Left to right, North Battleford Mayor David Gillan, Battlefords MLA Jeremy Cockrill, the province's Minister of Highways and Water Security Agency, and Town of Battleford Mayor Ames Leslie along with Derek Schmidt (Battlefords Chamber of Commerce) at the Power Hour. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Chamber of Commerce event

Curbing crime and growing business highlights of Chamber’s “Power Hour” talk

Sep 16, 2022 | 4:58 PM

Dealing with crime, attracting new business, and retaining doctors were some of the topics local elected leaders dealt with in the Battlefords Chamber of Commerce’s “Power Hour” Friday.

The aim of the Power Hour is to give elected leaders an opportunity to take part in roughly an hour-long chat with the chamber members. As part of the process, they respond to a variety of questions posed by those attending the session.

Battlefords MLA Jeremy Cockrill, the province’s Minister of Highways and Water Security Agency, North Battleford Mayor David Gillan and Town of Battleford Mayor Ames Leslie took part in the event at North Battleford’s Western Development Museum.

Moosomin First Nation Chief Cheryl Kahpeaysewat, representing Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs Inc. (BATC), was scheduled to attend but could not make it as she was called to another last-minute pressing matter.

On the issue of deterring violent crime, the leaders said work is being done to reduce these types of incidents.

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“Here in the Battlefords, we have actually reduced severe crime over the last five years,” Mayor Gillan said. “We did that through the Gang Suppression Unit that we took out of our own police resources. The people who used to be out in uniform on the street driving around. We had to take some of them off and put them in plain clothes, and deal with severe crime. That is actually on the decline in our region.”

He said the reason North Battleford is still Number One on the Crime Severity Index is not due to an increase in severe crime, but an increase in non-severe crime, such as break and enters, mischief, and thefts under $5,000.

Gillan encourages people to be proactive to reduce their chances of being victims of non-severe crime, such as by locking their belongings.

“We need to do our part…,” he said. “We need to sign up for organizations such as Citizens on Patrol.”

The leaders also discussed how to solve employers’ challenges trying to obtain employees to fill jobs, an issue both locally and across the province.

Mayor Leslie said the town and the agricultural sector are also facing this pressure.

“I think as employers and recruiters we need to become more nimble to addressing the needs of today’s workers. The old adage of a 9-to-5 job, Monday to Friday, needs to be reevaluated and looked at,” he said. “I know as the town, we have been taking some anti-racism courses with our leadership, and one of the things that has been pointed out is we don’t do a good job to make employment open for people of minorities. We don’t understand the culture and we don’t understand the needs of days off or cultural respects.”

Leslie said this is one issue that needs to be addressed in Saskatchewan as a whole in order to fill more positions.

“I think we have to become more nimble in what we describe as a work day,” he said.

Attendees also wanted to know what has the city done to attract new business here.

Mayor Gillan said the city is in the process of hiring an economic development manager to help draw more business to the area.

Gillan added that the city is also working with its regional and Indigenous partners related to business needs.

“We have a lot of very interested Indigenous partners right around the Battlefords who are interested in investing in our community,” he said.

Gillan noted there has been some new business development lately in North Battleford, with the opening of the Black Pepper restaurant, the new Gas Plus service station, and the revitalization of a strip mall on 100 Street as a positive sign.

The leaders also talked about plans to retain or replace doctors leaving the community. Most recently, North Battleford Medical Clinic has been dealing with a shortage after three doctors left, two moved to other communities while one retired, leaving more patients without a physician.

“Obviously, we have had a number of doctors leave the community in the last couple of years,” MLA Cockrill said. “With the retirement of Dr. Johnson who was a long-time physician in the community, he had a high patient load. We had a number of other physicians leave the community for a variety of reasons…”

The MLA said he has been in regular contact with the physicians at the North Battleford Medical Clinic to try to see how to address the issue.

“Between the clinic and the SHA, and I am a little bit involved there as well, we are trying to figure out the avenues through which we can attract more doctors,” he said. “I do think we are heading in a positive direction as of a couple of weeks ago. I have nothing public to announce at this point, but I know between the SHA and the Ministry of Health, the focus is to replace some of these physicians.”

Cockrill also noted it has been a challenging past couple of years, and physicians are in high demand, but work is being done to see how to bring more doctors to the area.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow