When you get a situation like the winter storms that hit southeast Saskatchewan this month, we typically see an outpouring of support and affection for those working to ensure that we can still live our day to day lives.
Municipal snow removal crews, whether they be private or public, receive lots of praise. So do Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure snowplow operators. First responders such as police, firefighters and EMS workers, get their share of admiration, especially when they get called out on stormy nights.
SaskPower and SaskTel crews work long hours to restore services. And there are so many more.
We’ve seen a lot of tributes over the past two weeks.
It’s great to see people expressing their admiration for so many. It’s a redeeming quality for social media. In the case of line crews and snow removal employees, they usually don’t get a lot of attention.
The only time we seem to talk about SaskPower employees is when we find ourselves in a situation like we did on the weekend, when adverse weather conditions knocked out power and they were the ones out at the earliest possible opportunity, trying to restore electricity.
And that’s unfortunate. It’s not just during the power outages that they are out risking their lives to do their job. They also provide a valuable service during other times, such as during planned power outages.
We know there were 1,600-plus hockey fans at Affinity Place who were happy with the efforts of SaskPower employees on Saturday night. Game 2 of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League final was able to happen at Affinity Place because of the efforts of SaskPower crews who twice restored power in rapid fashion.
They could have said “no, we’ll take care of it later, we have other calls to tend to,” especially after the second outage, and few would have complained. The game would have gone ahead Sunday afternoon. But SaskPower employees decided the game should happen Saturday night, because they knew this was important to the community.
Highways crews allowed us to get out on the roads relatively quickly. A check of the Highway Hotline map on Saturday evening showed travel was not recommended on highways that cut through or around Estevan, and on several other highways in the region. Many highways in the far southeast corner of the province were closed. Virtually every highway south of Highway 1 and east of Highway 9 was closed.
But if you looked at the Highway Hotline on Sunday afternoon, you’d have seen that seasonal driving was prevalent, with a few areas in which winter conditions existed. Crews had cleared the snow and they were drivable again, despite the snow drifts, slush, blowing snow and wet road conditions that existed less than 24 hours before.
And let’s not forget the snow removal crews who worked long hours during the Easter long weekend after the first blizzard.
Of course, you’re going to have those who complain, who want to know why their home or business doesn’t have power yet. Or they’ll wonder why their home doesn’t have power and others do, and they’ll cite SaskPower’s incompetence.
Pretty sad, isn’t it?
But most of us navigated the past two weeks pretty well. Our greatest source of frustration should be that we had this miserable weather at a time in which we should be walking outdoors, jogging, dusting off the golf clubs, getting our campers and boats ready or preparing for other activities that bring us joy each summer.
Let’s just hope that the admiration with these people remains. After all, one day we’ll see another power failure. Don’t get upset with those only trying to do their jobs.
