YORKTON - Yorkton Mayor Mitch Hippsley suggests the recent SUMA convention ended up being about a positive outlook for the province.
“It was really neat to see how people were engaged with each other,” he said Thursday, noting that the 1,100 in attendance appeared eager to connect face-to-face for the first time in four years. “... I noticed they really wanted to share information.”
Hippsley said COVID had put a damper on sharing information, and this year everything just seemed to be generally positive.
For example, Hippsley said he was told the City of Regina captures methane from its landfill using it to create electricity.
“We’re (Yorkton), a big enough landfill to investigate that,” he said.
That included a presentation by Premier Scott Moe that suggested the province’s economy was doing very well, noted Hippsley.
Of course that did have many at SUMA doing some lobbying for a bigger share of the provincial good times in terms of finances. Hippsley said that included suggesting it was time that the revenue sharing formula with municipalities was readjusted back to one per cent of provincial sales tax revenue as originally designed. It was subsequently trimmed to 0.75 per cent by the province.
“That’s something that’s ongoing,” he said of the lobby effort.
Hippsley said municipalities would also like to see the PST on labour associated with municipal projects waived, something that could, for example, cost the City of Yorkton hundreds of thousands on a project like the planned redo of York Road.
Another positive from the Premier was the province’s population which is up to 1.2 million, with the highest rate of growth since the 1940s, said Hippsley.
While growth numbers are positive, it does put added pressure on housing, and Hippsley said that is part of the concern in three inter-related areas of mental health, addictions and homelessness, that was much discussed. He added there have been some moves made – for example government supported rents going direct to landlords again – but more need to be done.
Health care remained another topic of discussion, noting Moe spoke of the province recruiting 400 new nurses and adding new EMS and nurse training spots.
“I think they are addressing that problem,” he said.
While feeling there was a general positive feeling at the convention, Hippsley added there weren’t any announcements that he was bringing back to Yorkton that were immediate in nature.
“There was positive things, but nothing specific. It will take some patience,” he said. “... But I can feel it.”
