Estevan city council held its first meeting in a month, playing host to some of the topics which have come up.

For the most part, those settled around the usual monthly issues, such as the water quality report, waste disposal, and fire department reports.

But there was also one visitor who came to give a presentation to the city council and the city itself.

Lori Carr, the MLA of Estevan, was there to answer some of the questions from the city's councilors.

Concillor Lindsay Clark began the questions by asking about the state of the Estevan Nursing Home.

Carr provided a rough timeline for their progress:

"Right now we're just doing the needs assessment as to what exactly we need within that facility, what services will be provided, how many beds exactly, all that work is being done. Hopefully, that'll be done in the next couple of months, and then we'd move forward with the planning and RFP process. It's going to take a little while yet, but it's definitely moving forward and you'll soon have a nursing home here."

Councillor Tony Sernick then asked a question on if the province could adjust the municipal revenue sharing system to help with inflation.

It was explained that since the sharing program is percentage-based, municipalities likely saw a boost along with inflation.

"We budget based on the PST that's coming in. When PST goes up within the province because it's a percentage of PST municipalities actually get more money. When times are good, you get more, and when times are bad, you'll get less. I think we've had one year since we started municipal revenue sharing in 2009 when it has gone down. We may have one more," said Carr, "Due to COVID-19, but that would (lower) the revenues for the province also."

Councillor Shelly Veroba asked what the province was doing to help out the lack of healthcare workers in rural Saskatchewan.

Carr pointed to a division of labour with the SHA.

"In the budget this year, we actually announced that we are going to be taking responsibility away from the SHA and setting up a standalone agency specifically for recruitment. Right now it's recruitment specifically of health professionals," said Carr, "But it doesn't just stop with doctors, it's the nurse practitioners, it's the RNs, the LPNs, whatever the case might be."

Carr ended her time at the meeting by thanking everyone on the council for their work, which was echoed by Mayor Roy Ludwig who thanked Carr for representing Estevan on a provincial stage.