Peanut the burrowing owl once again stole the show during this year’s city council budget discussions, as council members excitedly snapped photos and were eager to pet the endangered bird.
The burrowing owl perched on the arm of handler Lori Johnson, owl coordinator for the Saskatchewan Burrowing Owl Interpretive Centre, for most of the latter’s presentation Nov. 26 during a special budget meeting for all third-party groups that receive municipal funding.
Moose Jaw Exhibition Company Limited
Request for 2021: $6,537
Received this year: $6,428
The Saskatchewan Burrowing Owl Interpretive Centre interacts with many groups from September to April, including pre-schools, classrooms, daycares, seniors’ homes, nature groups, photography groups, libraries and summer camps, Johnson said. In a typical year, the centre visits with 50 to 60 groups and roughly 5,000 people.
“Our in-house program hosts visitors from around the province, Canada, the United States, and even from around the world,” she continued. “Our regular season (May to September) sees us host another 5,000 visitors to the City of Moose Jaw.”
After visiting the centre, those visitors then spend more money in the community, Johnson added. Some visitors have said they come to Moose Jaw specifically for the birds.
The economic effect that the exhibition company has is enormous since it brings in big events such as provincial barrel racing, said Coun. Crystal Froese. The exhibition grounds can host these big events since it has such a large property.
“As a kid growing up,” she added, “I spent many hours at the exhibition grounds because we used to raise horses out there … and we used to see burrowing owls frequently. This was well before Superstore was built there.”
Murals of Moose Jaw
Request for 2021: $$13,380
Received in 2020: $13,300
Community artist Grant McLaughlin focused mainly this year on repairing the “Opening Day Parade” mural attached to the Crushed Can. He had to replace it completely since it was 30 years old and beyond normal upkeep.
Other projects on which the murals committee focused this year were cleaning and painting the Sisters of Sion near Vanier Collegiate, making extensive repairs to the Crescent Park mural and repainting the March to the Pipes Forever on the Co-op grocery store.
In 2021, the committee wants to repair or repaint the Sunday School mural, the Old Time Threshing Bee mural, the Winter Carnival mural, the Stockgrowers mural, and the Crescent Park mural.
Coun. Heather Eby, who sits on the committee as a city representative, explained the group chair quit recently while the remaining two members are new and excited to be involved. She pointed out the murals — 48 around the city — have existed since 1990.
“2020 was difficult, but we were still able to have repairs and restorations done this summer by our in-house artist, Grant McLaughlin,” she continued. “He’s invaluable to this committee. He knows murals inside out and backwards.”
The committee is running out of locations to place new murals in downtown Moose Jaw, Eby added. The group is looking at potentially restoring ghost murals, but some are located in places that make them unsafe to access. However, the group will pursue those murals if they can find a safe method to reinvigorate them.
Tourism Moose Jaw/Canada Day Committee
Request for 2021: $94,555 / $2,580
Received this year: $90,775 / $2,534
Tourism Moose Jaw (TMJ) had high hopes and many plans for 2020, but the pandemic wiped out most of that, said executive director Jacki L’Heureux-Mason. While the organization faced many challenges, with some creative planning and grant funding, it stayed solvent during a crushing year for the tourism industry.
TMJ completed its second of three overhauls on the trolley, a machine that didn’t break down for the first time in 10 years, she continued. The vehicle gave tours into October, which provided TMJ with much-needed revenue and “saved our hide.” However, the tourism centre still saw a 78-per-cent decrease in visitors — to roughly 7,500 people from about 32,000 people — and a 71-per-cent decrease in sales, to $136,147.13 from roughly $350,000.
In 2020 Tourism Moose Jaw budgeted $15,000 to repair the trolley but actually spent $31,021.10. The organization expects to spend $7,000 next year for more repairs.
TMJ sees several tourism-related challenges in the future, including an aging trolley and the need for one or two new major attractions to ensure visitors keep coming back, added L’Heureux-Mason. The organization did have some victories in 2020, including working with community groups to create a downtown patio, upgrading Mac the Moose, and launching a new True Crime trolley tour.
The next 2021 budget meeting is Thursday, Dec. 3.
