ESTERHAZY — Esterhazy town council gave first reading to the Wildlife Feeding Bylaw during their regular meeting last week, an item originally proposed by Councillor Martin Pfeifer with concerns that feeding wildlife could have dangerous consequences.
“My intention for this bylaw was basically to stop feeding deer; it was to help mitigate creatures that are following them in,” he said during the April 10 meeting.
“This bylaw’s not going to fix that problem, I know that. I’ve been here for many years, and I’ve seen many deer eat my juniper trees, and for the next 37 years, they’re going to continue to eat my juniper trees. I get that, I totally get that. What I was getting at in this intention was to mitigate the number of animals coming in, and hopefully that will offset any chance of an accident happening.”
During his comments, Pfeifer pointed to a particular coyote attack in Winnipeg in the summer of 2023, where a nine-year-old boy was mauled while walking one afternoon. Thanks to the intervention of a local teenager with a shovel who chased off the coyote, that boy was able to recover from his injuries.
“Rather than worrying about what neighbour might get upset with another neighbour because we need some silly bylaw, maybe we should be upset more so with a child getting hurt and we didn’t do anything about it,” Pfeifer said.
The proposed bylaw draws upon current regulations in communities like Val Marie and Churchbridge. Previous discussions around the council table revolved around what fines should be set at and what entity would enforce the bylaws. The Wildlife Feeding Bylaw has been tabled twice since being introduced to better examine these concerns and refine wording.
“I’m quite sure we have in our power the bylaw enforcer to mitigate and distinguish between what is being fed as a squirrel, and what is being fed as a deer; the difference between a five-gallon pail versus a little soup can should be quite easily noticed,” Pfeifer said.
“I thought this would be fairly simple, but apparently not. We should be discussing bigger things like senior centres and communiplexes and pipelines and whatever, not weird bylaws. So, without going into any more, I’ll make the motion we pass this bylaw as written.”
First reading of the bylaw to control the feeding of wildlife in the Town of Esterhazy limits passed with a 4-2 vote.
Special tribute
Before getting into the business of the April 10 Esterhazy town council agenda, Councillor Bryant Campbell requested a moment to pay tribute to Canadian efforts during the Battle of Vimy Ridge, which took place 108 years prior from April 9 to 12, 1917.
“Today in 1917, Canadian soldiers from coast to coast united on Vimy Ridge,” Councillor Campbell began. “I think it’s important that we remember them and remember why we’re all here today. They fought for us to have the democracy that we have today, that we can all be here in peace and good reasoning, and let’s just remember them. Let’s not forget what happened, they’re a big reason why we’re all here today.”
There were 3,598 men who lost their lives at Vimy Ridge, and another 7,004 wounded — nearly 75 per cent of them — on the first day of battle, making April 9, 1917, the most costly day in Canadian military history.
Education mill rates down
After staying unchanged for the previous three years, Education Property Tax Mill Rates have decreased. This property tax is collected by municipalities and paid to the provincial government’s General Revenue. The 2025 mill rates are: agricultural - 1.07 (down from 1.42), residential - 4.27 (down from 4.54), commercial/industrial - 6.37 (down from 6.86), and resource - 7.49 (down from 9.88).
The reduction is to offset the impact of property revaluation, and total revenue to the government will remain unchanged from numbers in the 2024/25 budget, aside from base growth as a result of new construction in the province.
Across Saskatchewan, the reduction in all EPT mill rates is estimated to save property owners in the province over $100 million annually.
Council made a motion to acknowledge the new rate, which was carried unanimously.
Summer students
Council approved hiring the following summer student positions: two each for office assistant, Historical Park, and the Beat the Heat Program; and eight to 12 lifeguards.
