By Nigel Maxwell

Community support group targeted by thief

Mar 26, 2018 | 5:00 PM

The Executive Director of the P.A Outreach Program Inc. and Won Ska Cultural School said the theft of their transportation van this week was very frustrating. The vehicle was later located, but Rhonda Durant said the theft will likely have a big impact on their programming.

Durant’s comments come after the van was stolen late Friday night or Saturday morning while it was parked in the driveway of a residence in the 400-block of 23rd St. E. Durant said the van was locked outside a staff member’s house and would have been used the following morning to pick up parents and kids for the school’s traditional parenting program. 

“The ignition system was punched, so someone used a screwdriver and [the staff member] had both sets of keys on her kitchen counter,” Durant said.

Durant said the van was vital to the school’s recreational programming. One event scheduled for this week is a sweat ceremony at One Arrow First Nation, and Durant said the school will now have to make new travel arrangements.

“These kids are let down so much with all the other things in their lives that we can’t control, so when we add to that by taking away programming that we know really feeds into what keeps them positive, keeps them hopeful, keeps them doing things, there’s always that risk you might lose them and not get them back,” Durant said.

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Durant said she received a phone call Sunday morning telling her the van was located north of Prince Albert near Gardiner Road, though she does not yet know what condition it is in.

“We’re scared if we have to go through SGI with this that they might actually look at writing it off,” she said. “We don’t have the budget to replace it.”

Won Ska School has access to a second 15-passenger van through an agreement with the Sask. Rivers School Division, Durant said, though the school division van can only be driven by a teacher, leading to scheduling issues. Durant said teachers also don’t work on weekends when most of Won Ska’s programming takes place.

This is not the first time the school has had issues with their van.  Just last month, Durant said someone drilled a hole in the gas tank to siphon gas. Moving forward this week, she said staff will do their best to find creative solutions.

No arrests have been made in connection with the theft, though Prince Albert police said the incident is under active investigation.

nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell