Saskatoon Minute: Issue 124

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

📅 This Week In Saskatoon: 📅

• On Wednesday at 9:30 am, the Governance and Priorities Committee will meet, and among the items on its agenda is a request from Administration to exempt the sale of naming rights for the Shaw Centre from several requirements in the City's sponsorship policy. The exceptions would let Administration and its consultant, The Superlative Group, approach potential sponsors without first bringing a concept report to City Council listing the assets for sale, their market value, the proposed term, the potential sponsors, and the benefits offered. They would also allow naming deals to run longer than the 10-year limit the policy now sets, with contracts of up to 25 years possible and 15 years described as the industry standard. Administration recommends that any details on market value and prospective sponsors be shared with Council in private rather than in public. The City has had no naming sponsor for the building since its agreement with Shaw Communications, worth $86,667 a year, expired in 2022, and a 2024 request for proposals drew no submissions. Any final naming agreement would still return to Council for approval before it is signed.
  
  
• Also on Wednesday's Governance and Priorities Committee agenda, Councillor Randy Donauer is giving notice of a motion to recommend that City Council remove the funding stream behind Saskatoon's public art program. Under the current policy, civic building projects costing $5 million or more must set aside up to 1% of their budget, to a maximum of $500,000, for public art. The move follows public criticism of the Modern Erratics project, three sculptures installed in June at the Material Recovery Centre, Diefenbaker Park, and Forestry Farm Park that were built from recycled grain bags, bottle caps, and shredded garbage carts. An Administration report before the Committee states the sculptures cost $297,490, drawn from the $37.5 million budget for the recovery centre. The report notes the works were chosen through a juried process run by the City's Public Art Advisory Committee. 
  
  
• The Governance and Priorities Committee will also receive a report on Wednesday confirming that the City Clerk's Office will conduct a by-election on October 28th for the public school board. The vote will fill the Ward 5 trustee seat on the Saskatoon Public Schools board, which became vacant at the end of June. Nominations open on September 9th and close on September 23rd, with an advance poll on October 21st. The City is running the election as a contractor for the school division, and its costs will be recovered from the division rather than charged to City taxpayers.
  
  
• A City Council committee voted unanimously to defer the removal of 25 downtown benches that Administration and the Downtown Saskatoon business improvement district had recommended taking out over safety and sanitation concerns. Councillor Jasmin Parker, who represents the downtown, won support to leave the benches in place until September 2027, except any found to be damaged or unsafe. Of the 220 benches downtown, the business district had flagged 34 as problem spots tied to disorder, public safety, and cleanliness. The City received 24 letters about the plan, all opposed, though no one appeared to speak against it. Sara Wheelwright, chair of the Downtown Saskatoon board, warned that businesses would face another summer of the same problems and that the benches would keep deteriorating without money for maintenance. 
  
  
• The City has abandoned a plan to rezone a site at Ruth Street and Broadway Avenue for a 25-unit affordable housing building after opposition from Avalon neighbourhood residents worried about density, traffic, and parking. Councillor Holly Kelleher, who represents the area and had originally backed the project, said residents supported affordable housing in principle but objected to the size of this development. The developer, Vox Development, is now set to build a larger project of 58 to 64 units on City-owned land in the City Park neighbourhood, which a Council committee agreed to sell directly to the company for $1.4 million. Councillor Randy Donauer said he had trouble defending the direct sale because it departs from the City's usual policy of opening land sales to all bidders, though the committee approved it unanimously. Planning Director Lesley Anderson said the City remains hundreds of units short of the target it needs to meet to qualify for federal Housing Accelerator Fund money, with building permits required before the end of the year. The land sale still needs formal approval from Council. 

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