Mayor Debra Button said the City of Weyburn will take a page out of the health district's playbook, after a presentation by the Sun Country Health Region that outlined their plans and actions for recruitment and retention, to alleviate the large number of vacancies for health care workers in the southeast area.

CEO Cal Tant narrated a power-point presentation that laid out the direction Sun Country has followed, in first hiring Cecile Reyes as their regional director for recruitment and retention, and then hiring a Regina media company to do up an ad campaign that was put into publications around the country, including the National Post and Maclean's magazine.

In addition, Reyes took information about Sun Country over to the United Kingdom to recruit for nurses and health care professionals, and ended up receiving over 300 expressions of interest, which Sun Country is still working through to determine how many viable employees might be able to come here.

Tant pointed out Sun Country has 28 facilities with more than 2,200 staff, serving a population of 53,000 people over 30,000 square kilometres of area; of those 28 facilities, he added, only about six are in need of replacement. The others are in good condition, and some are fairly new, such as Tatagwa View.

"We need a full complement of staff in order to provide a high quality of health care. Recruitment is not just a Sun Country issue; it's a provincial and Canadian issue," said Tant.

He showed examples of the ads and posters and displays that are in use, using current Sun Country staff as the models and using the motto, "Everything Under the Sun" as the theme for promoting the region.

Mayor Debra Button asked Tant about the closure of the maternity ward, and of the ICU unit at the hospital, noting these are needed to help attract people to the city.

"The ICU has been opened and closed over the last year due to a shortage of staff. When we have staff, it's opened, and we'll continue to operate it. There will always be a ICU in Weyburn, we need it for this size of community," said Tant.

Of the maternity ward, he said the health region is dedicated to seeing it reopened, once they are able to get sufficient staff to operate the ward.

"Can we assume that will happen in 2008?" asked Coun. Dick Michel.

"We're striving to have that happen as soon as possible. As soon as we have the staff available who can run it, we will. I really, really hope so," answered Tant.

"We're also having our own recruitment and retention issues, so we're taking a page from your work," said the mayor.

Council approved centralizing all their paper and cardboard recycling bins in one location, near SARCAN, as of June 1 of this year.

The council had asked for public input on the proposal, and Coun. Nancy Styles said she only had two phone calls about it, while Mayor Button noted she fielded a couple of calls from people who don't drive, and would have difficulty getting recyclables to the bins.

Councillors indicated they wanted to monitor how well this new setup works, and Coun. Styles said it will be easy to do so, as all paper and cardboard brought for recycling is weighed.

Meanwhile, council agreed this may cause difficulties for people without a vehicle, but Coun. Rob Stephanson suggested using a service like Canadian Mental Health, which operates a pickup truck to take loads to the landfill, or talk to neighbours who might be willing to take their recycling out for them, rather than throwing it out into the garbage and filling up the landfill.