This corner condo on Studer St. was purchased by SaskPower for $285,000. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

Crown Corporation

SaskPower buys La Ronge condo for $285,000 to house powerline technicians

Feb 25, 2019 | 5:07 PM

SaskPower spokesperson Jordan Jackle stated the Crown corporation has reached its goal in attracting powerline technicians to La Ronge by purchasing a condo for $285,000.

“We looked at a number of different options and ways to house shift workers,” he said. “This was viewed as the most cost-effective way to do exactly that.”

The four-bedroom condo along Studer St. is specifically for SaskPower employees working eight days on 10-hour shifts followed by six days off. Jackle noted accommodations at the condo are free of charge, adding it provides workers a place to live, eat and sleep while they are in town. Those who live there then go to their home communities on the days they don’t work.

SaskPower will take possession of the property in about three weeks and Jackle stated the corporation owns or leases other properties in northern Saskatchewan to accommodate staff. He said it’s difficult for SaskPower to attract powerline technicians to other places in the North as well.

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“We were seeing a couple of open positions over the past year or so and essentially we weren’t getting the number of applications we were hoping to receive,” Jackle said. “By going this route and stating there will be a residence for them [and] that seems to have done the trick. We have been able to fill those two positions with the second worker starting in the next few weeks.”

Powerline technicians are mostly responsible for regular preventative maintenance and restoring the power when outages occur.

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno