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Welcome to 2020

I'm a week later getting the first Echo of 2020 printed, we can thank Mother Nature for that! On the plus side I got to see some more of Seattle than I intended and you can't go wrong there. I highly recommend a visit if you haven't been.

 

Police "Deployment Model" Meeting Held

Well, I go away for a few weeks and I missed one of the biggest announcements to affect our area in a long time. On January 13th in Shaunavon, a meeting was held to announce changes to the deployment model of the RCMP in our area. This is by many accounts a bigger deal than losing the bus service. It seems the RCMP are looking to vacate the smaller communities in favor of centralised policing from Swift Current in order to save money. My informal and quick polling of locals has shown that people are not in favor of this idea, as would be expected. I'm sure the local RCMP members who have served this community have their own feelings about this announcement. Not to put on the dramatics, but it can't feel like much of anything other than a slap in the face from the RCMP higher-ups. Personally I think it's not great. Are we really to the point of reducing all rural people to statistics in someone's balance book and our communities become easily expendable to city people wanting to balance their budgets without knowing the struggles that rural communities face (like access to medical care and public transportation)? I don't see how the RCMP can serve us from so far away at the crucial times when we need them, over the internet, with a drone? Stay tuned for further updates. Hopefully someone will see the negative response this has received nearly across the board and change their minds. Just don't hold your breath.

 

IP Hockey Tourney This Weekend

This Saturday at the Eastend Rink Complex from 1pm, come out to watch the kids give it their all at the IP Tournament. Eastend v. Frontier at 1pm followed by Frontier v. Cabri at 2:30 and Eastend v Cabri at 4pm.

 

Years Gone By

Lorraine has graced us again with a look back at ye olden dayes of Eastend with her archives of the Enterprise. It's Inside!