Estevan's city council is looking at the possibility of putting in new AED (automated external defibrillator) stations around the city.

At Monday's council meeting, an offer from Cardiac Safe Communities on their SaveStations, which contain AEDs in public places such as parks.

Cardiac Safe Communities also offered a pre-applied grant for installing the station, covering the cost of the SaveStation unit, the AED, and its monitoring over the next four years.

That sparked a discussion on what spaces could use more coverage, with Mayor Roy Ludwig learning from Program Manager Erin Wilson that there were 22 devices actively across the city.

He says there were some concerns from councillors on what exactly the grant would entail.

"Here's an opportunity and I know council's all read this and they will do a lot of the groundwork and get them in place. I know Councillor Walliser had questions about after this period, is it 3-4 years and maybe we have to find out what is the catch. Do we have to pay them a monthly fee for this AED that will be going in? Will it be cost-prohibitive? I'm not sure, they don't mention that, but if you like, we can get further information, maybe for the next meeting comes to port." 

Councillor Rebecca Foord also brought up a question of what kinds of costs to the grant writers the city might be incurring.

"I also have a question about the cost. I know this is a very specific grant and a lot of the time, grant writers ask for a percentage of what a project costs. So I'm just wondering if the lady who reached out to us, she had said, you know well, I'll complete 95% of the application for you, are we required to pay her a fee or a percentage of that? That's my biggest question." 

Councillor Shelley Veroba also questioned exactly where an AED station would best suit the city,

"Where can we just get information on where exactly we would put it in Estevan because we already have quite a few of them, we have one in every one of our facilities, I believe other local businesses have them. I just was concerned about exactly the sort of cost factor, but also where we put it and if there's a problem in the other communities already have them with somebody damaging them, because if they're just in the middle of a park somewhere that could happen too."

The council then made a motion which passed to ask Cardiac Safe Communities more questions and to find out where the best spot would be for an AED machine as well as talking with other communities that have seen them put in.