Kindersley is a town surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Kindersley No. 290 in west-central

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

, Canada. It is located along Highway 7, a primary highway linking

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

and

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

, at its junction with Highway 21. With a population of 4,567 in 2021, it is an established industrial base for the resource-rich west-central region of the province and a service centre to the oil and gas industry and agriculture production.

History

Kindersley was incorporated in 1910, and named after Sir

Robert Kindersley Robert Molesworth Kindersley, 1st Baron Kindersley (21 November 1871 – 20 July 1954) was an English businessman, stockbroker, merchant banker, and public servant who organised the National Savings Movement. Background Kindersley was born i ...

, Governor of the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

(1915–25) and a major shareholder in the

Canadian Northern Railway The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic Canada, Canadian transcontinental railway. At its 1923 merger into the Canadian National Railway , the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonto ...

, which was nationalized and amalgamated into

Canadian National Railways The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue an ...

in 1918. Canadian Northern had made Kindersley a divisional point on its line between Saskatoon and Calgary. In 2016, having sustained a population of more than 5,000 for several years (meeting the provincial criteria), the town of Kindersley applied to the province of Saskatchewan for city status. Although official census information from 2011 indicated an official population below 5,000, the town disputed the accuracy of those numbers. As of 2022, city status has yet to be granted, and as noted below the official federal census for 2021 shows its population still below the 5,000 threshold.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...

, Kindersley had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Climate

Kindersley experiences a

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of se ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

'' BSk''). Winters are long, cold and dry, while summers are short and warm. Precipitation is low, with an annual average of 325 mm, and is heavily concentrated in the warmer months. The highest temperature ever recorded in Kindersley was on 5 July 1937. The coldest temperature ever recorded was on 30 January 1969. The record one-day rainfall is 77.2 mm (3 inches) on July 6, 1991. The record one-day snowfall is 21 cm (8.3 inches) on December 27, 1990.

Economy

The Bakken shale oil and gas play, driven by

hydraulic fracturing Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, fracing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of Formation (geology), formations in bedrock by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the ...

technologies, has contributed to Kindersley's economy since 2009. Kindersley sells its treated municipal wastewater to a local oilfield service company to use in hydraulic fracturing.

Kindersley Regional Park

Kindersley Regional Park (), founded in 1968, is located on the south side of Kindersley at Motherwell Reservoir. Amenities at the park include a campground, golf course, hiking trails, ball diamonds, fishing, and a picnic area. Non-motorised boats are permitted on the reservoir. The campground has 45 campsites with 30 amp service and six sites with 15 amps for tenting. The golf course is a 9-hole, grass greens course. It is a par 36 with a total of 3,127 yards.

Events

Annual events in Kindersley include the Indoor Rodeo and Trade Show in June and the four-day Goose Festival in September, among numerous sports and cultural activities throughout the rest of the year. Kindersley was chosen as the launch site for the da Vinci Project, Canada's entry to win the

Ansari X Prize The Ansari X Prize was a space competition in which the X Prize Foundation offered a US$10,000,000 () prize for the first non-government organization to launch a reusable crewed spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. It was modeled af ...

. The flight was scheduled for October 2004, but circumstances related to the project prevented the flight from taking place. Kindersley celebrated its 100th birthday in 2010.

Education

Kindersley has three schools, all operating within the Sun West School Division. Westberry is an elementary school, Elizabeth is a middle school and the Kindersley Composite School is 9-12. There is also a regional college at the Great Plains Regional College location.

Sports

Kindersley is home to a full-service 9-hole golf course; two world class, fully irrigated baseball diamonds; a 3/8 mile dirt oval speedway, and the West Central Events Centre (WCEC), with two ice surfaces and a curling rink. The WCEC is home to the local SJHL Klippers hockey team. Part of the WCEC, an older arena called Exhibition Stadium, was destroyed by fire on January 8, 2010. Kindersley has also hosted many sporting events including the 1984 World Youth Baseball Championships, 1990 Men's Provincial Curling Championship, 1994 Saskatchewan Winter Games, 1997 Canadian Mixed Curling Championships, 2001 Men's Provincial Curling Championships, 2007 Provincial Mixed Curling Championships, 2008 Junior Men's and Women's Provincial Curling Championships, 2009 and 2010 Baseball Canada Cup and the 2010 Provincial Scotties Tournament of Hearts (the tournament was moved to

Eston Eston is a former industrial town in the Redcar and Cleveland unitary area of North Yorkshire, England. It is part of Greater Eston, which includes the outlying settlements of Grangetown, North Yorkshire, Grangetown, Normanby, Redcar and Clevel ...

because of the fire on January 8, 2010). The arena also hosted Team Canada's World Juniors for the 1991 World Junior Championships in Saskatoon. They used the rink as a practice facility and it was also the venue for a game between Czechoslovakia and Switzerland. The most recent event was the 2014 World Jr. A Challenge put on by Hockey Canada that displayed the best Jr. A players from around the world. Teams from Canada, USA, Russia, Switzerland and Denmark participated

Media

Local media includes The Kindersley Clarion, a weekly newspaper owned by Jamac Publishing Ltd., and two radio stations owned by

Golden West Broadcasting Golden West Broadcasting Ltd. is a Canadian radio and digital media company based in Altona, Manitoba. It is the largest independent radio broadcaster in Canada. The company primarily operates small-market radio stations and internet portals in ...

: CKVX 104.9 FM and CFYM 1210 AM.

Notable people

* Bob Bourne — ice hockey * Derek Dorsett — ice hockey * John-James Ford — writer * Curtis Glencross — ice hockey * Glenda Goertzen — author * Gordon Hahn (1919–2001) — California politician, born in Kindersley * Dave Lewis — National Hockey League coach * Greg Paslawski — ice hockey

References

Notes

External links

* * {{Authority control Kindersley No. 290, Saskatchewan Towns in Saskatchewan Division No. 13, Saskatchewan