SUMA place to present issues

Yorkton Mayor James Wilson said this year's Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association annual conference was more notable for the side meeting the City was able to hold than for the business carried out on the convention floor.

Wilson said when he first joined city council and attended SUMA functions there seemed a lot of issues where on the table, usually resulting in dozens of resolutions being debated and voted on. This year there were only a handful.

However, Wilson said that does not diminish the importance of the SUMA event, since it helps facilitate one-on-one meetings between the City and provincial officials.

"We made a point of meeting with ministers one-on-one," he said.

One of those meetings was with the provincial Minister of Health Don McMorris. Wilson said the recently unveiled conceptual plan for a new health centre clearly shows a need, and while construction is not imminent, it is important to start a dialogue with the province.

"We wanted to identify some things that were on our minds," he said,

Leading the questions was the one surrounding the cost to the local region, estimated at around $60 million if the conceptual plan as outlined were to move forward.

"There's a considerable cost of dollars," said Wilson, adding "we can't afford it today."

So the question becomes how the City might work with the province and other municipalities in the region to fund the local cost-share.

"What we're trying to do is open a dialogue with the Minister to get a different perspective on how we can raise the funds," said Wilson, adding "we're not disputing the fact we have to build a hospital at some time." The question is how to make the local contribution affordable.

As an example, Wilson said the province might fund it up front, with the local community paying it back over several decades, in essence allowing the future users to have a hand in paying for the facility.

Wilson said he and Council also met with Saskatchewan's Advanced Education, Employment and Immigration Minister Rob Norris regarding the new trade and technology centre being planned by Parkland College.

As in the case of health, education is a provincial responsibility, not municipal, but Wilson said Council knows it must play a role.

"We've become the catalyst on this," he said, adding something with such obvious benefit to the city as the education centre "we have to have a stake in it."

Wilson said in meeting Norris they were simply looking for a way "to bring it to fruition."

Not all the meetings were with the province. Wilson said they met with representatives from Humboldt to get some first-hand information on the impact the new BHP Billiton potash mine development is having on the community in terms of land use for housing, as well as things such as impact on policing, social services, health services and education.

"SUMA gives us the opportunity to sit down and have these dialogues," he said.