MAYORAL MUSINGS
Clark looks back, and at year ahead
Mayor Charlie Clark sat down for a year-end interview with The Starphoenix.
Q A November Conference Board of Canada report showed Saskatoon’s economy is expected to decline slightly in 2019. What’s your reaction and does that change anything for you as mayor?
A Well, certainly, in talking to the business community and seeing some of the signs with potash closures and things, we know that there are some headwinds in our economy. It’s been a big part of the conversation and I would say that’s not a dramatic change.
We haven’t seen the same struggles as Alberta, but we’ve, you know, hit a plateau. I’ve been really impressed at how our economy, also with the diversification and some of the other signals I get from people about manufacturing growth and other areas where we’re seeing success. So it makes me want to work even harder to make sure that in a changing global economy we’re positioning Saskatoon to create good jobs, to be building out the technology sector, the value-added sector and position ourself in the world to succeed.
Q A record number of homicides happened this year in Saskatoon. What factors do you think led to that many killings?
A You know, these are complex dynamics that happen within a community, so I don’t want to be simplistic about it. But at the same time addictions, crystal meth and the nature of the drugs and the way that they’re gripping people and the way that they drive people to do more desperate acts in order to get drugs.
And I believe we’re showing some real leadership that other cities are even looking to us to learn from on how do you co-ordinate (a response). And now it’s really critical that we get the kind of engagement from the provincial government to work with us and all of their departments that are affected by this to break the cycle and have better outcomes for families, for individuals and for neighbourhoods that are all facing the effects of some of these challenges.
Q How do you see your role in light of the differing visions for Canada from the provincial government and the federal government?
A So, as mayor, what I’ve really tried to focus on is working with both the provincial and federal government and other mayors and leaders of the rural communities, not only in Saskatchewan now, but right across the West through the WEST task force that the FCM, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, has set up to build those pathways that bring us together to find solutions instead of just be stuck in a sense of separation between regions.
And to put to bed this talk of separation, which, to me, it’s not helpful to our province or to the country to be spending a lot of our energy talking about the idea of separation, which, to me, is a dead-end road for our province, for our economy and for our future.
Q At council, you mentioned access to markets. Do you think more pipelines are needed, other than the Transmountain expansion?
A I believe that the oil and gas industry is going to be with us for some time. Everybody recognizes that and we need to find the safest ways to ship that product. That’s a view that I have as part of this. The access to markets issue is one of the priorities that the WEST task force has identified.
But when it comes to pipelines, I believe we need to find the safest and best way to get our oil to market at the same time as we diversify our economy and create some of the opportunities in the sustainable industries that we’re talking about and the green economy that is one of the fastest growing economies in the world right now.
Q What do you want to see accomplished before the next election (in October)?
A Well, you know, one of the things that we’ve worked on hard this term of council and has been a conversation for decades has been: How do we get the downtown to have more of the investment and the growth and the people moving downtown and the vibrancy in the downtown as much as possible?
I feel like we are turning a corner on that finally. We have over a thousand units of residential development now in the queue, some of it rental and some if it condo, you know, whether it’s downtown or in the city centre. This is, to me, a sign that what we’ve been working on has been showing results.
In the next several months, the conversation about the siting and the location of the new entertainment district is a key conversation that I believe is going to be an important one. It will take time to actually build a new downtown arena and to figure out the future of the convention facility.
Q Do you regret anything about your first three years as mayor?
A (laughs) I’ve learned a lot, you know. I’ve had challenges along the way that have humbled me in different ways. I can’t say I regret anything. But I’m very proud of the community that we are right now as a city and the role we’re playing in the world and the partnerships that have been forming and developing to help us to prepare ourselves for the future.
Q Do you enjoy being the mayor?
A Yeah. It’s a very unique role to understand all the different parts that make a city work and to be able to part of the conversations and the problem solving and the building of solutions in the very dynamic times that we live in that can help become a better community. And I really love the process of getting people who don’t necessarily see the world in the same way or haven’t traditionally worked together and to come together and to work on things.
In our province, there’s more and more people who are saying there are ways to have win-win solutions that are both good for sustainability and the planet and good for the economy.
It’s not helpful to our province or to the country to be spending a lot of our energy talking about the idea of separation, which, to me, is a dead-end road
Q How challenging will the next election campaign be, given that it starts in the middle of the provincial election campaign?
A You just want people to feel like they understand what their options are and their choices and they can make an informed decision.
And so I think it’s going to be a trickier process.
The last election was a big, very active conversation in our community and it took the attention of the community to sort through all of the options both for mayor, council and also school boards. It’s going to be a lot more crowded this time around, so I hope that it’s not too frustrating for voters to sort through that.
Q Do you have a general idea when you will decide on a re-election campaign?
A I don’t have much new to say about that. It’ll come.
(This interview has been condensed and edited. A more complete version is available online at thestarphoenix.com.)