There was not a lot of Earth-shattering news in Yorkton, but all in all 2015 was a good year for the city.
It was a year that saw the opening of the new Parkland College Trades and Technology Centre, the announcement of a 1.7 billion expansion of Mosaic’s potash mine at Esterhazy and the start of construction on a new, expanded home for Maple Farm equipment, all developments that portend huge economic benefit for the city and region.
In a year that saw declining fortunes at the provincial level due to the tanking of the oil and gas economy, Yorkton, with its diversified economic base, fared pretty well.
We also did well on the tourism front hosting two national, elite sports competitions the Canadian Junior Girls Golf Championship in August and the Grand Slam of Curling Canadian Open this month.
Also, just this week, Yorkton advanced to the final of the SnoRiders Magazine Sled Town Showdown, an accomplishment that solidifies the area’s position as a Mecca for snowmobiling.
It was not all good news, of course. Sunrise Health Region lost its laundry facility with the Province’s decision to privatize and centralize the service in Regina.
Municipal property taxpayers also continued to bear an increasing burden with rate increases that far outpace inflation and wages given declining oil revenues and lack of infrastructure support from higher levels of government.
As with all things, you take the good with the bad and hope that on balance the ledger reads in your favour.
On balance it is fairly safe to say, we fared better than a lot of other places in sluggish economic times.
Looking forward to 2016, the big news is likely going to be the elections at the provincial and municipal levels. But even though the beginning of the new terms are likely going to occur under more austere conditions than the current Legislature and City Council faced, even those stories will probably prove anti-climactic.
We are not likely to see much change at either level.
The Saskatchewan Party appears poised to repeat as a majority. In lieu of a complete disaster or scandal, it will be an uphill battle for the NDP to unseat Brad Wall, who is arguably the most popular Conservative in the country and in what is now is certainly the most Conservative province.
As Alberta, Quebec, B.C. and the federal Liberal Party have shown us, however, anything is possible in politics. Cam Broten take note.
On the municipal front, with Bob Maloney seeking a second term as mayor, it is difficult to imagine an effective challenge being mounted unless it comes from one of the other sitting councillors. Incumbency is an advantage at any level of politics, but municipally it is virtually a guarantee.
Barring the unpredictable, 2016 promises to be a pretty status quo year.
