ESTERHAZY — Esterhazy Mayor Grant Forster expects health care and the new daycare to be the major issues in Esterhazy this year.
“The biggest news for us in 2023 was the announcement of our planning money towards our new health facility,” he said of the $250,000 dedicated by the provincial government back in April. “That was a long time in the making. As a community, we have been raising money for upwards of 20 years to put towards a new facility.”
While construction is still a prospect, Forster noted “just the announcement of the dollars was huge.” The financial commitment illustrates how the government recognizes the need for a new hospital.
“We had bypass on our emergency at the hospital almost routinely. It seemed for a while it was under bypass more than it was open,” Forster said. “There were weekends where we had no emergency services because we didn’t have the staff. In our case, it was more lab techs. We had lost some lab techs due to retirement and moving away and we just didn’t have anyone to be able to step up and take it over.”
The staffing issue has since been resolved, something Forster credits the Esterhazy Health Foundation for playing a huge role in making happen.
“Our local health foundation was instrumental in doing some recruiting for us and we’re back to full staff on the lab, so we’re not getting bypassed anymore because of labour shortages,” he said. “Fortunately, we’re in pretty good shape for nurses and right now we have a full complement of doctors, so we’re pretty happy about that.”
Towards the end of the year, the town learned that Esterhazy would be included in the Saskatchewan government announcement regarding increased daycare spots. This meant establishing an entirely new facility, a new board and getting a detailed plan of action to the provincial government within a few months. A tall task, but an exciting one for organizers and town residents alike.
“That was another big thing for us all. It’s really critical to us because of what it brings us as another service for the community,” Forster said of the new daycare. “There’s other communities in the area that have it, but they're in the same position as we are. Everybody’s strapped to get sufficient spaces, so we’re hoping the additional space is enough to convince more people to move to town and it just adds to the list of services that we can provide.”
Word of a new daycare coming to Esterhazy has far-reaching ripple effects beneficial beyond those requiring childcare services.
“That was a huge announcement for us and it just makes everything potentially go that much better from increasing the population of town and getting more houses built, to getting more businesses up and running,” Forster explained. “Having more people want to come here to stay and to make a life here.”
Inflation was one challenge the town had to deal with this past year, making for some strategic budgetary management and pushing pause on some projects.
“Everything was just so much more expensive this year,” Forster said. “Fortunately, we were able to find some savings in different areas, but it delayed some things. We didn’t do any paving this year.”
Given the number of facilities the town operates, the carbon tax alone made for many thousands of dollars in expenses.
“Our carbon tax is a huge dollar amount and just to try to recoup that and save so you don't have to raise taxes makes it very, very difficult,” explained Forster. “Between inflation, supply chain issues and carbon tax, it’s going to be tough to hold the line on taxes, we’ll do the best we can.”
He added that there are no current plans to raise taxes, but didn’t rule out a possible increase in future years.
“In the six years I’ve been on council, we only had one actual tax increase,” said Forster. “So we’ve done well there, but you can't do that every year. Not suggesting that there’s going to be one, but I mean it’s always a potential that there will be one. We have to catch up at some point.
“Fortunately, on the revenue side, we got a little bit more money this year from the province in terms of our potash revenue sharing tax, that was a nice surprise,” he continued.
In terms of challenges for the coming year, Forster sees the continued inflation and supply chain issues flowing into 2024. This will also affect the work on Esterhazy’s water treatment plant, pushing the completion date by up to two years.
“We were supposed to be completed in 2024, that’s not going to happen,” Forster said, who hopes with sufficient progress to allow projections of a completion date and potential test on equipment later in 2024. “Realistically, we’re probably still looking at 18 to 24 months before that’s going to be completed. So, that’s a little bit of a disappointment. We had hoped to have it in place by now.”
He is confident the delay will not affect the town’s budget, as careful thought went into cost overruns in early planning stages.
“Our town is in good financial shape where we can take the extra cost of the project and not have to do anything in terms of tax increases to cover it,” Forster said. “Council had enough foresight to plan for the unfortunate event that it should happen, and unfortunately, it has happened. It’s going to be a challenge to try and keep it down, but from a financial standpoint, we’re not in bad shape as far as paying that project off.”
