AI has a long way to go
This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. Our news poll question is do you trust AI? I don't. Just Google something and see the Ai answer. It aggregates possibles which are quite often not what I am looking for or too generalized to give the full picture. Not. At. All. Reliable. I don't know if you heard about thi...
Dec 03, 2025
Tax hikes are set, and Saskatoon residents are digging deeper to pay them
BHP has made Saskatoon its North American headquarters. The announcement was made recently after the mining giant moved from its office on 3rd Avenue South to River Quarry in downtown Saskatoon, which is the old police station. Cameco, the second largest uranium mining company in the world has its headquarters in Sas...
Dec 01, 2025
Not on the app bandwagon yet
I'm Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. I am not going to whitewash it - I dislike apps in general, and I hate banking apps. I do not have a banking app on my phone, and I don't plan to have one anytime soon. I have nothing but admiration for folks older than me, seniors with some significant amount of living in the rear...
Nov 28, 2025
Just "be kind" may be the best motto anyone could adopt
This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. So, if this doesn't put you in the Christmas spirit, I don't know what would. I follow the Facebook site "Warman, Osler, Martensville and area Buy and Sell" just because apparently, I need to acquire more stuff. Regardless, a gentleman posted about a lost purse. But n...
Nov 26, 2025
Even the smallest gesture to help those in need is worth the time and effort
I was actually surprised that so few people would not report an encampment in their community. That was our News Poll question. Which because of the need for brevity, tends to make a complex issue more black and white than it is. I was among the 18 per cent who would not report an encampment, but I based that on it not...
Nov 21, 2025
I'd say credit monitoring a necessity in this day and age
This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. I have to admit I was a little taken aback by the number of people who do not use a credit monitoring service. That was our newspoll question earlier this week and 89 per cent said they don't use one. I do - by happenstance - because a company I dealt with had information of it...
Nov 19, 2025
I still feel the need for a provincial bus service
This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. So the only way for my husband and I to enjoy watching the Grey Cup with my Mom is either I take a day off and see it at her place or we go get her. Bless my husband, he drove the just over two hours it takes to get Moose Jaw and then turned around and came right back. It's a l...
Nov 17, 2025
Catalogues and Christmas
This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. I have to admit one of my probably odd pleasures in life is going through actual physical flyers. And even more so - a catalogue because I grew up in the era of the Sears Christmas Wishbook. A much-cherished book of all the things a little girl's heart could dream of. There are...
Nov 14, 2025
Mother Nature's light show
This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. I was en route to being early to work today but then Mother Nature decided to show off. Social media is ablaze with photographs, including my own, of the aurora borealis. It appears the "lady" was dancing all night long north to south not just in Western Canada but...
Nov 12, 2025
Remembrance Day is more than a stat holiday
This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. Remembrance Day tomorrow is near and dear for me and my family. My father was a cop, my mother was in the Navy, my brother in the Canadian Airborne regiment and my husband spent 26 years in the Canadian forces serving six tours of duty overseas. I find it heartening to hear the...
Nov 10, 2025
Winter is here
This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. I don't know why the first snowfall always seems to catch everyone off guard. I say that in context of driving in winter weather. It's like it something no one ever tried or mastered in the past. Just drive to conditions. For instance, I left my alley this morning and made...
Nov 07, 2025
Hopefully Mark Carney has a crystal ball
So, the federal budget. That's a doozy of a number. A 78.3-billion-dollar deficit is the amount of money spent by the government beyond its revenues - for this fiscal year. The budget limits areas of spending and includes competitiveness, trade diversification, defence and housing, rather than a broader focus encompa...
Nov 05, 2025
Let's not go back to the polls anytime soon
This is Vanese Ferguson with Our newspoll question asks if you'd like a Christmas election. The results are a little too close for my taste. Which is how I think another election would go. Bottom line is western Canada, which will go heavily Conservative, just doesn't have the votes to counter Liberal support down ...
Nov 03, 2025
Halloween or Game 6 for the Blue Jays
This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. Halloween has never been a big deal for me. My parents owned a corner store for part of my growing up years so going door to door to get candy wasn't as big a draw as you'd think. Plus, it was a family run small business which meant there was never a lot of time for costume pre...
Oct 31, 2025
Reducing our waste footprint
This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. I have embraced the concept of shopping at consignment stores mainly because of the extraordinary amount of waste of textiles. A 2023 study by the University of Waterloo indicates that Canadians dispose of nearly 500 million kilograms of fabric each year. This includes clothing...
Oct 29, 2025


























