed fi lthy because of the dirt roads, and most directions to get somewhere includ-ed turning at Nelson’s house, go two blocks to Anderson’s, then go four houses north of the pink church. If you got lost
everyone met up at the local gas station or dairy bar, because there was no McDonalds and the near-est mall was an hour away.
*We referred to anyone with a house newer than 1955 ‘rich’, we thought that the ‘big city’ folks dressed funny then picked up the same trends two years later, and you could charge or write a cheque at any local town store without showing ID.
*In those days it was completely ‘normal’ to see your friends coming into town on a tractor or bringing the grain truck to school, while many of our vibrant local seniors scoot-ed around the communi-ty on their ‘riding lawn mowers. What the heck, things haven’t changed that much, have they?
Maybe life is just a lit-tle more complicated, but let’s just keep doing our ‘own thing’, while thinking spring, and having a great week, all of you.
Albertans need a government review process that has teeth
A popular U.S. president once said that the closest thing to eternal life any of us on earth will ever see is a government program.
Madsen Pirie, for-mer adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, told a joke about that same idea in a speech he delivered in Toronto. Pirie said that after the c o n s e r va t ive - m i n d e d Thatcher took offi ce, the fi rst government program she eliminated had been created back in 1803, when the British and French were at war. Fearing an invasion, the British had paid a man to sit atop the Cliffs of Dover to watch for Napoleon. He was to light a fi re if the French Emperor showed up.
“We eliminated that job in 1980,” Pirie deadpanned. He understood the ten-dency that bureaucracies have to perpetuate their own existence.
It is an awareness of government’s innate bias toward getting bigger, and staying bigger, that led numerous legislative
RON ORR
MLA
assemblies to adopt sun-set clauses—legal orders that say when a govern-ment program must end. If an agency or program is to continue beyond the termination date (sunset date), its existence must be debated and justifi ed, and the legislature must then pass new legislation.
In the U.S., more than two dozen state govern-ments have taken things even further. Instead of putting sunset clauses into certain pieces of leg-islation, to varying degrees they’ve adopted Universal Sunset Legislation that ap-plies to everything they do.
In Texas, for example, every board, commission, and agency will be abol-ished within a specifi c time frame (usually twelve years), unless the state legislature specifically passes legal provisions for their renewal. And it isn’t just the legislature that has a say. The state has a twelve-member Sunset Commission backed by an executive director and a thirty-member staff. These people scrutinize every government agency and program, determin-ing which of them should be eliminated. So far the commission has carried out 500 evaluations, elim-inated 83 government programs or agencies, and saved taxpayers more than $900 million.
In Alberta, past PC gov-ernments made a feeble attempt to establish a somewhat similar consid-eration. Yet rather than setting up something with teeth that can genuinely limit the size, cost, and growth of government, the PCs passed a law say-ing that every few years, public agencies in Alberta must review whether they
have a written explanation of what they’re supposed to be doing. It’s called a Mandate and Roles Document. These “man-date” letters are supposed to be developed by the bu-reaucracy and the Minister responsible.
In places where people are serious about respon-sible government, the evaluation and review of government agencies is undertaken by competent, seasoned people who ask tough questions. They de-termine whether govern-ment agencies should still be operating. In Alberta, we order that a Cabinet Minister must review a mandate letter that is largely assembled by the bureaucracy itself.
This year, legislation forces the Notley Cabinet to “review” mandate let-ters for more than 300 provincial agencies. Unfortunately, this pro-cess is not designed to save money. Nor will it re-sult in eliminating aspects of government that are redundant, or that could better be achieved through other means.
Additionally, there is pro-vision in Alberta to have the actual operations of government agencies re-viewed every seven years. Unfortunately, Alberta’s reviews are not impartial or independent. They’ll be carried out by the Minister in Charge, with assistance from the bureaucracy it-self.
If you have any questions or concerns on this or any issue, please feel free to con-tact my Constituency Offi ce by e-mail at [email protected]; or by telephone at 403-782-7725 or fax at 403-782-3307 or by mail 101, 4892 46 Street, Lacombe, AB T4L 2B4.
16 PONOKA NEWS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016
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RIZWAN SYEDAssociate
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St. A students fi nd science a cool blastScience surrounds us
and can be a lot of fun to put into practice.
That’s exactly what the Grade 4, 5 and 6 students at St. Augustine School found out fi rst hand, and up close, when Dr. Lucio Gelmini performed a num-
ber of experiments and demonstrations at the school on Friday, Jan. 15 as a way to learn more about science, chemical reac-tions and to better under-
BY JORDIE DWYERPONOKA NEWS
stand just how fun science can be.
The nearly two-hour long presentation taught the students some basics about how chemistry and chemical reactions affect people on a daily basis, which included some fun and sometimes explosive results such as huge bub-ble explosions, rocket-ing pop bottles and sonic booming balloons.
Dr. Gelmini, who is an in-structor of chemistry and past chair of the subject at MacEwan University in Edmonton, hopes this kind of presentation will get children more involved in their science classes and remember just how great this presentation was.
“I want kids to look at something fun and inter-esting. As well, I want to show the teachers some things that they can use in their classes,” said Gelmini, who is also the chair of the Edmonton Science Outreach Network.
“Ultimately, it would be great to increase the num-ber of kids who take sci-ence in high school and in university.”
Gelmini has been doing
similar presentations for the better part of last 20 years, since his children were in pre-school, and the reason he started are the same reasons he con-tinues to do them.
“At fi rst, it was to help teachers that taught my children. Then it was to educate and entertain kids, showing them that science is fun and inter-esting and something that will help them explain what is going on in the world around them,” he said.
“When I realized how much the teachers and kids appreciated this, I started to offer it to other teachers (always going to my kids classes at their schools, of course). Now it is something that I don’t advertise, people will call on me and I go to schools across the province.”
About 16 years ago, Gelmini only did about three or four per year, but he fi nds it very diffi cult to say no. So now, that fi gure averages about 125 - the most he has done in one year is 150 - and typically is done in front of about 40 to 60 students, but has
‘performed’ in front of large audiences, as big as 550. That includes large school presentations, the famous children’s festival in St. Albert as well nu-merous conferences for teachers, young scientists and other organizations and events.
“I love seeing the looks on the kids faces when they see what happens next. I love talking to them and answering question they have about the world around them and I really love it when they come to me and tell me that they really want to be a scientist,” he said, noting his presentations have reached about 120,000 kids over the past 15 years.
“I have teachers come up to me and tell me about kids that were never very actively engaged who come alive through the presentation. I have re-ceived hundreds of letters from children in grades 2 to 6 telling me what they liked about the presenta-tion and how they want to be scientists and chemists.
continued on page 17
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016 PONOKA NEWS 17
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Students watch as Dr. Lucio Gelmini pours hot water on solid carbon dioxide - aka dry ice - to get the reaction…
Photo by Jordie Dwyer
…of shock and surprise from the students as the chemical chain reaction results in an explo-sion of a huge cloud as the carbon dioxide instantly turns to a gaseous state. It was one of several demos for Grade 4 to 6 students at St. Augustine School on Friday, Jan. 15.
Photo by Jordie Dwyer
“Alberta has a knowl-edge-based economy and we need scientists and en-gineers. I keep doing them because I love the joy and amazement that the kids show for the presentation. I meet people in the streets or at MacEwan University that say that they have taken in my presentation and have looked at getting into science. These kids are the future scientists and I just wanted to be involved in helping them decide what careers are available to them.”
In addition, Gelmini has not been collecting any-thing for his presentations. Instead, he is using the opportunity to help raise funds for cancer research.
“I don’t charge for mile-age or chemicals or my time. Lately, my mileage has been paid for by the Alberta Science Network, who talk to schools about my chemistry demos. During this time, I occa-sionally ask the schools if their kids would help out in raising funds for cancer research through a voluntary donation of spare change or a loonie or toonie,” he stated.
“I have been doing that for the last 10 or so years. My father died of lung cancer in 2009 and I had cancer treatments fi nish
continued from page 16 in May of 2015. I have par-ticipated in the Walk to End Breast Cancer and the
Ride to Conquer Cancer and have supported oth-ers in these endeavors.
Through these demos, we have raised about $60,000 over the last 10 years.”
Gelmini is also part of a few other projects that work to show people how interesting everyday sci-ence can be.
For the last four years, he has been part of a Harry
Potter-based kids’ program at schools in Edmonton as well as evening sci-ence shows. Plus, he is on the executive of the local section of the Chemical Institute of Canada that puts together chemistry activities for adults as well.
“We put together chem-
istry activities such as this week’s topic the chemistry of scotch,” he said.
“We have done the chemistry of beer, wine, coffee, tea, a turkey diner, chocolate, cheese and ice cream along with some more academic talks for the public to attend.”
Commodity prices con-tinue to feel the pain of larger supply situations and continues concerns for global econom-ic growth, with a lot of eyes on China. All grain values are lower in the fi rst few weeks of 2016 but with some notables being oats below $2/bushel in Chicago and canola below $475/MT in Winnipeg. Oil has also been a big loser, tanking to its lowest level since 2002 at $31/barrel, which in turn, has pushed the Canadian Loonie down to below 70 cents USD for the fi rst time since early 2003 (notice the correlation between low points and the years?). That being said, are we at the lows? Commodities have started out the year worse than last year’s fi rst few weeks but you likely won’t fi nd any economists admitting to that but it’s hard to peg in another 10 per cent move in the Loonie (down to 63 cents), but
In times of crisis, leaders shouldn’t be projecting a
sense of panicCanada faces seri-
ous economic challeng-es as 2016 unfolds, and key leadership in deal-ing with the economic fallout of falling oil pric-es and slow economic growth must come from Bill Morneau, Canada’s federal minister of fi -nance.
During the recent election campaign the Trudeau government promised that it would jump start the economy with $60 billion in new infrastructure spending on public transit, green and social infrastructure in an attempt to stimu-late the economy. Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau repeated this mantra, telling re-porters in Toronto that infrastructure spending is “the key” to kick-start-ing Canada’s economy.
As the economic fallout from the resource sec-
BRENNAN TURNER
FarmLead
BY LIVIO DI MATTEOTROY MEDIA COLUMNIST
a 10 per cent drop in oil would be just $3.10 and a 10 per cent drop in wheat would be just 50 cents. Puts it in perspective for you doesn’t it.
Speaking of perspec-tive, the U.S.D.A. put out what is arguably their most signifi cant W.A.S.D.E. report of the year on January 12th, which gives fi nal yield and production numbers for the 2015 US crop, as well as forecasts for US winter wheat acres. On the acreage front U.S. winter wheat area is es-timated to have fallen by 7.2 per cent in 2016 to 36.61 million acres, with hard red and soft red wheat acreage at 26.5 million (-9 per cent year-over-year) and 6.72 million (-5 per cent from 2015). Projected U.S. end-ing stocks for wheat to end the 2015/16 market-ing year is forecasted to come in at 941 million bushels (+25 per cent from the end of 2014/15), 1.8 Billion bushels of corn (+4.1 per cent from last year’s ending stocks), and 440 million bushels of soybeans (+130 per cent year-over-year!). From a global perspec-tive, ending stocks are seen mostly flat for corn and wheat at 209 million and 489 million tonnes respectively. For soybeans though, global inventories to end this marketing year are seen up 3.1 per cent from a
year ago.As mentioned, China
may be experienc-ing slowing growth but Canadian canola ship-ments to the People’s Republic and other plac-es continue to remain strong with 6.8 million tonnes of the oilseed shipped out of Canadian ports so far this market-ing season through the end of 2015 (+9.7 per cent from the 6.2 million tonnes shipped over the same period a year ago). On that note, the veggie oil supply situation re-mains relatively oppor-tunistic, given that global inventories are expect-ed to end 2015/16 down 12.2 per cent year-over-year at just 16.7 million tonnes remaining.
Alas, with the rains fi -nally falling in the right places in Brazil, re-search institute CEPEA says that the Brazilian Real is creating incen-tive for the 2nd/safrinha corn crop to yield 54.5 million tonnes (close to last year’s record crop, assuming similar acres and a slight decrease in average yields). With the opportunities to lock in a great domestic price, according to ag institute IMEA, Brazilian farmers in the Mato Grosso state have already forward sold 53.5 per cent of their possible production as of the end of December. This equates to almost 5 times the 11.5 per cent of
potential output that was priced at the same time a year ago. That being said, we continue to see solid basis opportuni-ties on new crop wheat in Western Canada. As you’re pondering wheth-er or not you should lock 10-20 per cent in, relative to the past 2 or 3 years, what basis levels have you been able to lock in?
To growth,Brennan TurnerPresident and CEO |
FarmLead.comBrennan Turner is origi-
nally from Foam Lake, SK, where his family started farming the land in the 1920s. After completing his degree in economics from Yale University and then playing some pro hockey, Mr. Turner spent some time working in fi nance before starting FarmLead.com, a risk-free, transparent on-line and mobile grain mar-ketplace (app available) that has moved almost 150,000 MT in the last 2.5 years. His weekly col-umn is a summary of his free, daily market note, the FarmLead Breakfast Brief. He can be reached via email ([email protected]
tor continues, and the Canadian dollar contin-ues its free fall, a sense of urgency appears to have gripped opinion leaders in the country and the call for “shovel-ready” projects has gone out. Indeed, the sense of haste has become so pronounced that there’s even talk of foregoing the customary practice of substantive pre-bud-get consultations with economists and policy experts.
In times of crisis, a sense of panic is not what leaders should proj-ect. The sense of urgency that is currently being dispensed in national de-bate does a disservice to sound policy formulation and implementation. The last fi nancial cri-sis and global recession saw Canadian economic policy dealt with by the duo of fi nance minister Jim Flaherty and Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney. They provided measured words, actions and reassurance in diffi -cult circumstances when it came to dealing with the economy, and helped project calm.
The current Bank of Canada governor has demonstrated what can only be termed as an extroverted role when it comes to making pro-nouncements on the economy, which might be interpreted as increas-ing uncertainty amongst the business community. One would hope that the fi nance minister would not add to this by sud-denly trumpeting a sense of urgency that will not help serve Canada’s best economic interests.
Drop-ins welcome at all events.Regular jam sessions every Saturday at 1pm
Jan. 29 - Potluck & General Meeting 5:30 pm. Bring a dish to share, table service & enjoy good company.
Feb. 21 - 7:00pm Gospel Concert - Steve Potter with “Black Velvet”.
Billiards - Weekdays 1:00pm. Mon through Sat – 50 cents per game. Honour system
Monday Bridge 1:00pm
Monday Whist - 1:30pm
Monday Yoga - 6:30pm
Tuesday Canasta - 1:00pm
Tuesday & Thursday Exercise class 9:30am
Tuesday Pickleball 6:30pm Centennial Centre - contact Janice Mackie 403-396-3160
Tuesday Shuffl eboard - 7pm
Wednesday morning - PIANO LESSONS FOR SENIORS (Sara Driedger 403-790-1980)
Wednesday Sewing Guild 9:30am to 4pm
Wednesday Cribbage 1:00pm
Wednesday Yoga - 6:30pm
Wednesday Duplicate Bridge 7:00pm
Thursday Floor Curling - 1:00pm
Thursday Weaving 1:00pm Welcome to drop-in to see how it’s done
Thursday Bridge 1:00pm
Thursday Art Club Drop In Noon to 4pm
Friday “500” 1:00pm
Saturday Yoga 9:30am
Memberships available for 2016 - $10.00 per person. To rent our facility contact Dorothy @ 403-783-3027
or George @ 403-783- 3514 or leave a message @ 403-783-5012. Rentals are increasing and we would like
to invite our town administration, business groups, and general public (Wedding, funeral, and Birthday
groups), to inquire about rentals services and prices early in their planning. We may fi t your bill!
A review of 2015 at Ponoka Jubilee Library
Last week, we were given the opportunity to speak with town council and give them a review of 2015 at Ponoka Jubilee Library. We are so excited about the information that was presented there that we thought we would pass it along to you too. So here are some of the highlights for us:
We started our free membership policy on January 1, 2015, which en-titles anyone of legal age who lives in the town or County of Ponoka or the Community of Maskwacis to a free membership. We went from 836 active members to 1122, which is 286 new members, or an increase of 34 per cent. We also had a 20 per cent over-all increase in circulation, and a 32 per cent increase in holds/requests fi lled for our patrons. 62,472 items circulated through our li-brary last year.
We held 164 programs in 2015, with just short of 2200 people taking part
History still keeps a lot of secrets
What’s done is done.You can’t go back and
erase the past, as much as you might try. You can alter its affects, make ex-cuses for it, or pretend it never happened, but what’s done is done. And as you’ll see in the new book “When Hitler Took Cocaine and Lenin Lost His Brain” by Giles Milton, more was done than you think.
Every good histori-an knows that history’s fi lled with dates, battles, and facts that can be mind-numbing for the av-erage person. Those are
TERRI
SCHLICHENMEYER
The Bookworm
BY JACLYN BERRYin them. These programs included Story Time, the Summer Reading program, Spanish classes, wine tastings, movie days, fi re-arms safety courses, Lego club, Christmas activities, vision screenings with the Ponoka Lions Club, a monthly adult book club and gardening seminars.
We have continued our community outreach through programs like the book reading club at the long-term care ward at the Ponoka Hospital and partnering with the Youth Centre to beautify and plant our community gar-den, which donated fresh vegetables to the Ponoka Food Bank. We joined the Town of Ponoka on their Stampede parade fl oat, and with them, as well as many other fabulous organizations in Ponoka, helped plan and partici-pated in the very fun Day in the Park at the end of August. We provided tours and scavenger hunts to different school classes (yep, we do library tours for any teachers out there looking for a fi eldtrip idea), daycares and a Sparks group.
We expanded our Ponoka Friends of the Library Society and with their help, and the generosity
of the community, were able to raise more than $7,000 through donations and fundraisers.
We added 1112 new items to the library collec-tion, being sure to focus on national bestsellers, items with Canadian con-tent, and many blockbust-er movies, as well as many new items for children. We also received a large number of new children’s
books for free when we arranged to have the COW (Classroom on Wheels) bus come to the library in July to provide an educational and interesting afternoon for beginner readers.
2015 was a great year. And we want to celebrate it with everyone, so come join us at our fourth annu-al ‘Dinner at the Library’ on Thursday, Feb. 25, from 6 to 8 p.m. It’s a potluck,
so we ask everyone to bring one item to share. We’ll provide drinks, buns, plates and cutlery. Please sign up at the library.
Coming soon: In the ex-plosive new thriller, ‘After She’s Gone’, Lisa Jackson delves into the deep bond between sisters and their shared dream that be-comes a harrowing night-mare of madness, hatred and jealousy.
Giles Milton
things your high school history teacher tried to make you memorize – but there’s a lot that textbooks never tell.
Did you know, for in-stance, that Adolph Hitler might’ve had a love child that would “quite possi-bly still” be alive? Or that Hitler’s brother joined the U.S. Army in World War II and fought against the Germans?
There are things in his-tory that we know, almost. A corpse’s clues suggest how explorer George Mallory died, but nobody knows if he made it to the top of Everest. After the Titanic sank, a kitchen worker survived hours in icy water, perhaps due to the two bottles of whis-key he drank earlier. And that Agatha Christie dis-appeared for eleven days is a fact; why is her biggest mystery.
But unknowns aren’t the only surprises from the past: in this book, you’ll read about history’s “most prolifi c murderess” and a monk that wouldn’t die. You’ll learn about a nine-year-old who dedicated his life to an Emperor in a
very drastic way, and you’ll see stories of the most un-savory meals…
And then there are his-tory’s little-known but astounding people: the man who survived two hydrogen bomb-drops and lived to be ninety-three. The captain who chose cash over “chattels” at sea. Men who talked in code to foil the Japanese. And the Polish Catholic woman who single-handedly saved more than 2,000 Jews.
There’s a lot of good reading inside “When Hitler Took Cocaine and Lenin Lost His Brain.” And a lot of fun, too.
Half the enjoyment in this book comes from the quick, short tales that author Giles Milton has collected: tales that lean heavily toward World War II, but are still varied throughout history and the world. The length of these stories is perfect for this kind of book: each can be read in a few minutes’ time and you won’t feel guilty for jumping in, mid-book, for a good-at-the-moment browse.
The other great thing is
that Milton invites readers to look at the past with curiosity and even a lit-tle humor. While it’s true that some of the chapters you’ll read here are made of serious stuff, Milton also includes stories that are on the lighter side.
I enjoyed this book with the consternation that comes when you know something’s going to end, but you don’t want it to – and that’s the feeling I think you’ll get, too, when you read “When Hitler Took Cocaine and Lenin Lost His Brain.” Start this book, and you’ll want more when it’s done.
“When Hitler Took Cocaine and Lenin Lost His Brain”by Giles Milton
c.2016, Picador $16.00 / higher in Canada
272 pages
20 PONOKA NEWS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016
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In times of crisisHaste is a recipe for di-
saster for several reasons. First, while the economy has slowed, the sense of crisis is misplaced. The unemployment rate is at 7.1 per cent, and while there is always room for improvement the fact re-mains that it’s not higher than it was in 2010 in the wake of the 2009 down-turn. Moreover, even the most recent labour force numbers show employ-ment is still being gen-erated by the Canadian economy. Canada’s real economic problem is pro-ductivity growth - a prob-lem that needs address-ing with longer-term measures rather than immediate government spending.
Second, if we are to em-bark on a program of in-frastructure spending it’s important to make sure that projects with the best return are select-ed and the best balance between public transit projects, green and social infrastructure properly assessed. Moreover, one might want to see other infrastructure needs given consideration in other areas of national in-terest. It would be unrea-sonable to see federal in-frastructure money fl ow to community centres rather than roads and sewers simply because “shovel ready” plans exist for the former but not the latter.
In our haste to “stimu-late” the economy, we run the risk of wasting tax dollars if we build poorly designed or unnecessary infrastructure as well as bid up the cost of build-ing. Moreover, haste in-creases the odds of situ-ations such as Ontario’s Nipigon Bridge, where key components on Canada’s vital east-west highway link have failed after only several months of oper-ation and the expendi-ture of millions of dollars. That such expenditures will be fi nanced by a debt burden to be borne by fu-ture generations adds to the problem.
Key to any infrastruc-ture building is the need to develop a list of prior-ities - no easy task given the federal nature of our system of government with its overlapping juris-dictions. More important-ly, there is no consensus
continued from page 18 on what the actual size of any infrastructure gap is, aside from continual pronouncements that it
must be very large.The only thing worse
than embarking on a massive public infrastruc-
ture program without fi rm estimates of what’s needed, and a system-atic approach to priori-
tizing needs, is doing so in a hurry. Haste makes waste.
Livio Di Matteo is senior
fellow at the Fraser Institute and professor of economics at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016 PONOKA NEWS 21
Business Hours:Mon. to Thurs. 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Bay #2, 5012 48 Ave.(located next to Ponoka Dental Centre)
We Can Restore
Your Smile
Janice K. Cameron, DDDenturist / Owner
Call for an appointment Call for an appointment TODAYTODAY 403-790-2700403-790-2700 SERVICES OFFERED • Personal & Corporate Income Tax Planning
• Business Advisory Service• Government Program Assistance
Ponoka Offi ce: 403-783-3315
Bashaw Offi ce (Tues): 780-372-3627
Wetaskiwin Offi ce (Mon & Thurs): 780-352-6488CHARTERED PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTANTS
Sports
Three losses in a week jeopardize playoff chances for Stamps
Ponoka Stampeders have now put their play-off chances at risk after losing three games in a row last week, slimming down their advantage over the last place Stettler Lightning to a single point after losing to that team in the fi nal seconds of their game in Ponoka last Wednesday, Jan. 13 and losing twice to Cochrane in as many days over the weekend.
The game on Wednesday tasted like fl at beer at fi rst but turned into a nailbiter at the end with Stettler Lightning, fi ghting tooth and nail for a playoff spot, extracted a hard-earned win from the Ponoka Culture and Recreation Complex defeating hosts 5-4.
MUSTAFA ERICPONOKA NEWS
continued on page 24
Stampeders’ goalie Zeke Leuck makes one of his 40 saves of the game against Stettler Lightning on Wednesday, Jan. 13 at the Ponoka Culture and Recreation Complex. Ponoka boys lost 5-4.
Photo by Mustafa Eric
Bronze medal winners: Skating to Elvis’ Viva Las Vegas the Ponoka Skate Club Ice Sensations earned themselves a bronze medal in the elementary category at the Calgary Rosebowl over the weekend. The act was choreographed by Donna Horlock and Erynn Rice. Pictured are (back row, left-right) Tori McNalley, Gina Mercer, Morgan Blanchard, Serra Hodges, (middle row) Janaya Rawji, Kailey Csek, Kate McNalley, Diadem Pambrum, (front row) Kelsey DeIure, Sara DeIure, Tory Blanchard, Mallory McNalley.
Photo by Robyn Abt
22 PONOKA NEWS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016
Junior Kings and Queens put best foot forward at Shine
tournament
Despite being outper-formed at their Shine tour-nament over the weekend, St Augustine’s junior girls’ and boys’ basketball teams made some serious im-provements in their game.
The boys fi rst game was Friday, Jan. 15 against École Camille J. Lerouge Voyageurs in what be-came a heated and close matchup. The Kings were fi red up in front of a home crowd, playing with vigour
and strength.Their youthfulness be-
lied their skills taking shots deep in the Voyageurs’ key or from outside under heavy pressure. Their full court press held strong but so did the Voyageurs’ and at the end of the half the Kings were down 32-31.
Whatever coach Brandon Bishop said to the players at the break seemed to re-fresh the team who came up strong in the third quar-ter. It wasn’t until three or four minutes into the third that the Voyageurs man-
Junior Kings’ John Baldovino makes a layup against the École Camille J. Lerouge Voyageurs Friday, Jan. 15 in their fi rst game of their Shine tournament. The Kings won the B fi nals.
Photo by Jeffrey Heyden-Kaye
Junior Queens’ Alysha Balatbat drives the lane Friday, Jan. 15 during their fi rst game of the Shine Tournament. Here the girls defeated the Dave Thompson High School Voyageurs.
Photo by Jeffrey Heyden-Kaye
Sabres pounce onthe JV Broncs
There was little chance for Ponoka Secondary Campus’ JV Broncs as they went head to head against the Wetaskiwin Sabres Wednesday, Jan. 13 at home.
By the end of the fi rst half, the Broncs were down 40–14 and the Sabres seemed to have the strength, height and the experience to keep a strong lead. They were, actually, unstoppable. The Broncs lost 84-25.
Coach Ryan Newman said going against the highest ranked team in their league was a challenge for his players. “The focus of the game was simply to not give up and not give in.”
The Broncs had no chance at winning and while their future was clearly written, they did not give up and con-tinued to drive the lane against the Sabres. They did not have much chance to score against taller players and while the Sabres’ points kept rising in leaps Ponoka’s only inched its way up. Despite their best efforts, Ponoka boys struggled to sink a single basket for much of the third quarter.
A strong defence and offence from the Sabres kept the ball in Ponoka’s side for much of the game and when the Broncs managed to fi nd a chance at a breakaway, Wetaskiwin was ready to recover the ball with a turn-over. They seemed to read every play the Broncs threw at them, but Ponoka boys still kept trying, never giving up.
Newman said many of his players haven’t played on a basketball team before, which has created a need this season to build skills and confi dence on the court.
“I have seen a remarkable amount of improvement in the boys so far,” said Newman.
He added that team captain Clayton Raugust has been integral in keeping players’ heads in the game.
Where the Broncs managed to slow the Sabres down was in their passing. Keeping up quick, multiple passes in the Sabres’ half of the court created confi dence in the home team. That strategy, when used, worked. It gave the Sabres a sense of urgency and they made unforced errors because of it, which garnered Ponoka valuable points.
However, it was not enough to defeat the Sabres.
BY JEFFREY HEYDEN-KAYEPONOKA NEWS
BY JEFFREY HEYDEN-KAYEPONOKA NEWS
aged to score.Despite a strong home-
town crowd, the Voyageurs managed to continue to sink baskets in the third and fourth quarters with simple, yet effective plays. Rather than risk an outside shot, the Voyageurs man-aged to bring the score to 50-50 with two minutes left in the game by sticking to safe and sure shots. A time out was called and Bishop tried to gather his players’ confi dence.
“The long goal caught us by surprise a few times,” said Bishop.
A few more passes in the key and the Kings would have been able to sink more baskets but the Voyageurs took it 55-50.
There were some lessons for the players and Bishop said they know what went right and wrong and he feels a few minor defen-sive tweaks will be all the difference in their future games.
The boys won the B fi nal bringing two wins and one loss over the weekend.
For the Queens, their fi rst game on Friday against the Dave Thompson High School Voyageurs was where they secured their only win of the tourna-ment.
At the start of the fi rst half the Queens biggest challenge was getting close enough to the net
to make a basket. Despite that issue the girls man-aged to stay close to the Voyageurs. The girls worked to prevent the Voyageurs from getting too close to make a layup.
It was at the second half that the girls started to control the game, says co-coach Darien Lloyd. “We were kind of dragging in the fi rst half.”
At one point Lloyd and co-coach Ryan Roos put all the Grade 9s together, which helped their mo-mentum.
“We just started to play a lot better,” observed Lloyd.
The girls lost their two Saturday games, fi rst to Pigeon Lake and then to Wetaskiwin, but Roos sug-gested there were some major lessons learned at the tournament.
“We’re really pleased with the fi rst result being that we were behind,” said Roos.
He and Lloyd take an ap-proach to get all the girls on the court to give them more experience. The last game against Wetaskiwin
was a close game but Roos says the Queens lost their momentum and energy and suffered penalties as the game wore on.
With that, the Queens managed to match their league record of one win and two losses. This was the fi rst year the girls won a game together, said Roos and he is pleased with their improvement.
Lloyd added coaches are working on players’ dili-gence with the full court press and adding pressure to the other team.
Looking for the score, JV Broncs’ Trey Soosay takes a long shot against the Wetaskiwin Sabres Wednesday, Jan. 13.
Photo by Jeffrey Heyden-Kaye
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016 PONOKA NEWS 23
Midget Wolves win fi rst round of provincial
playdownsWhile the Fountain
Tire Midget A Wolves lost a league game over the weekend, they also cleared the fi rst round of provin-cial playdowns.
Their league game was Friday, Jan. 15 at home against the Battle River Knights where the two teams faced off in a heat-ed match that saw the Knights coming on top 4-2. Assistant coach Kelly Jones said the two teams have had a strong rivalry with Ponoka having de-feated them earlier in the season.
Missed shots and a frus-trated team hurt their chances of winning the game. “We had lots of chances and couldn’t con-vert on opportunities,” ex-
plained Jones.In the second period,
the Wolves were down 3-0 and they put in extra ef-fort to score although it was some minutes before any action came about. Braeden Korchinski scored shorthanded after almost 10 minutes of play with an assist from Kolby Rattray. Following this goal, the Wolves had several oppor-tunities with fi ve on three due to penalties but they were unable to capitalize on these chances.
Trash talking and heated play appeared to be the outlook of the game. Jones believes trash talking helped the Wolves lose their concentration.
“That was part of their (Knights) game plan from the start and it worked,” suggested Jones.
Lewis McDowell scored Ponoka’s second and fi nal
goal of the game. The Wolves season record is 5-11-2 and the team sits fourth out of fi ve.
PlaydownsPlaydowns against
Wetaskiwin the next day was a better performance.
The Wolves won 12-2 and because Ponoka won by a goal difference of 10, it negated the need for a second game.
Jones said the players learned a lesson from their Friday game to just go out and play solid hockey. “It was fun to watch from a coaching perspective.”
Rather than respond to jibes, the players focused on the game and came out better for it. Ponoka plays Lacombe next and Jones expects it to be a good series considering both teams won and lost a game against each other in regular season play.
Jayden Hagemann of the Fountain Tire Midget A Wolves makes a shot on goal but couldn’t make the mark Friday, Jan. 15 against the Battle River Knights. Ponoka lost 4-2.
Photo by Jeffrey Heyden-Kaye
BY JEFFREY HEYDEN-KAYEPONOKA NEWS
24 PONOKA NEWS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016
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With both teams equally clumsy in moving the puck and executing plays, the fi rst period of the game looked more like a practice session for roughing and slashing, as players of both teams be-tween them accumulated almost as much penalty time as play time and scoreboard showing no points for either side.
In the second period, boarding, roughing and slashing continued with players of both teams, particularly the larger sized ones, missing no opportunity to get en-tangled with opponents at either end of the rink. Things started to change, how-ever, when Lightning took the lead in the sixth minute of the second period with a mid-range shot. Stampeders took less than a minute to respond to get on the scoreboard with the equalizer by Chase Staldeker. Six minutes later Lightning scored once again, but just 12 seconds from the end of the second, Stampeders made sure they would not fi nish the peri-od behind when Brendan Scott put anoth-er point on the board for the hosts.
When Scott scored once again in the second minute of the third for the Stampeders to take the lead for the fi rst time in the game, the focus of the teams turned noticeably, and inevitably, to the game of hockey away from skirmishing as time started to get shorter and shorter to win the two points. As the Lightning tried to respond, Teagan Colonna scored yet another one for the hosts rendering the task of a comeback even more diffi cult for the visitors. But the Lightning were not going away.
Two minutes after Stampeders’ 4-2 lead was placed on the scoreboard, Lightning reduced the lead to a single point with
a short range shot. That goal raised the quality of the play even more with both sides stepping up good puck movement. When the last two minutes of the last pe-riod arrived, Stettler bench called a time-out with the hope of at least taking the game to overtime with an equalizer, and it paid off. Towards the end of the 19th minute, another close range score for the Lightning made overtime play a strong possibility. But the visitors had more up in their sleeve: Just 12 seconds from the end of regulation, Steven Fletcher of the Lightning made the optimum use of the chaos in front of the Stampeders’ net to keep his team’s playoff hopes alive: 5-4.
Stampeders did very little hope or chance of winning against the Southern Division leaders Cochrane Generals on Saturday, Jan. 16 for their away game and they returned to Ponoka with a 9-1 loss and on Sunday, when they hosted the Generals at home, the result was even more disappointing, 11-1 for the visitors.
Coach Tyler Fiveland of Stampeders was almost stoic about last week’s games, especially the one versus Lightning. “We didn’t want to win that game, we did ev-erything to lose that game,” he said com-plaining about players’ lack of discipline. He added that after the second period, they had a realistic chance of winning over Stettler but that his players started playing selfi sh and forgot about team play and tried to score points for themselves.
Fiveland said at this point it was up to the players whether they wanted to make it to playoffs or not.
Stampeders play at home against Red Deer today, Wednesday, Jan. 20 and they must win a minimum of one point by taking the game to overtime to maintain their playoff chances.
continued from page 21
Jeopardizing playoff chances
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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016 PONOKA NEWS 25
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PONOKA AG EVENTCENTRE SOCIETY
Annual GeneralMeeting
Monday, January 25 @ 7 pm
Calnash Ag Event Centre3611 Hwy 2A Ponoka
Caroline De Lancey Gibbs Aug.21, 1925 - Dec.16, 2015
Caroline De Lancey Gibbs (nee Williams), born to Brigadier General Oliver De Lancey Williams and Mildred Lota Baines, grew up on the Island of Guernsey. Her family was the last of the De Lanceys to live in De Lancey House in St Peter Port. During WWII, Carol joined the Women’s Royal Naval Service. After the war, Carol met her future husband, John Gibbs. They married in 1954 and lived in Cambridge where John was a medical student. In 1958, they immigrated to Canada with their 3 children, living in Montreal then Edmonton. In 1963, Carol had her 4th child. In 1975, Carol and John moved to Ponoka as John became Director of the Central Alberta Mental Hospital. Carol’s last move was to Parksville on Vancouver Island in 1982 when John retired. She delighted in the proximity to the ocean and her home became the base for innumerable visits by family, friends and relations. She joined a travel group, a naturalists club and met three times a week for over 20 years with Parksville Tai Chi Club. Carol was a community volunteer, a steady knitter and made her own yogurt as well as plum jam and applesauce from fruit trees growing in her garden. She loved her roses, clematis, lavender hedge and all the pets in her life. Also dear to her were her eight grandchildren. Carol and John made many good friends over their years in Edmonton, Ponoka and Parksville. They shared special times with Henri & Lucette Fuerst, Raj & Margaret Maitra; Keith & Barbara Floyd, Gwyneth Bell, Dorothy Tolmie, Margaret Milne; Jan van Stock, John & Moira Davis and many others. Carol was predeceased by husband John of 59 years, sister Evelyn and nephew Charles. She is survived by children: Simon (Chantal), Elizabeth (Bob), Diana, Jennifer (Robert); grandchildren: Devin, Ryan, Antonia, Annick, Kaos, Gabrielle, Madeleine, Rachelle; nephews: Bill and Robin; nieces: Denise and Clare.Carol’s fi nal months were at Little Mountain Manor in Parksville where she was cared for in comfort. She passed away with her family by her side on December 16th at the age of 90. She will be forever in the hearts of those she left behind.
KRISTENSENEdna
On January 10, 2016 Edna Carolyn Kristensen of Ponoka passed away at the Ponoka Hospital and Care Centre at the age of 81 years. Edna will be lovingly remembered by her sisters Nora Weismiller (Bert), Elsie Hoar (Gordon), Eileen Ensminger (Dennis), and Marilyn Wood (Denton); as well as many nieces, nephews, great-nieces, and
great-nephews. Edna was predeceased by her parents Henry & Hertha Kristensen. A Service of Remembrance will be held at the Ponoka United Church at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 23, 2016. Memorial donations are gratefully accepted to the Ponoka United Church, S.T.A.R.S., or Big Brothers / Big Sisters Ponoka. To express condolences to Edna’s family, please visit www.womboldfuneralhomes.com.
Arrangements Entrusted To PONOKA FUNERAL HOME
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LYNNSEY RILEYAfter all your hard work you are now a
JOURNEYMAN ELECTRICIANeffective November 13, 2015.
We are so very proud of you! Love Your Family and Andrew
NORMAN SCHNELLis turning 80
and we are going to have a party!You are warmly invited to join us
Saturday, January 23, 2016 from 2:00 - 5:00 p.m. at the Morningside Hall.
Coffee will be on and Norm would love to visit with you!Happy 80th Birthday, Norm!
Journalism • Photography Full course descriptions online
www.awna.com/symposium
AWNA’s Annual Symposium
EXECUTIVE DIRECTORThe Executive Director reports to the SIAFN Board and is responsible for overall management of the SIAFN and the ASETS Agreement. The Executive Director will ensure compliance with the ASETS Agreement, Treasury Board guidelines, Societies Act, Service Level Agreement and internal operations and carry out the responsibilities, authorities and duties of the offi ce in accordance with policies and procedures, work plan, budgets and directives as approved by the Board of Directors.
Governance and Compliance• Prepare SIAFN’s business plans (5 year), Annual Work/ Operational Plans, Budgets, Cash Flows, Expenditure Plans and ASETS reports/ documentation. Submit these to the Board and Six Independent First Nations Chiefs for approval prior to submitting to EWDL.• Ensure proper controls are in place and develop required policies and procedures; Ensures adequate security measures are taken to protect the security of data and the requirements of the Privacy Act and ensures all levels within the Society are following the Service Level Agreement;• Establish and maintain an e ective liaison between the SIAFN Board, its member First Nations, and all levels of Government. Update Board, Shareholders and ASETS sta on new information and related press releases;
Financial and Reporting• Manage all nancial transactions and provide nancial reports consistent with the ASETS agreement, approved policies and procedures and annual budget. Ensure databases are properly uploaded to EWDL. Follows up to recommendations received via Mid-year Dialogue. On a quarterly basis, authorize consolidated nancial claim, Annual Operational Plan, Annual expenditure plan and supporting documents and submit it to EWDL, provide associate reports to the SIAFN Board and Chiefs; • Ensure an annual audit is conducted and presented to the SIAFN Board of Directors prior to submission to Service Canada as per the ASETS Agreement; Includes providing support and assisting the Technicians in ensuring that their Audit reaches the requirements and is submitted in a timely manner;
Human Resources• Recruit, hire, assign tasks and negotiate employment terms and conditions for employees (in conjunction with Board of Directors) in accordance with the Human Resources Policies and Procedures and the ASETS Agreement; Manage and supervise duties of SIAFN sta
Partnerships and Funding• Develop partnerships with industry and government for the delivery of ASETS services; Develop proposals for funding, prepare plans and manage funding agreements; Establish rapport, forums and collaborative arrangements with Employment Connection Liaison, employers and industry;
EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENTS• MBA or equivalent would be an asset• A post-secondary education in a related discipline is required• Language, culture and understanding would be an asset
EXPERIENCE• Minimum of 2 years working with First Nations is required• Working knowledge of working with Federal Agreements• Demonstrated leadership expertise at the Executive Director or similar level, with a broad understanding of the public sector, business and the not for pro t sector• A proven track record of successful experience in a senior management capacity• A team leader, with experience in a Board setting and the understanding and ability to work with a Board of director• Pro ciency in working with technology, software, various media platforms• Can work with diverse personality and characteristics• Strong Financial literacy, capable of interpreting nancial statements• High level of verbal and written communication and people skills with the ability to interact e ectively at all levels of public and corporate organizations from government o cials and local organizations to First Nation communities
Please submit Resume and 3 work related references to:Six Independent Alberta First Nations
Deadline for Applications: February 5, 2016(All applications will be screened, only successful
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Real Estate#4000 - #4190
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ManufacturedHomes 4090
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Public Notice#6000
Public Notices ..................6010Special Features ..............6050
Ponoka CountyROAD ALLOWANCE LEASE NOTICE
Notice is hereby given of the intention of the Council of Ponoka County to consider the following road closure and lease by-law:
By-Law 3-16-RL closing all that portion of the statutory road allowances lying west of Section 5-44-27-4W4.
The closed roads will be jointly lease to Willie Klimec and Dan Brachmann.
Before considering the by-law, Council will hold a Public Hearing at which any person claiming to be affected may ask questions or make comments. This hearing is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, February 9, 2016 in the Council Chambers of the County Administration Building.
A copy of the proposed by-law may be inspected at the County Administration Building, Ponoka, Alberta during regular offi ce hours.
Dated at Ponoka, Alberta this 11 day of January, 2016.
Charlie B. CutforthChief Administrative Offi cer
Ponoka County4205 Highway #2A
Ponoka, Alberta T4J 1V9Phone: 783-3333 Fax: 783-6965
Five years ago this month, the “Arab Spring” got underway with the non-violent overthrow of Tunisia’s long-ruling dicta-tor, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. He dared not order the army to open fi re on the demonstrators (because it might not obey), he was running out of money, and eventually he fl ew off to Saudi Arabia to seek asylum.
In an Arab world where sat-ellite television broadcasts and social media had effectively de-stroyed the power of the cen-sors, practically everybody else spent the four weeks of civil protest in Tunisa tensely watch-ing what the Tunisians were doing. When the Tunisian revo-lutionaries won, similar non-vi-olent demonstrations demand-ing democracy immediately broke out in half a dozen other Arab countries.
It felt like huge change was on the way, because the world had got used to the idea that non-violent revolutions spread irresistibly, and usually win in the end. The ground-break-ing “People Power” revolution in the Philippines in 1986, for example, was followed in the next three years in Asia by non-violent democratisation in South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Bangladesh, and failed at-tempts at non-violent revolu-tion in Burma and China.
Similarly in eastern Europe, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Communist regime in East Germany in 1989 was followed by non-violent de-
mocratisation in all the Soviet-dominated “satellite” coun-tries by the end of the year. The Soviet Union itself broke up in 1991, and some of its component parts also became democratic. Non-violence was a magic potion, and people as-sumed that it was bound to work in the Arab world too.
They were wrong. The non-vi-olent movements demand-ing democracy spread just as fast, but their only lasting success was in Tunisia. Egypt and Bahrain are back under au-tocratic rule, and Yemen and Syria are both being devastated by civil wars and large-scale foreign military intervention. Libya is also being torn by civil war (although the revolution there was never non-violent).
You can hardly blame people for trying to get rid of the old re-gimes – they were pretty awful – but beyond Tunisia the end-ings were uniformly bloody and tragic. Was there some systemic reason for this, or was it just a lot of bad luck? There is great reluctance to pursue this ques-tion, because people are afraid that the answer has something to do with the nature of Arab society or Islamic culture. They shouldn’t worry.
Islam is not incompatible with democracy. Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country, had a non-violent democratic revo-lution in 1998 and continues to be a thriving democracy today. Turkey has been democratic for decades, although Recep Tayyib Erdogan, the current president, is doing great damage to the country’s democratic institu-tions. Pakistan and Bangladesh are both democracies, although turbulent ones.
These four countries alone ac-count for almost half the world’s Muslim. In the Arab world democracy is a much scarcer commodity, but it does exist, most notably in Tunisia itself. Several other Arab countries, like Jordan and Morocco, have a signifi cant democratic element in their politics, although the king retains much power.
So what went wrong with the “Arab Spring”? In the case of Bahrain, the problem was that the majority of the population is Shia, but the ruling family
is Sunni and saw the demo-cratic movement as an Iranian plot. Neighbouring Saudi Arabia saw it the same way, and sent the Saudi army in to crush the “plot”.
Yemen was a lost cause from the start, since there was al-ready an incipient civil war in the country. Now it’s a full-scale war, with foreign military inter-vention by a Saudi-led coalition that includes half the coun-tries in the Arab world, and the non-violent protestors are busy hiding from the bombs.
Syria was a hard case since the Ba’athist regime, in power for more than 40 years, had accumulated a great many ene-mies. The Alawite (Shia) minori-ty who dominated the regime were terrifi ed that they would suffer from revenge-taking if they lost power, and were will-ing to fi ght to the last ditch to keep power.
But it is also true that Turkey and Saudi Arabia, and later the United States as well, encour-aged an armed uprising in Syria that undercut the entire non-vi-olent movement. It probably wouldn’t have succeeded any-way, but it really didn’t get tried. And in Egypt, the non-violent revolution actually won.
The victory didn’t last long. The Muslim Brotherhood won the election in 2012, and the urban, secular minority who had made the revolution pan-icked. They asked the army to intervene, and the army was happy to oblige – so now the army runs the country again, after a massacre of non-vio-lent Muslim Brotherhood pro-testers in 2013 that was proba-bly worse than the slaugher on Tienanmen Square in 1989.
Egypt is by far the biggest country in the Arab world. If it had not thrown its democ-racy away, about a third of the world’s Arabs would be living in a democracy today. It was very bad luck, but non-violent revo-lution is still a viable technique – and democracy is still just as suitable for Arabs as it is for Poles, Peruvians or Pakistanis. It’s just going to take a little longer than we thought in 2011.
Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are pub-lished in 45 countries.
GWYNNE DYER
Think Globally
WWW.PONOKANEWS.COM
32 PONOKA NEWS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016
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