The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
A drive through the flatlands of southern Saskatchewan is typically as calm as a lake on a windless summer's night. With friendly small towns and farmer's fields as far the eye can see, this unique part of the country could be seen as a safe haven from the trials and tribulations of this world. Now it turns out that this region is also viewed as an asylum from adversities outside of this world as well. In an incredible but true story uncovered by the Ottawa Citizen, the Russian Space Agency has secured the area between Yorkton and Estevan as an emergency landing spot for crews aboard the International Space Agency. Should some interstellar predicament force the astronauts to hop into a Soyuz landing module, sometimes called an escape pod, the Canadian government has given the go-ahead for the crew to land in this region. The flatness of this area is believed to have caught the interests of the Russians. The 150-kilometre stretch lacks mountains, deep lakes and large urban centres, so the risks to the astronauts Ñ as well as citizens on the ground Ñ would be minimal. The Russians typically descend their spacecraft in Kazakhstan, a republic in central Asia, but an emergency could leave them with insufficient time to utilize the usual landing spot. Word that their communities had been designated in this manner came as a complete surprise to the mayors of Yorkton and Estevan. See 'News' P.# Con't from P.# Both Yorkton Mayor Phil DeVos and Estevan Mayor John Empey told various media outlets that Ottawa hadn't bothered to tell them of the agreement. The men found the news fascinating, and even joked about one day welcoming the Cosmonauts to their province. Canada and Russia are partners in the International Space Station along with the United States, Japan and several European countries.
