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.
Jonathon Naylor Editor The Saskatchewan government will close its conservation office in Pelican Narrows and relocate the lone officer to Creighton, a move that has upset band leaders. The government's new budget, unveiled March 21, spells the end of the Pelican Narrows office effective April 30. Kevin Callele of the Ministry of Environment said having single-worker offices, particularly in northern locations, is unsafe. 'Their hours are undefined, so they're out on the lake, they're out in the back country at different hours of the day,' said Callele, executive director of compliance and field services with the Ministry. 'That can be at times pretty risky work. So it just poses a high risk for that particular staff member as well as the Ministry by not having other staff people there.' Callele said the Pelican Narrows office did at one time have two officers, but it is difficult to recruit and retain staff for such remote offices. And those who are stationed at those offices, he said, tend to be younger officers with less experience, compounding the on-the-job dangers they face. Nonetheless, the move has caught the ire of Darrell McCallum, chief of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation, which includes Pelican Narrows. 'We had asked about the change of the office from Pelican Narrows to Creighton a couple months before and we were informed that no one really knew there was going to be any change but there was some rumour in the background,' he told News Talk 980 CJME radio out of Regina. 'I think when we had that office in Pelican Narrows, the balance of our environment in terms of poaching and other illegal activities that sometimes may happen in the North, there was definitely an office to go and report stuff like forest fires. Or when exploration is going on in traditional lands, we utilize that office to find out who they are and what they're doing there.' But Callele said the people of Pelican Narrows 'shouldn't notice a difference' being served out of Creighton. 'What it does is, provides us a lot more flexibility for officers to work that area as opposed to one (officer),' he said, adding that Pelican Narrows was difficult to cover when its officer was sick or on leave. Firefighting Callele said the summer firefighting program in Pelican Narrows will continue and, as per usual, reports of dangerous animals can go to the RCMP. He said the Ministry also operates a 24-hour dispatch service if a situation arises where the Ministry is needed. Also losing their conservation offices in the new provincial budget are Cumberland House and Moosomin, southeast of Moose Mountain Provincial Park. Cumberland House will be covered out of Nipawin, while Moosomin will be covered jointly out of Moose Mountain Provincial Park and Melville.
