Creighton councillors and Mayor Bruce Fidler are preparing for next month’s Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) annual meeting.
There is one issue that could be a curveball for the mayor and council – not knowing who will be leading the province and who will be in cabinet.
With Saskatchewan Party members set to elect a successor for Premier Brad Wall on Jan. 27 and a possible cabinet shuffle coming as a result, Fidler is not sure what to expect heading into the SUMA meet up.
“I don’t really know what to expect as to any of the outcomes because we don’t know who’s going to be leading the government and who’s going to be sitting in which position,” said Fidler.
Fidler said topics for discussion had already been submitted to SUMA’s board in November, with resolutions likely to come during the meeting in Regina from Feb. 4-7.
One point of interest for Fidler is the fate of revenue sharing in Saskatchewan. In last year’s budget, payments to municipalities from the provincial government’s revenue sharing shrunk, leaving communities like Creighton with an unexpected financial hurdle.
“It’s kind of all up in the air right now, but revenue sharing is going to be a hot topic,” he said, adding that he hopes for the program to improve from last year’s regressive showing.
“If sales are down and PST is down, we all know that our revenue sharing will go down, but as long as the percentages stay the same so it’s shared out equally amongst all different sectors, then it’s all fair.”
RCMP report
Creighton’s top cop went into detail on offences reported to the department last month.
Sgt. Sean McPhee discussed the finer points of the 52 calls received by the department in December, as reported in last week’s issue of The Reminder.
McPhee said that December was a quiet month for the department, calling it “uneventful.”
He said the holidays can sometimes see an uptick in offences, but that Creighton residents were, by and large, well behaved, with no impaired driving offences reported and minimal mischiefs and assaults.
“It can be very volatile. You go over to your friend’s house thinking you’re going to go over and visit, but you end up throwing back a few and before you know it, you’ve had too many,” said McPhee.
“It’s true. Christmas can be very volatile. It can be a very stressful situation for people. Family and liquor often don’t mix.”
McPhee also cited Operation Red Nose and taxi services as important for holiday revelers hoping to stay on the right side of the law.
“People don’t party like they used to, they don’t drink like they used to either. I guess the world’s getting more mature,” he said.
Calls received by the department included an incident with a truck intentionally driving into the gate at the Creighton landfill.
“It’s pretty cut and dry. We had it all kind of laid out that day, but the fellow who did it is evading us,” said McPhee.
“We had the warrant backed into Manitoba now, so it’s just a matter of time before we grab him and put it in court.”
Another reported case, an attempted theft at a Creighton gas station, was caught on security camera footage.
“On camera, you can see him sliding the box open and filling his pockets with fireworks. Not hard to figure that one out,” said McPhee.
“They have pretty good cameras there, hi-def.”
Contracts
Town Council approved a series of contracts and deals with several area groups and businesses.
Councillors carried a motion to inform Hudbay of a proposal to increase rates for land leases held by the company by three per cent.
The land, most of which is currently used as a tailings pond by Hudbay, is owned by the Town of Creighton and leased to the company on a continuing contract.
Council also renewed the existing waste management contract made with Jan Lake, allowing access to the Creighton landfill. There will be a small hike in prices, going from $85 per tonne to $87.55 per tonne of waste.
In addition, Creighton council approved a measure to pay accounting firm Kendall and Pandya for financial auditing services. The deal will cost the Town $9,875 plus taxes for each of the next three years.
