Petition shows city frustration

The decision by a councillor in the city’s northeast to launch an online petition to pressure senior governments to get behind a new bridge for Saskatoon might be unorthodox, but it illustrates how frustrated civic officials have become over the province’s apparent intransigence over the issue.

Zach Jefferies launched an online petition last week hoping to put pressure on provincial and federal representatives from Saskatoon to support the construction of a much needed commuter bridge to link his ward with the industrial area across the river.

The North Commuter Parkway Bridge project is near the top of the city’s wish list, reflecting what Coun. Jefferies heard from constituents when he was door-knocking during the civic election. This view was reflected by the federal representative from the area, Saskatoon Humboldt Conservative MP Brad Trost, who said that he and his 12 Conservative colleagues from Saskatchewan support the proposal.

So far, however, the provincial government and its eight Saskatoon MLAs have been noncommittal.

In an emailed statement, government executive director of communications Kathy Young gave short shrift to the request for support, reminding The StarPhoenix that the province contributed one-third of the $300-million cost of the south bridge project. That project was built two decades after Saskatoon first indicated the need for it, and at many times its original cost estimate.

Estimates for the new commuter bridge don’t include the hit to Saskatoon’s productivity, the impact that gridlock has on the ability to recruit the workers Saskatchewan needs, or lost-opportunity costs of delays.

But Saskatoon residents are in the dark over whether their elected members even know this is happening. The silence on the topic from the eight Saskatchewan Party MLAs from Saskatoon — including four members of cabinet — is deafening.

It is worth noting that Coun. Jefferies’s ward encompasses Environment Minister Ken Cheveldayoff’s Saskatoon Silver Spring’s constituency. If, as the councillor has said, the commuter bridge is the top-of-mind issue he heard at people’s doors, one would suspect these citizens are most curious about what the minister is doing to promote their interests.

Similarly, the bridge would connect Mr. Cheveldayoff’s riding with Justice Minister Gordon Wyant’s Saskatoon Northwest riding. One suspects those voters, too, would like to be reassured that their elected representative has their interests in mind.

As well, drivers from Saskatoon Greystone and Saskatoon Southeast — represented by Post-Secondary Minister Rob Norris and Education and Labour Minister Don Morgan respectively — would probably like to take the time they are stuck in traffic to consider what their representatives are doing on their behalf.

If these elected officials are promoting the interests of constituents at the cabinet table, the remarks put out by the government would seem to indicate they either aren’t being heard or that they are having very little impact.

One hopes if enough people sign Coun. Jefferies’s petition, it will smoke out these elected representatives to either make public their support or explain their reticence to represent the interests of those who sent them to Regina. The editorials that appear in this space represent the opinion of The StarPhoenix. They are unsigned because they do not necessarily represent the personal views of the writers. The positions taken in the editorials are arrived at through discussion among the members of the newspaper’s editorial board, which operates independently from the news departments of the paper.