During her State of the City Addresses Thursday afternoon, Saskatoon Mayor Cynthia Block shared her excitement and pride about the city’s direction before over 250 people at TCU Place.
Block says in the last year, progress has been made on homelessness supports, infrastructure projects, relationship building, and economic prosperity- and reports from financial institutions echo that sentiment.
“Signal 49, Conference Board of Canada, The Fraser Institute, CMHC, all the big banks have come out with reporting that is super bullish on Saskatoon. They talk extensively about having what the world needs.”
However, she adds that more needs to be done when it comes to new funding models, intergovernmental collaboration, and the Downtown Event and Entertainment District, as major changes are still only in the discussion phase.
Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce CEO Jason Aebig says discussions are great, but there comes a time when action is required, especially when the future of the city is at stake.
“That conversation needs to happen, but we can’t have it forever. We can’t keep talking and debating. Somebody, somewhere is going to have to decide what kind of city we’re going to be.”
He encourages City Council to stop with the discussions and start taking action on some of the ‘big bold’ decisions that lie ahead, such as how to progress with the Downtown Event and Entertainment District. Both the Bus Rapid Transit system and the DEED have run into hiccups in recent months, with city council voting down both the 1st Avenue BRT Corridor blueprint and the agreement framework with OVG360 to manage the new arena and convention centre.
Speaking of which, Mayor Block also mentioned that she’s optimistic about ongoing DEED conversations with a different partner.
She says these conversations have her hopeful that this project can move forward while also being derisked, but she declined to reveal who those talks have been with.
Block noted that skepticism about the DEED isn’t anything new, and there has been public push-back prior to every major infrastructure change in Saskatoon’s history.
“This building, once Centennial Auditorium, was on the front page of the newspaper and everybody was screaming. ‘We don’t want this. It’s too much money. We can’t have this. These are stupid things for the City to spend money on.’ Could you imagine not having TCU Place for all these decades?”
Despite recent hiccups, she assured the crowd that both the Bus Rapid Transit System and the DEED will be moving forward.
