Saskatoon Minute: Ballistics Lab, Hospital Equipment, and a Last Mayoral Address

Saskatoon Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Saskatoon politics

This Week In Saskatoon:

• It's a quiet week at City Hall, with no meetings of Council or Committees. In fact, the one meeting that was planned, a meeting of the Municipal Heritage Advisory Committee, was cancelled. The only other items on the municipal calendar for the week are hearings at the License Appeal Board and the Board of Revision.
  
  
• The City, the Saskatoon Police Service, and the Saskatoon Fire Department will be implementing new community safety initiatives amongst rising crime rates. These include adding five new Alternative Response Officers, six new Community Support Officers, and increasing patrols by commissionaires of the downtown, Confederation Mall, and Market Mall transit terminals, among other things. The City will also be exploring more options for shelters and additional access to public washrooms with 24-hour staffing and security.
  
  
• Saskatchewan’s first portable pediatric MRI machine will soon be in use at the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital. Prior to this, young patients would have to be taken to the Royal University Hospital, which was extremely taxing for those who are seriously ill. Now, the equipment can be brought directly to the hospital rooms of children two and older so that they can receive their scans without unnecessary movement and without being separated from parents and caregivers. This is one of the first machines of its type in Canada.

Last Week In Saskatoon:

• Mayor Charlie Clark gave the last “State of the City” address of his term - and of his career in municipal politics. The event was hosted by the Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce in an informal “fireside chat” style setting, with the Mayor appearing in a t-shirt under his sport coat. Mayor Clark reflected on his 18 years in municipal politics, with the last eight spent in the top job. He struck a positive tone, describing Saskatoon as a growing city that is “setting the bar for urban prairie living” despite the challenges of that growth - crime, social disorder, and rising homelessness.
  
  
• A new provincial ballistics lab opened in Saskatoon with the goal of accelerating the pace of investigations and trials, since federal labs are very backed up. This lab will serve police services all across Saskatchewan. Previously, samples had to be sent away to RCMP labs in Surrey or Ottawa, which serve the entire country and sometimes had turnaround times of up to 24 months. This led to significant delays that could hinder or stop a trial process as individuals in remand can only wait for a limited time before they must go through their legal proceedings or be released. The new lab is hoping for turnaround times of 15 to 30 days, and also includes a range to test firearms that are collected as evidence. For now, the lab is located within the Saskatoon Police Service headquarters, but it will receive its own facility in the future.
  
  
• Doug Wegren, a 25-year veteran of the Saskatoon Fire Department, has been appointed as the City’s new Fire Chief, succeeding the retired Morgan Hackl. Wegren, who started as a firefighter and emergency medical technician in 1999, has held various roles within the department, including Assistant Chief and Acting Fire Chief. Wegren expressed his commitment to collaborative leadership and meeting the evolving needs of Saskatoon's community, emphasizing his excitement to lead the dedicated team in providing emergency response services.