Lloydminster, and there was one topic that dominated - infrastructure. The mayors of this province are frustrated about infrastructure and the impending need to replace and repair much of it, and the goal of the caucus was to organize and lobby all levels of government to push for the priorities of urban municipalities.
Yorkton's Mayor Bob Maloney says the cities are all facing the same problem, and that's crumbling infrastructure that needs to be replaced or rebuilt. With the cities growing and the last major infrastructure improvement often being decades previous, work needs to be done, but the funds to actually do it are more difficult to access and reduced in number.
"The problem we're facing is that the provincial and federal governments used to play a much bigger role than they are now. While they are able to cut taxes, and I give them credit for that, we're not in that situation. We've got crumbling roads and a lot of work that needs to be done and it costs a lot of money. The cost of asphalt for example is going up thirty per cent year over year, one and two and three per cent increases are not going to pay for that. The cities are all in the same boat, I know there are bridges in Saskatoon and Prince Albert, and roads in Regina, and it's something we all need to address." For Yorkton, it's the roads that are the primary issue, with the multi-year project to rebuild Broadway that is currently being planned. Maloney says uncertainty about funding formulas and how to access programs like the Build Canada fund have meant that some work has begun just to make it usable.
Part of the blame for that is on the excessively cold winter, but it is still just catching up while the serious problems need to be fixed.
"We had hoped to get some funding for Broadway, but as you can see we've started to do repairs because we had to," Maloney says.
There is a high level of frustration among the city mayors as they struggle to pay for their infrastructure needs with a limited budget and limited support from levels of government. "Mayors and cities are pressured to be restrained in raising taxes, the province wants to fuel growth I can understand that and I would love to not raise taxes, but the reality is that if you don't fix problems they don't get better, they get worse, and then the fixed costs go up. I think cities are frustrated because we're having to be the bad guys, we're the ones who have to raise taxes. The federal government has downloaded a lot to provinces and it continues, and the province has increased funding to us, but the funding we're getting is not keeping pace with our expenses."
The cities represent a large percentage of the people in the province, Maloney says, both residents and those who use the cities for services. The mayor's caucus is vital just because the combined voices of the mayors represent the majority of the province's population. He says that mayors are frustrated by the difficulty of being able to get projects off the ground.
"We expect to pay our own way, and if the community wants something we will get it done and tax appropriately. Where the problem lies is there is no cheap way to get a lot of this work done, they are expensive projects, they are big projects, and we really need partners to help. The provincial government has stepped up, and the federal government has stepped away. We may get a grant and we may not, we never know, and you can't budget for a grant you don't know if you're going to get. The Build Canada fund, we're still waiting for details, and I understand that those details may not be available until the fall, and this construction season is pretty much done."
The caucus did have the opportunity to meet with federal officials and discuss their problems, but Maloney says that the prevailing mood was a sense of frustration at the difficulty of getting the much needed infrastructure off the ground.
