Saskatchewan municipalities discussed various issues with the provincial government at the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) convention in Saskatoon.
Read more: Lloydminster council heads to SUMA
The convention, which ran from April 13 to 16, featured dialogue with SUMA, excursions around Saskatoon, education sessions and a reception. Sector meetings were also held with a Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) address and addresses by the premier and the leader of the official opposition.
For Coun. Justin Vance, it was an opportunity to network with other municipalities.
“It was such a great experience and getting to make connections with various types of council members, mayors, MLA’s, just trying to put Lloydminster on the map and telling everybody what we’re doing and all the exciting things happening in our city,” he said.
A highlight for Vance was the trade show.
“The trade show was cool, a lot of different booths set up there to see what different people are doing in different cities, as far as road paving,” he said.
“(I) learned a lot about different methods of cement injections or different kinds of netting to make the road stronger.”
Throughout the event, Vance worked to make the most of his time.
“It’s only a four or five-day event, so you’ve got to pile it up pretty quickly and make all the connections you can,” he said. “I really enjoyed it.”
Various events, including the bear pit, allowed council to ask direct questions to the provincial government.
“The bear pit session was quite fun. Right at the last day we had the whole cabinet and premier up on the stage and you get to ask direct questions right to the provincial government about issues your communities’ facing,” said Vance. “It’s nice you can hold the government to account and answer those questions.”
There were some key topics council focused on when it came to advocating to the government.
“It was a little bit about policing funding, especially from the Saskatchewan government. We’d like to see provincial funding from the Saskatchewan government for police, so we tried to advocate for that,” said Vance.
Homelessness remains an issue the city is looking to address.
“On all levels, homelessness and addictions,” said Vance. “There was a keynote speaker on Tuesday that spoke about the addiction and homelessness we’re facing and how we can look to help those people address this issue. That’s near and dear to our community.
“We want to look at all options to help mitigate that.”
Council resumes at their next meeting on April 28.
Read more: Council gets quarterly document update
