News?

I don't write about news for a couple reasons. The first, I hate news. It just reminds me how horrific this world is ... due to the fact that they only show the most gruesome, horrible stories ... I mean, where is the Squirrel water skiing!!? The Second ... I could care less about what is happening in the rest of the world. Give me my Swift Current News ... my Saskatchewan news ... and every once in a while ... my important Canadian news .... I don't care that Lindsay Lohan was drunk again, or George Bush said something stupid ... again.

Anyway, I digress ... this was taken from the CBC website.

Sask. premier gives green light to change after firefighter gets ticket

After hearing that a volunteer firefighter was ticketed on his way to an emergency call, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall said he wants to find a way to help volunteers get to emergencies quicker.

Wall made the comment Tuesday after CBC News reported that a volunteer firefighter in Estevan was fined for going through a red light while on his way to a fire call.

Travis Olver fought the ticket in court but lost, and was fined $70.

Under provincial law, volunteer firefighters must obey all traffic laws when driving their personal vehicles.

The premier said he was surprised by the outcome of Olver's case.

"Can we not have a common-sense solution to this so that we have an encouragement to people to be volunteer firefighters?" Wall told reporters. "I think the answer's yes."

As soon as Wall heard about the case, he called provincial officials and asked them to find out what other jurisdictions are doing, he said.

"I think we'll have a plan here to fix this very soon," he said.

One option is to copy Manitoba and Ontario, where firefighters can use emergency flashing lights in their personal vehicles, he said.

A plan may be in place as early as the end of the month, he said.



I thought that was cool. Volunteer Fire Fighters are really important to communities like Estevan ... they are your only hope at putting out fires ... I honestly can't believe a cop would issue that ticket in the first place.

In Swift Current ... the Fire Department has something like 12 full time Firefighters ... and about the same amount of Auxiliary Fire Fighters. The reason in Swift Current to have volunteers ... is to assist the Full Time Firefighters. For example ... when there are huge fires like Fine Furniture Oasis ... the Auxiliary Firefighters play a huge roll so there can always be Full time Firefighters back at the hall ready if there's another fire.

Bottom line, it's nice to see Our Premier recognize how important things like that are to rural communities.