MEETING RECAP - 25th of |June 2020
Submitted by Will Arscott
Saskatoon Police Air Service - with Sgt. Wade Bourassa
This was the last meeting of the Rotary year and President Vic presided in his final meeting as our president. Prior to the meeting there was considerable discussion about the COVID-19 resurgence in the United States and President Trump’s handling of the Coronavirus issue.
‘O Canada’ was led by Wayne McGillivray. This time the audio worked well, and Wayne didn’t fade out. The technical issues seem to improve with each succeeding Zoom meeting.
Grace - the member on the roster for grace was not present so we dispensed with grace for this meeting.
Visitors and Guests
There were no visitors or guests at this week’s meeting.
Announcements
Paul Gauthier spoke briefly on behalf of Prem Sharma’s Nepal Project. Things are going well and we are getting good cooperation with the Rotary club in Nepal. We are working with a school district that operates 83 schools with an average enrollment of about 29 students. The school we are involved with is quite large with 65 students. The project is going well and there may be opportunities to expand the program.
There was some very good news [which this author knew nothing about] concerning the Badge Shield and Star Dinner. Of course, this dinner did not take place this year due to the coronavirus. The expected sponsors were poled as to whether they would honour their sponsorship even when there wasn’t a dinner. Most of the sponsors did and the club received $34,200 with no offsetting expenses. A profit in the range of $54,000 is normal so more than half of this was realized. The BSS also funds our regular (non-RAP projects). It turns out that there is an unrestricted surplus in the dinner that had been carried forward for several years. This allows $7,500 to come to the club for non-RAP projects. Members also paid $3,575 directly to the Rotary Trust in lieu of their regular ticket purchase. Together this will provide the club with a non-RAP income of about $11,000 which is somewhat less than the usual amount of $15,000. These receipts mean that much less of the reserve will be required to maintain the budget as the decision has already been made to use club reserves to maintain the budget for this year. All who worked on this are to be congratulated.
Gary Rusu spoke about the President’s Dinner which was tentatively scheduled for the evening of July 7th at the Saskatoon Club. A survey was prepared by Paul Gauthier to determine if the members were comfortable with an in- person meeting at this time. Members were asked in an instant survey whether they wanted to go ahead on July 7th or wait until August or September. There was some discussion that some groups are getting back to meeting in person but often with reduced memberships while other group members wait until they feel more comfortable meeting in public. It was pointed out that the Saskatoon Club is going to significant lengths to limit the risk associated with meetings in its facility. In the end the members present voted overwhelmingly to reschedule the President’s Dinner to Monday, August 24th. It will be an evening dinner. This still needs to be confirmed at a future meeting. Since our meeting this date has been confirmed.
The club is taking a recess for the month of July. Because August 3rd is a holiday our next meeting will be held Monday August 10th. The President’s Dinner will follow on the evening of August 24th.
Wayne Palmer spoke briefly about membership dues. They seem to have come in quite well with only about eight members still left to pay their dues. Only one member has indicated they will not return. Wayne promised to check with the members who still have outstanding dues.
President Vic announced that Jean-Marc Nadeau of the Regina Eastview club with be the new District Governor Designate.
There was a meeting of the Five Club Public Image Committee yesterday. Paul inquired about getting our club website integrated with the Five Club Site. Kaitlin is willing to do this, but she does not have the credentials to get onto the back of our website. Peter Voldeng promised to investigate this and get her the status she requires.
Happy and Sad
H Peter Whitenect for having shot his age at golf (we will take it as a given that is a score of less than 100). Also happy for finally having some good golf weather in the past two or three weeks.
5H Paul Gauthier for nice weather.
5S Avis Hardy for dishwasher breakdown and resulting damage.
S Jim Weber for cancellation of all Huskie sports through to the new year. Jim feels this is shortsighted currently and that it will be very difficult for the athletes who will lose a year of a very short career.
S Will Arscott for the cancellation of performing arts going into the fall. The Symphony will not play until the new year. Two musicals Will was to play this summer and fall have been cancelled.
SH Tammy Pshebylo for her husband becoming police commissioner for Corman Park. It is an honour and an opportunity to serve but it is a long-term appointment that will give them less flexibility as retirement approaches.
H Wayne McGillvray for golf getting under way. Enjoyed his grandson’s first golf lesson.
10H Graham Pearson for being where he is [in the Okanagan]. His daughter and son- in-law are out of quarantine and working out of his house. Seems to be going well. Graham used his cellphone to show us his patio and pool area. I think we should hold our next club social at Graham’s place even if it is a bit of a drive to get there.
PROGRAM - Saskatoon Police Air Service with Sgt. Wade Bourassa
Wade was introduced by Wayne McGillvray. Wade grew up in Saskatoon and is now a twenty-one-year veteran of the Saskatoon Police Service. He is now a Sergeant in the air support group. Wade has been instrumental in the development of the Saskatoon Police Air Service. This service does a great deal on a very slim budget. The service has received international recognition coming out a head of more famous competitors such as the FBI and the California Highway Patrol. Recently they won an international fixed-wing award.
The air service flies a Cessna 182, four person aircraft. This is a robust platform and the plane has higher performance than a regular private plane. The plane is manned by two rotating crews that provide support to the four rotating patrol shifts. The plane is in the air about 1200 hours per year. The operational budget for the program is only $100,000 per year.
The heart of the system is the MX-10 camera bolted to the side of the airplane. This is a camera like the one used to maneuver drones in precision situations. Wade said the image that the police use is even better than the one shown in the films we saw. A computer system layers the street names and addresses on the image. One feature is the ability to mark any place instantly. If a suspect in a pursuit drops something or throws something from a vehicle the spot can be marked and the system will guide the police back to that exact location to locate the object.
The primary work of the air service is to manage arrests and pursuits. Pursuits are always dangerous, and the air service allows the police to follow a suspect without the risk of a high-speed chase and the resultant danger to the public. Using the air service aids police in speed and effectiveness to get to a situation. Without the airplane it is often necessary to use canine units which means establishing a perimeter and doing a search. Even if this method is successful it takes multiple patrol units and reduces the ability to deal with multiple issues. Criminal pursuit is the major use for the plane. This includes pursuits in progress, stolen vehicles, and impaired drivers. Once the air unit is called, they can have their eyes on the suspect within seconds even if the plane is over a different part of the city. Wade noted that although the freeways have ‘aircraft patrolled’ signs, very little airtime is used for regular traffic enforcement. The plane takes some photographs for things such as accident reconstruction.
The service has been well received by the people in Saskatoon. Because the camera is an infrared camera and sees heat; the plane has discovered several fires (houses and garages) prior to the owners being aware of the fire or a call being received by emergency services. There have been some noise complaints. Wade assured us that if the plane seems to be hovering for a period in our neighborhood, that there is something important happening. If we knew what it was we would be willing to put up with a bit of noise.
The highlight of the talk was Wade showing several short videos of incidents to which the Air Service responded. We saw everything from a machete- waving patron in a downtown bar area to a person going at a great speed the wrong way down the Idylwyld Freeway. This writer found some of the driving videos particularly disturbing. Wade told us that these sorts of incidents occur regularly in our city. It makes one wonder why we don’t have any more deaths given the lack of concern of the perpetrators for the safety of the public. I hope the courts deal severely with people who put others at risk in this way.
It is impossible to describe the videos here but if you ever should get the chance to see Wade’s presentation it is well worthwhile.
Wade was thanked by President Vic and the regular donation will be made to Bethany Home.
Next Meeting
Recess for month of July
Next Meeting Monday August 10th details TBA
Adjournment
