Task force to amplify western issues with feds
REGINA Regina Mayor Michael Fougere hopes a new task force created to deal with economic uncertainty facing western communities will help Regina better connect with the federal government.
“I don’t know how else we would get our ideas put forward,” Fougere said Friday. “As municipalities, we don’t have the same standing as the provincial government.”
The Western Economic Solutions Taskforce (WEST) was created by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) in the wake of the November federal election, which left Saskatchewan feeling untethered to Ottawa after the Conservatives won every seat in the province.
Fougere, who sits on the committee, said it was born out of feelings of western alienation and created to address questions like, “How do we express our concerns and questions about what’s going to happen in the future?”
The task force was discussed at the Big City Mayors’ Caucus (BCMC) meeting on Feb. 6 where four main areas of focus were revealed: Addressing barriers to getting resources and products to market; energy development, climate policy and regulation; supporting communities to diversify economies; and municipal infrastructure and fiscal sustainability.
WEST has already had a couple of phone meetings with federal ministers, said Fougere.
“There will be meetings with other ministers,” before the FCM annual convention in June, he said. “We will certainly continue to refine our points of discussions and we’ll continue to talk to the prime minister, the deputy prime minister and other ministers.”
According to a summary of the BCMC meeting prepared by Fougere’s chief of staff Sheila Harmatiuk, the WEST continues to meet with senior federal officials to explore solutions, which will include budgetary asks. The task force will provide a report on its outcomes at the FCM annual convention in June.
Other objectives identified at the BCMC meeting included a “modernized federal-municipal relationship,” which would have the federal government looking to municipalities as partners in national projects; see cities have greater control over local initiatives, such as infrastructure and public transit; and ensure support for municipal priorities is “predictable, stable and permanent.”
Permanent transit funding, affordable housing, and climate adaptation were also emphasized as BCMC priorities moving forward.
The FCM is calling for increased investment in supportive housing for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, and social/affordable housing for Indigenous households residing in cities.
“Although in Saskatchewan the responsibility for housing does not reside with the municipal government, cities understand that safe, secure and affordable housing is the underpinning to healthy, vibrant, growing communities,” says the report.
Despite a $23.2-billion investment over 10 years through the Canada’s Infrastructure Plan (ICIP) Public Transit Stream, the is asking the federal government to commit to an additional $34 billion for the decade following the ICIP.