The two mayors from the Battlefords - Ian Hamilton of North Battleford and Derek Mahon of Battleford - were busy representing their municipalities at the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association convention in Saskatoon.
Both mayors and several councillors from the two communities attended convention where representatives from Saskatchewan's urban municipalities gathered to network, talk about issues of importance and get their message out about what they want to see as priorities.
The Sunday session included a meeting of the City Mayor's Caucus that Hamilton attended, and Monday included speeches from Premier Brad Wall and Minister of Government Relations Jim Reiter.
A few issues at the convention left an impression on Hamilton. One was the issue of the distribution formula for urban and rural municipalities.
"We're talking about municipal operating grant distribution formulas between the urban and rural municipalities," said Hamilton.
"That decision will be made by them as to the distribution formula, and that will be announced by them at budget time or prior to budget time."
The other big issue, which Hamilton noted was of most concern to his city, was on the subject of infrastructure funding and "how are we going to deal with our infrastructure deficit going forward."
He referred to the speech given Monday by Karen Leibovici, president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, who outlined the need for what Hamilton described as a "predictable, sustainable, long term and flexible funding formula."
Hamilton said he wanted to see that in place so municipalities can "plan for long-term projects as opposed to reacting to a short-term government program." He wanted to see the federal, provincial and municipal levels of government all contributing. "We all know it's a huge burden for the citizens of Canada."
As for hopes that the federal government will come up with a new infrastructure funding program to replace the Building Canada fund in 2014, Hamilton expressed optimism that will happen. He said he was reassured by the comments from Reiter.
Still, Hamilton expressed his desire that the program be in agreement with the provinces and the municipalities.
"If it's created unilaterally, I'm not as confident that it's going to be a satisfactory one."
He said ad hoc funding was not the way to go and said this represented an "opportunity to get it right."
For Mahon, the convention was his first as mayor of Battleford. In fact there were many new faces representing cities, towns and villages at the convention, including several from Battleford.
Councillors David George, Gordon Yarde and Doug Laing were at the Monday sessions representing Battleford while Shelley Boutin-Gervais and Ames Leslie were on hand for some of the Sunday sessions, Mahon noted.
Leaving a similar impression on him were the speeches by Wall and Reiter, as well as by the FCM president and others. An obvious issue of concern for Mahon was long-term infrastructure and how to pay for it - a topic with which he is familiar.
"It's something I've been involved in all of my life," said Mahon. "I come from an engineering-technology background, so infrastructure, we're all aware of what the condition is."
He noted there "needs to be infrastructure renewal from time to time. That's something we hope to move forward." Mahon is also confident money will come from upper levels of government to help on these items.
Mahon also noted that another big issue at the convention involved the distribution discussions between SUMA and SARM, but he noted the Town has not been involved in those discussions.
Mahon also took away from the convention the "positive message" of the whole province. "When you talk to individuals at the food line up and that sort of thing, they're pretty positive, the province is growing and everybody's just managing the growth."
One of the people who promoted a message of positivity at length was Darci Lang, the keynote speaker during Monday's session at SUMA.
Her motivational speech centred on how people should "focus on the 90 per cent," to focus on the positive and to not dwell on negative thoughts or let those thoughts dominate their outlook on life.
She took questions from the floor, and one of those who appreciated what Lang had to say was Battleford councillor Gordon Yarde, who went before the microphones to say a positive approach was something he tries to do.
"The thing I've learned - get involved, encourage other people to get involved, and be positive in attitudes," said Yarde, who said he would take that message back to Battleford and "encourage people everywhere, just be positive."
