Winter is not quite finished with Saskatchewan, as Environment Canada is forecasting yet another storm system slated to impact much of the province’s south.

A snowfall warning was issued at 3:28 p.m. by Environment Canada. In it, the weather service forecasted heavy snow accumulation for a large portion of southwest and south central Saskatchewan, including Regina, Moose Jaw, Swift Current and Kindersley.

Heavy accumulating snow is expected to total 15 to 25 centimetres while other areas will receive 10 to 15 centimetres.

As of 3:28 p.m. Environment Canada could not confirm where the heaviest band of snowfall would occur.

The snow comes as a result of a low pressure system approaching from the northern U.S.

A special weather statement issued early Wednesday remains in place for much of southern Saskatchewan including Saskatoon, Humboldt, Estevan and Yorkton.

The statement excludes the province’s southwest corner, including Maple Creek and Shaunavon.

Helium is currently in short supply worldwide and Saskatchewan is feeling the effects.

Nearly a third of the world’s helium resources from Qatar are stuck in the Middle East because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the U-S - Iran conflict.

However, Richard Dunn, the executive director of the Helium Developers Association of Canada, says this may present an opportunity to take advantage of the abundance of helium deposits in Saskatchewan

“The good news is that we do have a significant helium resource, principally in Saskatchewan at this point. And we’re good at this. We’re very, very good at what we do, and responsibly producing the product,” he said.

The provincial government, led by Energy and Resources Minister Chris Beaudry, returned from a trip to Ottawa on Wednesday to advocate for federal policy changes that would support Saskatchewan’s helium industry.

The province currently provides around three per cent of the world’s total helium supply.

The government has a goal to grow that number to 10 per cent by 2030.

“There are 34 critical minerals, 33 of them have standard tax treatment. And we’re just asking for helium to have the same standard tax treatment that all other critical minerals have. That small change is going to be massive to industry, and that’s going to unlock a lot of opportunity for us.”

Beaudry is referring to the Critical Mineral Exploration Tax Credit, where the Federal Government offers a 30 per cent credit for the targeted exploration of minerals including nickel, lithium, and cobalt.

Regina businesses are also feeling the effects of the shortage.

Balloon Bar YQR is fully moving away from helium to air filled products.

Owner Tanna Dietrich says that in 2018, a tank of helium cost about $200.

Today, she says that has jumped to around $1,200.

“We’ve known that we’ve always wanted to pivot away from it eventually. And this was sort of the moment that it’s like, ‘You know what, why don’t we just take a hard turn and just dive into it, rather than waiting and seeing if we’re able to get it, what the cost is going to be?’ And just really lean into that side of the business,” she said.

As affordability continues to be a concern for Saskatchewan residents, the provincial NDP is calling on the government to crack down on grocery price gouging.

On Wednesday, the Official Opposition introduced legislation to stop corporations from using artificial intelligence (AI) to charge higher grocery prices, something Manitoba’s government has recently done.

“Technology is allowing prices to be jacked up during peak periods on select items, often without people knowing that it is happening, but they’re paying for it at the checkout,” NDP Leader Carla Beck said during legislative assembly on Wednesday.

Bill 619, The Consumer Protection and Business Practices (Banning Unfair A.I. Pricing Pricing) Amendment Act would make it unfair for retailers to use personal data, profiling, or algorithmic systems to charge higher prices to consumers.

According to the NDP, the bill would also ensure the law clearly applies to the online marketplace and digital retailers.

“No one should pay more for groceries because an algorithm decides they can,” NDP MLA Brittany Senger said.

Beck said food prices in the province continue to climb, citing essentials like lunches and baby formula.

“Why won’t this premier show he has some understanding [of] how hard families in this province are struggling? Why won’t he show that and cut them a break at the checkout stand?” she asked.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said his government understands that everyone is feeling inflationary pressures, noting that they continue to invest in affordability measures each year.

Beck said there are specific things his government should be doing to give people a break.

“Does the premier support a crackdown on predatory AI pricing similar to what they’ve already got in Manitoba?” Beck said.

Moe agreed on the importance of the issue, citing its impact on inflation that families are experiencing across Canada.

“The Competition Bureau nationally has the opportunity to take action in this space to clamp down on this predatory pricing, to ensure that not just in Saskatchewan -- but across the nation of Canada -- that this is not happening,” he said.

“… We’ll continue to be engaged in these discussions.”

The Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association’s (SUMA) annual convention has come to a close.

Over the four-day conference, leaders from across the province promoted collaboration and looked for ways to ensure future success for all communities, big and small.

However, with over 440 urban municipalities and another 296 rural municipal members in the province, one Regina city councillor questioned how efficiently policy decisions are made.

“Saskatchewan has as many politicians as Manitoba, Alberta and B.C. combined,” said Ward 9 Coun. Jason Mancinelli. “All those other provinces have recombined what our rural municipalities are into regions so you can properly finance and plan for investment or for opportunities.”

“But having so many small, distinct districts makes it really hard to do that,” he added.

Mancinelli pointed to the recently announced AI data centre in the RM of Sherwood, Sask., which is less than a kilometre from Regina city limits.

He welcomed investment to the province but believes the city is not seeing the same benefits as the RM, despite having more than 200 times the population. In his opinion, regionalizing decision making would also regionalize investment and corresponding benefits.

“Last election, 200 people voted in that RM,” Mancinelli said. “When an opportunity comes by like the data centre, all of that input and all of those investments go to a small RM. I believe there should be some type of amalgamation, regional participation or cooperation between the various urban centres in our RMs [to] help fund life assets.”

Mancinelli also says organizations like Economic Development Regina – which is funded by the City of Regina – help bring those types of investment to the area.

“We’re barely keeping these entities alive instead of doing what they need for us all to prosper. And I’m looking for more of that regional cooperation,” he said.

‘No way’

Mancinelli posed the question to provincial ministers as part of a session during the convention Wednesday.

“I’m wondering when we’re going to reorganize our framework in Saskatchewan for success?” he asked.

“We’ve taken a firm position: in no way will we ever force broad based amalgamation across the province of Saskatchewan,” responded Minister of Government Relations Eric Schmalz.

“Whether it be rural areas or urban, the only time we will look at restructuring is when we have issues in areas of noncompliance or a lack of capacity for a small urban municipality that is no longer sustainable and they can’t provide or meet the criteria under the act to function as an independent entity on their own.”

Despite that, the province says it will support any community which must transition from traditional urban governance.

The Communities in Transition (CIT) grant provides financial assistance directly to municipalities that have restructured. This includes municipalities that have merged to form one municipal government.

“[It’s] reinvested to be able to provide for those legacy systems and for those community members to access that funding,” Schmalz said. “Alongside that, we’ve also provided strategic initiative funding to SARM and SUMA so they can help augment their approach and their ability to provide services for their constituent municipalities.”

“But with respect to broad based amalgamation, that’s simply not something that this government will do,” he added.

Mancinelli countered to say each rural and urban municipality must also staff administration, something he felt was ineffective for ratepayers.

“We have way too many politicians and too many entities,” he told reporters. “Maybe we have to realign for health and success. All those places have to be paid for; they all have to have administration and office spaces. These are huge expenses across a small province and population.”

Small centre survival

As Mancinelli called for mergers, smaller centres are struggling to provide similar services to big cities with less of a tax base.

“Big cities received $14 million for infrastructure projects they’re doing. That helps build them, yay on them,” Mayor of Lafleche Joan Corneil told ministers Wednesday. “What is the plan for communities [with a population] between 100 and 5,000?”

The province says it is capping eligibility for infrastructure grants at $50 million to allow smaller communities access to the program.

“We are finding innovative ways to ensure that money is going further and the projects that are being made, that the money is being felt in the smaller urbans and surrounding communities,” Schmalz said.

Despite 53 per cent of residents living in large cities, just 47.9 per cent of municipal revenue sharing dollars are allocated to them

Sixteen per cent goes to towns, villages and resort villages, 28.5 per cent to rural municipalities and 7.4 per cent to northern communities.

Earlier this week, SUMA president Randy Goulden said provincial revenue sharing models needed to shift as they were no longer keeping up with the demand for civic services.

Some of that demand has been driven by residents living outside community limits, which may not pay municipal tax rates to assist in the upkeep of some facilities.

However, she says that urban-rural connection is what makes the province what it is.

“We know across this province we do have municipalities that are facing challenges,” Goulden told reporters Wednesday. “We also know the key essential services are that people living in, or perhaps moving and even visiting in our communities, are around education, health services, recreation and cultural services. We need to strengthen those.”

While Goulden is not advocating for amalgamation in all circumstances, she recognized partnership is required moving forward.

“How do we get our smaller communities involved?” she posed. “We want to offer any opportunity for people to stay in or move to our communities, whether they’re in an urban [community] or whether they’re just outside of an urban [community] or whether they’re [rural].”

“We’re seeing active growth in many of our smaller urban centers across this province as well, although there are some cases where we’re seeing some decline in population in some smaller communities,” added Premier Scott Moe. “Across my constituency that I serve, which is largely rural, we have a number of communities that are growing.”

Rural-Urban collective

Moe added the relationship between rural and urban Saskatchewan remains critical to the province’s success.

“[There is] suggestion rural municipalities or municipalities that are smaller in nature or some way are running inefficient,” he said. “I would say they’re running as efficiently as they possibly can in those instances.”

The premier conceded there are options to assist areas dwindling in population run more efficiently, like sharing water treatment operators.

Moe was open to hearing any and all suggestions from municipal leaders to see what could work in individual areas.

“What we would like to do is to encourage collaboration, whether it be through our RMs and RMs, whether it be through communities and communities or whether it be through rural municipalities and communities across this province to find further efficiencies.”

“Everyone is an individual and we all do have some individual needs,” Mancinelli said. “But I think there’s a pretty massive overlay of things like transportation, water, wastewater, environment, or waste. Those conversations relate back to finding those really unique identities because of some type of historic, natural or geography part of the location. But I think it’s just time for conversation.”

Moe pointed back to Mancinelli’s example of the data centre near Regina, which may bring thousands of new residents to the city, reiterating the strong connection between rural and urban Saskatchewan.

“Where are they going to live?” the premier said. “Where do you think the thousands of people who work in our potash mines, which are in rural areas of our province, live? They live in urban centres … Our rural urban relationship is one of great synergy and I would say of great results for Saskatchewan people.”

Thousands of federal public servants have applied for an early retirement package, as the federal government looks to trim the size of the public service by 2029.

Approximately 68,000 early-retirement notices were issued to federal public servants in December, informing them they could be eligible for early retirement.

Mohammad Kamal, the director of communications for Treasury Board President Shafqat Ali, told CTV News Ottawa on Wednesday approximately 4,600 public servants have applied for the early retirement incentive program since the application process opened on March 27.

Public servants have until July 24 to apply for the early retirement (ERI) program, which will allow employees to retire with no financial penalties. Any public servant approved for the early retirement incentive package must retire by Jan. 20, 2027.

“Under this program, eligible employees can apply to retire with an immediate pension based on years of service, with no reduction for retiring early,” the federal government said.

“Eligible employees will receive a letter with instructions on how to apply.”

The Canada Strong Budget 2025, released in November, outlined a plan to cut the size of the federal public service by 28,000 positions by 2029, including 12,000 employees and 350 executive positions cut through attrition and early retirement packages.

Kamal told CTV News Ottawa on April 2 that participation in the early retirement incentive program is “entirely voluntary” for public servants. Kamal said workforce reductions will be achieved “to the greatest extent possible through attrition and voluntary departures.”

Both the Public Service Alliance of Canada and the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada have filed a policy grievance over the early retirement incentive program. PIPSC said the program “violates consultation obligations and undermines collective agreement protections.”

The federal government says to be eligible for early retirement, you must meet the following parameters on the day you leave the public service.

Group 1: Members who joined the public service pension plan on or before Dec. 31, 2012, and who:

• Are at least 50 years old
• Have at least two years of pensionable service
• Have at least 10 years of employment in the public service

Group 2: Members who joined the public service pension plan on or after Jan. 1, 2013, and who:

• Are at least 55 years old
• Have at least two years of pensionable service
• Have at least 10 years of employment in the public service

According to the government’s website, meeting the eligibility parameters for the Early Retirement Incentive “does not guarantee you will be approved.”

“Your Deputy Head (or equivalent) will review your application to confirm whether the following Treasury Board-approved criteria have been met — the organization needs to reduce its workforce, services to Canadians will be maintained, and current and future operational or business needs will continue to be met.”

Warning: Some of the content below may be distressing to readers

An Alberta RCMP officer has been cleared of any wrongdoing after shooting at an American who fled a security checkpoint at the border last year and drove into Canada illegally.

RCMP and Alberta Sheriffs were called just after 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 4, 2025, for reports that a man attempting to enter Canada at the Coutts port of entry had fled after being asked to stop at the secondary inspection area.

A report from the province’s police watchdog, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), says officers were told the suspect had charges pending in the United States relating to theft of a firearm and assaulting a peace officer.

The report, released on Wednesday, says an officer located the vehicle near Raymond, Alta., but the suspect refused to exit his vehicle during a traffic stop, and kept driving.

“The pursuit reached speeds of up to 140 km/h,” ASIRT said, noting the officer eventually stopped following the vehicle.

A second officer spotted the suspect driving north on Highway 4.

That Mountie, as well as several other officers, began pursuing the suspect with their lights and sirens activated.

ASIRT says the suspect continued driving at high speeds between 120 and 150 km/h for more than an hour, heading toward Lethbridge, before heading back southbound on Highway 4 and again into the town of Raymond.

One of the officers saw the suspect “holding a gun towards his head” as he drove, ASIRT said.

Officers tried twice to use a tire deflation device to stop the vehicle, but those attempts were unsuccessful.

The suspect began driving to the Coutts border, but found it was blocked.

“He braked and turned his vehicle around to drive northbound in the southbound lanes of Highway 4,” ASIRT said.

An officer drove his unmarked police vehicle into the driver’s side of the suspect’s vehicle, trying to pin the vehicle against a concrete wall.

ASIRT says the suspect was able to drive off, still holding the gun to his head.

“The [suspect] continued driving northbound in the southbound lanes of Highway 4 at speeds in excess of 130 km/h,” ASIRT said in its report. “There was minimal traffic, and officers had blocked access to the highway at various points.”

“At one point, he narrowly avoided a collision where two semi-trucks were travelling side-by-side; however, one was able to move over just in time for the [suspect] to safely pass.”

A third attempt at deflating the suspect’s tires resulted in the rear driver’s side tire being deflated.

ASIRT says the suspect continued driving, despite having trouble maintaining tracking on the road.

He ended up stopping in a ditch, exiting the vehicle and holding the gun to his head as he ran.

ASIRT says he ignored police instructions to get on the ground and was pursued by officers on foot through a ditch and toward a residence.

An RCMP officer fired a single shot from his shotgun as the suspect approached the residence.

The suspect ran around the house and into a wooded area, along a road and into a field.

One of the officers got his police service dog to go after the suspect.

ASIRT says as soon as the dog “engaged” with the suspect, the man shot himself.

His cause of death was ruled as suicide.

Toxicology results showed the man ingested alcohol, cocaine, MDMA, ketamine and LSD sometime before death, ASIRT said.

ASIRT concluded the officer who fired his weapon used force that was “proportionate, necessary, and reasonable.”

“As a result, there are no reasonable grounds to believe that an offence was committed.”

It’s another weekend, and another day of reduced hours for the Regina Urgent Care Centre (UCC).

The centre typically runs from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., but Friday’s hours were cut from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., which is the third time operation hours have been shortened in the span of a week.

In a release on Thursday, the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) says that “the adjustments are due to physician availability and to proactively ensure the availability of services for patients.”

Originally, the centre was intended to be a 24/7 operation but has failed to complete that task since opening in July 2024.

“The government has tried to bring in urgent care centres as a solution, but the fact is that they can’t staff them,” NDP MLA Jared Clarke said on Friday. “But we’re going in the opposite direction where they can’t even keep them open, with reduced hours. This is a government that is driving nurses and doctors out of the province, it’s very concerning.”

The Government of Saskatchewan says that they are recruiting the next wave of physicians internationally. Minister of Health Jeremy Cockrill said on Wednesday that the United Kingdom and Ireland have been recruitment hotspots so far.

“You’re going to see investments being made by this government in the future, in terms of really targeting specific training opportunities for urgent care services so that we can attract new physicians into that space,” he said.

Pointing to an Angus Reid Institute poll, the NDP says that Saskatchewan residents have the hardest time acquiring a family doctor.

Released in early February, the poll shows 22 per cent of people in the province do not have a family doctor, and 41 per cent reported difficulties in acquiring one.

“When I first became an MLA, the number that was presented was 200,000 people in the province who don’t have access to a family doctor,” Clarke said. “Using the Angus Reid polling, that number seems to have increased by almost 300,000 people, so I think we seem to be going in the wrong direction.”

To combat the shortage of physicians, the Government of Saskatchewan invested $17.1 million dollars to the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Medicine to add more specialty residency seats and full-time academic physician positions.

“There’s still more work to do there, in terms of really firming up what our contracts look like with the doctors, providing coverage at the urgent care centre,” Cockrill said. “That work is underway and will continue over the next couple of months to try and get us to a better spot.”

Earlier this week on a NASA livestream aboard the Artemis II, Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen spoke about his perspective that as humans, our purpose is to find joy in creating solutions together.

That could be somewhat of a metaphor for the cooperation between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency in reference to the Artemis II’s mission which features three American astronauts along with Hansen.

Hansen is also a Colonel with the Royal Canadian Air Force and has a connection with a few current members of the 15 Wing Moose Jaw Air Force Base.

That includes Lt.-Col Matt Fullerton, who, when he was a flight instructor in Portage Le Prairie, Man., designed an informal helicopter training course for Hansen.

“It definitely blows me away, the progress he has made. It was purely by accident that I had that opportunity to be able to do that. And he’s such an incredible, humble and professional individual, and he’s always looking to interact. And he’s still a great ambassador for the Canadian Armed Forces,” Fullerton said.

Captain Jason Leuschen, from Humboldt, wants to one day follow in the footsteps of Hansen and make his own mark in space.

“It’s like the engineer’s dream, right? I grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan, I had a technical background, I had an engineering degree from the University of Saskatchewan. And space is just the idea; it’s the final frontier.

Leuschen has also interacted with Hansen back in 2017 when he made it to the final part of the selection process for the Canadian Space Agency that year.

Leuschen made it to the final eight candidates before it was eventually whittled down to just two.

“So, he was really there to represent the life to you and tell you, this is what you can expect if you are selected,” said Leuschen.

So, there was a lot of interactions. His wife was involved in it so that our spouses could kind of see what they potentially would be signing up for. And it was also very motivational to meet him as well because, the selection process did take upwards of eight months.

The exciting culmination of a historic 10 day mission to the moon and back happened on Friday night as the Orion capsule successfully did a splashdown landing just off the coast of California.

EVO Radio Network – Scheduled Maintenance Notice

EVO Radio will be conducting a network-wide server migration and infrastructure update beginning Saturday, January 17, 2026 at 3:00 AM, with work expected to be completed by Sunday, January 18, 2026 at 8:00 PM.

During this maintenance window, the following services may be temporarily offline or intermittently inaccessible at various points:

Websites

• https://z1035.evoradio.ca/

• https://979thecowboy.evoradio.ca/

• https://101therockhound.evoradio.ca/

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Live Broadcasting

• Z103.5

• 979 The Cowboy

• 101 The Rockhound

• Classic 88.7 The Goat

Stream Relay Network

• All Stream Relay services will be unavailable during the migration.

Because this update involves server transfers, database installations, and name server changes, exact downtime periods cannot be guaranteed. Individual service interruptions may vary, with some components taking up to several hours to complete.

Our support and technical teams will work to keep all stations and websites online for as long as possible and will restore services immediately as each system becomes available. Broadcast services and station websites will be prioritized, followed by additional network services.

We appreciate your patience and understanding as we complete these upgrades, which are designed to improve performance, reliability, and long-term stability across the EVO Radio Network.

Thank you for your continued support,
EVO Radio Network

🎉 Update Completed Successfully! 🎉

We are thrilled to announce that our scheduled network update has been completed without any issues! 🚀 All our broadcast stations, streams, and websites are now fully operational and running better than ever.

What’s New?

Here’s what you can expect from this update:
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