There are many opportunities in the coming weeks and months for the City of Weyburn to move forward and show the community in its best light, and to promote the city and area to visitors and to businesses, and help the city and area return to a healthy level of economic activity once more.
A prime example of these opportunities is the upcoming Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show, which will fill up the exhibition grounds from Tuesday, June 6 through to Thursday, June 8, with many oil industry companies converging to showcase their equipment, products and services for the show.
The last couple of years have admittedly been terrible ones for the industry, but oil companies have continued to maintain a strong presence in the Weyburn and southeast area of the province, and with a slow recovery in oil prices being made, there are signs that activities in the oilpatch will be at a healthier level than in the last couple of years.
One such sign is the revised oil well drilling forecast by PSAC, showing there will be more oil wells drilled in Saskatchewan this year than was first thought. It’s not back to the crazy levels this area saw during the oil boom, but it is at a better level than one or two years ago, and the spinoff from this increased activity will hopefully help revive economic activity in and around the city.
A positive sign also was the approval by Weyburn city council for the Fire Department to host a Fire School this fall, on Sept. 15-17, for the Saskatchewan Volunteer Fire Fighters Association, which will bring anywhere between 250 and 350 volunteer fire fighters here from across the province.
Weyburn has hosted such a school here before, back in 2008, and the association asked the Weyburn Fire Department to again provide their facilities and expertise for such a training school once again.
As Fire Chief Simon Almond pointed out, this is not only a compliment for the Fire Department, but for the city, because the whole package of restaurants, hotels and recreational facilities is seen as an attractive one that will easily accommodate such a large event and showcase the community to visitors.
This is in addition to sports events, like the provincial badminton championships that Weyburn will host this weekend, which have successfully been hosted here and will be again.
When one also looks at the increase in building permits issued by the City of Weyburn, with 25 permits issued so far in 2017 compared to 15 a year ago, there is hope for better days ahead in Weyburn and area. — Greg Nikkel
