Bernie McNeil was telling us the other day if people don’t buy tickets to the shows that come to town, the shows might stop coming. It’s a good point. Bernie was talking about writing a letter to the editor about it, but at the time of this writing, it hadn’t happened yet.
The conversation happened at Ken Lavigne’s excellent ‘Three Knights with a Tenor, (and a little mistletoe)’ show at the Legacy Centre on Nov. 27, presented by Stage North.
When we did a story about Louie Packolyk on the occasion of his 90th birthday back in September of this year, one thing we didn’t get in there was about the third generation of Packolyks in business in Slave Lake. We did mention that Murray is running SLH, since Louie retired a few years ago. In the meantime. Louie and Kay’s grandson Ryan Packolyk has started up Rydan Disposal with Murray’s help. It’s been going for two or three years now. Louie was telling us about this when we ran into him in the drugstore the other day.
Probably not many people were happy when the snow arrived on Nov. 28, especially because it was coming down more or less horizontally. But hey! We need the moisture! Sawridge Creek is frozen over now, but before that, it was so low you could see almost all of the shopping carts in there under the railway bridge in Slave Lake. Bicycles too. It would have been a good time to organize a clean-up, but we missed our chance. Next year, maybe.
We wrote something about the crude oil price elsewhere in this paper this week. Because it’s up lately, the economy around here is hot, and the government has money to give away.
How about the price of beef, though. How’s that going? We have a few beef producers in the area. What are their prospects?
Apparently, demand is at a 33-year high, and prices reflect that. This was after a slowdown during the COVID period due to processing plants slowing down or shutting down. That’s U.S. information, and the situation in Alberta isn’t necessarily the same. But it’s a positive sign, for sure.
There are a lot of factors affecting the beef industry here in Alberta, and one of them – according to cattle man Murray Kerik of the Flatbush area – is what he calls “unprecedented herd dispersals.” Fewer animals in the system, in other words, which you would think would have an upward effect on prices.
“I would say the majority of producers are optimistic,” says Kerik. “But high feed prices tend to curb a lot of optimism!”
There you go. If it’s not one thing, it’s usually another.
We hear McDonalds in Slave Lake has a new owner. Who it is we haven’t heard, but it means Menno Zacharias will be on to other things and we wish him all the best. It seems like just the other day we interviewed Menno when he showed up in town with the big news we’d be getting our very own McD’s.
November was Falls Prevention Month. On Nov. 28, AHS sent The Leader an email with some tips. These focused on children and older adults. Most of it is common sense, such as “wall-mounted gates at the top and bottom of stairs” for toddlers. For seniors, the number one tip is to “keep active to maintain strength and balance.”
The news release says, one in three seniors in Alberta will fall at least once a year.
What the news release doesn’t mention is ice, but be safe out there. ‘Walk like a penguin’ or use ice cleats. Also, the MRC walking track is free for seniors.
Does anybody recognize the name Giniw (Graham) Paradis? He’s doing beading workshops at Brock University in St. Catherines, Ontario. That’s a long way from here, but the promotional blurb that showed up last week online identifies him as having “ties to Lesser Slave Lake.”
It seems odd to think about summer when it is 30 below, but that’s just what local employers will need to do if they want to be part of the Canada Summer Jobs (CJS) program. The application deadline is January 12, 2023. This covers a portion of full-time summer wages for youth. The grant covers up to 50 per cent of minimum wage for public and private sector and up to 100 per cent for non-profit.The application guidelines and application are on the Canadian government’s website.
Rupertsland Institute has two subsidies for businesses and non-profits hiring Métis people. One is a summer youth program and the other is six months for all ages, not season-specific.
Only about half of the University of Athabasca staff and faculty live or work in Athabasca, but a new agreement between the university and the Alberta government aims to increase this number. Should this materialize, it will likely be good news for the economy of our neighbour to the southeast.
We got wind of a couple of new businesses in the area last week. One is a sandblasting outfit in the Mitsue area (story coming). The other is in downtown Slave Lake and was “opening soon” according to what we were told. It’s called Byte Hub. What kind of a business it is we haven’t found out, but a couple of possibilities come to mind. Stay tuned.
We were all set to take a picture of the new Royal LePage sign that was supposed to be installed on the (former) RE/MAX office in Slave Lake on Dec. 1. But the installers begged off, citing the cold temperature and wind! So although it’s no longer RE/MAX, it looks as if that sign will stay up for a while longer.
