Balcarres

Town, pop 622, located NE of Fort Qu’Appelle and served by Hwys 10, 22, and 310. Settlers, mainly of British origin, began arriving in the area in advance of the CPR in the early 1880s. In 1884 the Balcarres post office was established, named after the postmaster in Indian Head, from where the mail was hauled. In 1903, the CPR was working westward north of the Qu’Appelle Valley, and the townsite of Balcarres was established. Today the economic base of the Balcarres area remains agriculture, and a number of the town’s businesses and services cater to the industry. Terminal 22, just west of Balcarres on Hwy 10, is a 50/50 joint-venture grain company comprised of local area farmers and Cargill Limited; a state-of-the-art facility, it has a storage capacity of 32,000 tonnes, the ability to handle over 400,000 annually, and can load 112 rail cars with product cleaned and ready for export. It is the first inland facility in western Canada to be certified under internationally recognized standards. Just to the northeast of Balcarres, four First Nations communities (Little Black Bear, Star Blanket, Okanese, and Peepeekisis) occupy a large block of land and, with a combined population of over 900, contribute to the town’s economy and social fabric. Balcarres has a large modern hospital, a special care home, an RCMP detachment, and Balcarres School, which provides K-12 Education to close to 500 students.

David McLennan