As the new mayor of Battleford, Ames Leslie had something in common with many elected officials at SUMA this year.
Some 30 per cent of the mayors and councillors attending the convention were newly elected. But while Leslie was new to the mayor’s chair, the Battleford delegation at TCU Place was an experienced one.
Re-elected councillors Gordon Yarde, Doug Laing, Susan McLean-Tady and Shelley Boutin-Gervais were all at SUMA, with Judy Pruden, who was elected in the fall, being the lone rookie at the table.
While Leslie has been at SUMA before as a councillor, he did notice some differences this time as a new mayor.
“It definitely opens the door for a lot more networking and conversations with mayors that have been here for years, or just the same as me starting out.”
Networking with officials from other municipalities was an important priority for Leslie and his colleagues at this convention.
“It’s always nice to find some colleagues who have the same mindset or same struggles within the municipal government,” said Leslie. “It gives them somebody to reach out to and help get through the situations they’re struggling through themselves.”
Leslie was also interested in some of the resolutions on the table. Leslie was watching the resolution put forward by Regina Beach to advocate that the PST be exempted for firefighting equipment.
“The PST on fire equipment is definitely one that can help save each municipality a lot of money if we can get that passed.”
As well, Leslie was interested in the resolution before the convention on disaster relief. One sought clarification from the federal and provincial governments as to why the National Disaster Mitigation Program was not available to Saskatchewan communities.
“Hopefully, we can get the government to adopt both of those,” the mayor said.
Leslie had his thoughts as well on the address by Premier Brad Wall on the deficit.
“He definitely emphasized that the deficit is not going away anytime soon, and emphasized that each one of us in the municipal governments and in the province are going to have our part in reducing that deficit.”
The alarming piece, he said, was that the premier didn’t address whether the municipal revenue sharing percentage was changing. Leslie made it known he didn’t want to see municipalities bear any more of the burden.
“Hopefully we can keep it so the provincial government is paying their share and it’s not coming from the taxpayers of Battleford, or the city of North Battleford,” said Leslie.
