The provincial government caught a glimpse of the concerns of communities across the province at this week’s Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association Convention.
Some of those concerns, brought up during Wednesday’s Bear Pit session, included SaskTel-inflicted damages, a lack of teachers in northern Saskatchewan, the homelessness crisis, and a need for a federal infrastructure program. Norman McDonald, a councilor for town of Wolseley, spoke during Wednesday’s Q & A Bear Pit session with the premier and his cabinet.
“Municipalities have been seeking guidance in this forum on challenges posed by aging infrastructure and proactive strategies for mitigating the rising cost of aging infrastructure systems, along with a formal program to secure funding for this critical need across all municipalities, irrespective of size. When will this occur?”
Premier Scott Moe agreed, saying the upcoming federal election is a great opportunity to urge the new government for a stable, secure, cost-shared, flexible, federal program with a wide scope of use. He adds that the province will continue to advocate for exactly that.
Also, in the audience, familiar face Saskatoon City Councilor Robert Pearce took the opportunity to ask the province about the future of the Emergency Wellness Centre that he says has brought turmoil to Fairhaven.
“First, will this government honour their promise to reduce the beds in Fairhaven now that another shelter has been places, and will you work with the city to find replacement beds for those shelters. Secondly, will you consider replacing the operator, as more successful operators seem to be in place (elsewhere), and seem to be enjoying much more success?”
Despite a need for additional shelter spaces, Premier Scott Moe replied that the government is considering reducing the size of the Fairhaven shelter, however there are no plans to replace Saskatoon Tribal Council as the operator.
A shortage of workers in northern Saskatchewan was another concern brought up by delegates.
Mayor Rick Laliberte traveled from Beauval to attend the convention.
“We can’t fill the nurses’ positions. We can’t fill the teacher’s positions. Will you reinstate the NORTEP/NORPAC program?”
The Northern Teacher Education Program and Northern Professional Access College served the north for forty years before being canceled in 2017. Education Minister Everett Hindley says work has been done to hire professional recruiters to staff the Northern Light School Division, and efforts will continue to find unique solutions for the staffing shortage.
A town councilor from Stoughton says SaskTel caused nearly $200,000 in infrastructure damage while installing a fibre optics network in their community.
Chris Griffin also piped up during the Bear Pit session.
“They never made their presence known before tearing into our infrastructure. The damage has been substantial. Streets, alleys, cut up curbs. Anything they did repair was either minimally or left incomplete.”
Minister Responsible for Crown Corporations Jeremy Harrison says the unfortunate situation will be looked into, however the rural roll out of high-speed internet is an initiative the government is proud of, especially in towns as small as 600 people, such as Stoughton.
