Snippets from April 26 and 27 Lakeside Leaders

1978

Slave Lake Fish and Game Association and the Town of Slave Lake were building a boat dock on Lesser Slave River. The town donated the land, just to the ‘right of the bridge.’ (This may be the current boat launch downstream and east of the bridge on the north bank of the river).

The game association donated labour and materials and received a $1,000-grant. Rob Robinson was the spokesperson for the association.

EG Wahlstrom and Roland Michener schools in Slave Lake competed at a provincial drama competition in Bonnyville. EGW won the junior division with ‘The Playroom.’

Michener’s play was ‘Death of a Hired Hand,’ directed by Emily Chase. It won the Best Set Award. Keith Barbutza won Best Supporting Actor.

May 12, 1978 was Canada Hospital Day, which included a tour of the Slave Lake Hospital.

Universal healthcare was 20 years old in Canada.

Hospitals were funded through healthcare premiums, taxes and donations. Up to 70 to 80 per cent of the cost was staff salaries, so some of the money came back into the community through income tax and spending. In many communities, hospitals were the largest employer.

Grade 9 students at Roland Michener Secondary School were holding a ‘garbage-a-thon’ as a fundraiser. They were looking for sponsors for their 10 mile trek between Slave Lake and Widewater picking up garbage along the way. This was to fund a fieldtrip to Jasper.

Photos of three anglers (Albert Ramsey from Slave Lake, Larry Pidkowa from Edmonton, and George Metcalf) with their fish put more focus on the types of lures than the types of fish. Although the headline suggests that all three were pike (locally called jack fish). Ramsey had the largest at 11.09 kg and 113 cm. These were caught at Lesser Slave River. Wabasca River was known for pickerel and Peerless Lake for lake trout.

These were likely brought in to check if they were the ‘golden pike’ which was mentioned elsewhere in the paper.

A CBC camera crew went to Fawcett Lake Resort northeast of Smith. They were there to interview Frank Brown, from the resort, who was annoyed at fishing limits, that only applied to Fawcett Lake and nowhere else in the province.

Catherine Scratch, the Smith News correspondent, also urged people to tie up their dogs in Smith, before a child was hurt or injured. The dogs spent time on the school yard during the day. Some people carried weapons when walking at night for protection.

April 24 to 30 was Volunteer Week. Volunteerism popped up a few times in the paper.

An editorial urged people to join the Slave Lake and District Chamber of Commerce, which met weekly on Wednesdays. However, only a few people attended the meetings.

“There is a saying in small communities that people show up for only funerals and weddings and when you’re firing the teachers,” said the editorial.

On the front page, Randy Strocki, Town of Slave Lake recreation director, compared the need for volunteers in the community to the need of blood in a body. He encouraged existing volunteers and urged more people to get involved.

One recent volunteer enterprise mentioned elsewhere was around 30 volunteers who cleaned up the golf course.

At a Chinese Social and Dance, Larry Shaben, MLA for Lesser Slave River, surprised the Kinuso Ag Society with a cheque for $47,500 from the Department of Agriculture. This appears to be connected with a new complex that the society was building.

1989

The Alberta Energy Company pulp mill to be built in the Mitsue Industrial area got the green light.

The Town of Slave Lake was holding various luncheons to thank volunteers, during Volunteer Week.

Construction of a new Alberta Vocational College (AVC) campus and indoor pool was expected to start in May. The deadline for bids on the $15-million building was May 5.

Slave Lake Alliance Church youth pastor Dave Warren was on the radio for a half hour in the evenings with “The Road Home Show” which featured Christian music. This was on the local station CKWA. Dave Koleba, lead pastor at the Alliance Church, also did a two-minute food-for-thought feature.

Slave Lake was courting the idea of having a twin town in Japan.

With this in mind, four Slave Lakers traveled to Kamishihoro, on the island of Hokkaido. They were Dianne Delgatty (town administrator), Ed and Marge Procyshyn (Ed was the town secretary-treasurer), and Darlene Burkholder (Athabasca Health Unit’s manager of community health nursing).

1989 – Ed Procyshyn, from Slave Lake, learns how to pound rice to make rice cakes in Kamishihoro, Japan. The trip was to investigate starting a ‘twin town’ relationship between Slave Lake and Kamishihoro.

Wildfire season started on April 1. In the Slave Lake Forest Area, there had been nine forest fires, with five the week prior. Most were grass fires.

Dave Redgate was the local spokesperson for Alberta Forest Service. He said that the largest of those fires was 648 hectares on Sucker Creek Reserve. It took 22 firefighters and a light helicopter to handle it. The others were smaller in the districts around Smith, Slave Lake, Wabasca, and High Prairie.

Alex Fedorus was the men’s winner at a Pioneer Seniors Drop-in Centre crib competition, which had 23 players. The women’s winner was Helen Conrad.

Also, the quilting group at the centre had visits from three EG Wahlstrom Elementary School classes.

Lakelanders Toastmasters was celebrating 10 years of being in Slave Lake. Harvey Burkholder was the president. Other contacts were Peter Kossawan and Margaret Peach.

Federal Reform Party leader Preston Manning visited Slave Lake. About 40 people came to hear his speech at the Northwest Inn.

Zone E fishermen were investigating what caused a large fish kill in Utikuma Lake. A private biologist took samples on April 21. Fishermen thought the lake might have been contaminated, so didn’t believe the official story of lack of oxygen. They were lobbying the government including local MP Jack Shields and MLA Pearl Calahasen.

Former MLA Larry Shaben served the Lesser Slave Lake region from 1975 to 1989. The Leader had a two-part series on his life and work.

Athabasca Health Unit was reorganizing. Lac La Biche, Slave Lake and Athabasca were to become regional offices. Smith, Kinuso, and Wabasca/Desmarais were to be run from the Athabasca office. Trout Lake, Peerless Lake and Chipewyan Lake were to report to Wabasca/Desmarais.

The Slave Lake Minor Hockey Association Awards took up three pages in The Leader – two of photos and one for articles.