Yorkton’s new edition Council is settling into their roles, at least the five new faces should be starting to feel comfortable in their chamber chairs.
The first couple of meetings since the October election have been pretty much exercises in housekeeping, something which actually takes up the vast majority of in chamber meetings.
The fact the workload has been limited makes sense. A Council on the eve of an election every four years should not be leaving major decisions on the table that a new group needs to vote on within a few days of being elected.
It probably should be one of the processes better regulated in fact.
At the federal and provincial levels once an election is called, work for both stops. It should be the same at the local level as the platform of open Council meetings in the weeks after the nominations open do give incumbents an advantage for visibility on the campaign trail.
After an election, a Council, at least one with as many new faces as the one in Yorkton, has to get itself on a course before beginning to make big decisions.
The timing of municipal elections is interesting in that regard.
Yorkton Councils in recent years have worked hard at inking the City’s annual budgets earlier and earlier. Members of Council and City Administration have often pointed out that an early budget allows early tendering of projects for the largest number of responses and better prices.
In an election year the process has a natural drag placed in it. The new Council needs to settle in and give its new direction and priorities to Administration before they can crunch out the actual document to be considered.
Granted there is limited wiggle room in a local budget, but there is a direction Council needs to set.
This Council will face an interesting process in coming weeks.
With a province foundering under a growing deficit what that may mean to transfers to municipalities is at best uncertain at this point. Certainly the Wall government is bailing at the red ink in multiple ways, hiring freezes, government employee wage freezes, health care funding cuts, all being examples.
Issues with the property tax rates based on findings of the Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency have also impacted revenues as property owners have turned to the appeal process which have tended toward favouring the property owners. Such issues of revenue may well tighten the wiggle room of this Council even more, leaving a new face group having limited ways to affect much change in terms of spending.
