Saskatchewan·Photos

This week's best photos from CBC Saskatchewan

From holiday season acts of kindness across the province to the greenhouses and beehives of Flying Dust First Nation, there's plenty to see in this week's photos seen on CBC Saskatchewan.

From holiday season acts of kindness to greenhouses and beehives

A person wearing Christmas pajamas plays a guitar and sings on a stage.
Saskatchewan singer-songwriter Megan Nash performs during the live broadcast of The 306's Make the Season Kind show at the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan in Regina, Dec. 5, 2024. The event raised funds for the Food Banks of Saskatchewan. (Raphaële Frigon/CBC News)

From city halls in Saskatoon and Regina to the greenhouses and beehives of Flying Dust First Nation, there's plenty to see in this week's photos from the CBC Saskatchewan newsroom and contributors.

A person holds a child in their lap at a table covered with crafts and crafting supplies.
Family fun at CBC Saskatchewan's Make the Season Kind fundraiser event in Regina, Dec. 5, 2024. (Raphaële Frigon/CBC News)

Make the Season Kind is CBC's national fundraiser for food banks. This year CBC Saskatchewan invited the public to a live broadcast of The 306 at the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan in Regina. The event featured special guests Megan Nash, Stephen Nhan from The Great Canadian Baking Show, and Katelyn Ironstar from Black Dog Art Supply. You can watch the full show here.

A photo of a young women holding bees.
The Flying Dust Market Garden now has a bee operation and is teaching youth to become beekeepers. (Submitted by Jason Cardinal)

With food security in Saskatchewan's northern and remote communities in the news after doctors discovered a cluster of scurvy cases, CBC Saskatchewan took you to Flying Dust First Nation, where some residents have run a market garden — and now beehives — for the last 15 years. The garden provides fresh produce for Flying Dust First Nation and employs 20 people and trains youth. It's food sovereignty in action.

Kamila and Ali Jamili, sibilings originally from Afghanistan, meet with Kate Heriott, a member of a group helping their family members come to Canada as privately-sponsored refugees. They have mugs of green tea on a table in front of them.
Kamila and Ali Jamili, siblings originally from Afghanistan, meet with Kate Heriott, a member of a group helping their family members come to Canada as privately-sponsored refugees. (Chanss Lagaden/CBC)

Ottawa is pausing private refugee sponsorship applications that community groups like the Mennonite Central Committee use to reunite families. A brother and sister from Afghanistan who now live in Saskatoon fear this will delay efforts to reunite with their parents and three other siblings. Kamila escaped Afghanistan in 2021, one month after the Taliban regained power. She lived in Pakistan for a year before a private sponsorship brought her to Saskatoon.

A woman in a plaid blazer sits at an elevated wooden desk.
Mayor Cynthia Block chairs a budget debate at a meeting of Saskatoon City Council on Dec. 2, 2024. (Trevor Bothorel/CBC News)

Saskatoon's newly elected mayor and council grappled with the city's finances this week during annual budget talks. City council passed the $1.1-billion budget, which includes a 4.96 per cent property tax hike for 2025.

A man in a blue suit sits at a wooden desk.
Regina Mayor Chad Bachynski participates in the new council's first executive committee meeting on Dec. 4, 2024. (Alexander Quon/CBC)

Regina's city council also dipped into financial planning with budget pre-approvals at its first executive meeting since last month's civic election.

Marea Olafson standing outside her pottery store, Freba Pottery near Wynyard, Sask. Olafson is in foreground and store is in background.
Marea Olafson says she'd lose a large number of customers if direct highway access to her pottery store was removed. (Marea Olafson)

A Saskatchewan pottery store owner told CBC News that a proposed highway expansion could wreck her business. Marea Olafson runs Freba Pottery near Wynyard, Sask. She said a proposed passing lane in front of the property would mean rerouting the driveways used to access the business from Highway 16. By the end of the week, the province confirmed it will alter plans to maintain access to Olafson's property.