MOOSE JAW — City hall has been operating on reduced hours since the pandemic occurred in March 2020, but one city councillor wants to expand the building’s hours so residents have more time to conduct business.
During the recent regular city council meeting, Coun. Carla Delaurier submitted a notice of motion requesting that city hall resume in-person public business hours from 8:15 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday aside from statutory holidays, with this change going into effect Wednesday, July 2.
Also, since the commissionaires provide security, she moved that the source of funding to cover these extra costs come from vacancies and procurement savings of $17,500.
Council will discuss this notice of motion during its next regular meeting on Monday, May 26.
City hall’s hours were from 8:15 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday before the pandemic, but changed during the crisis, and in May 2021, the city said in a news release that the building’s hours would permanently remain from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Past requests
Council has received requests from residents since then for city hall to revert to its pre-pandemic hours, including Carolyn Ross with the Good Neighbours Group (GNG), who spoke to council in May 2024.
Moose Jaw is the fourth largest municipality in Saskatchewan and has the fewest number of accessible hours at any city hall, she said. Furthermore, out of 53 cities, towns and villages that the GNG researched, The Friendly City has the fewest hours accessible to the public, second only to Morse, which has a population of 240.
“Every city hall and municipal office has returned to regular business hours, with the exception of Moose Jaw,” Ross added.
Fewer customers
During that same meeting, then-Coun. Kim Robinson asked why city hall hadn’t returned to regular hours, with city manager Maryse Carmichael pointing back to the news release.
She extrapolated by saying one-third fewer residents were coming to city hall for business than before, likely because more people were going online to pay parking tickets or access the services they needed. She also noted that city hall is open over lunchtime, while many small businesses aren’t, so it is meeting citizens’ needs.
Asked whether there was a significant cost to extending hours, Carmichael said it’s important for city employees to be as productive and efficient as possible throughout the day.
“The customer service reps we have downstairs use the first hour and forty-five minutes before city hall’s doors are open to do some of the work — either cash in or cash out — and also to do some of the work from online transactions we see overnight,” she said, adding employees spend the last hour of the day finishing tasks.
Before the pandemic occurred, administration began modernizing how it assisted residents and businesses intending to provide efficient, accessible and convenient services, she said. The pandemic accelerated those changes, as the city offered more online access to services, gave staff greater remote work capabilities and reduced in-person public access.
Carmichael noted that there are several advantages to offering services online, including convenience, cost efficiency, the ability to reach larger audiences, accessibility, speed, flexibility and data management.
If city hall extended its hours to 8:15 a.m. to 5 p.m., the cost to have commissionaires would be $1,495 monthly or $17,943 annually, while extending hours to 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. would cost $822 and $9,869, respectively, she added.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, May 26.
