The City of Moose Jaw hosted the biannual Saskatchewan City Manager’s Forum on Friday, with representatives from 13 communities across the province in attendance, including Lloydminster, Saskatoon and Regina.
During the meeting these representatives share best practices, ideas and approaches to issues that are present in every community.
Dion Pollard, City Manager for the City of Lloydminster, spoke about the topics covered during the forums.
“An example brought up today is one council or one city does a mock council meeting as a training tool for newly elected officials. Sharing those types of ideas and then not only what the orientation looks like but what the first three to six months might look like in terms of how we help our councils get to oriented to the job,” explained Pollard.
“We're also in in budget season, (so we are) sharing ideas of some of the factors that municipalities are experiencing across the province, lots of different things.”
Pollard noted that bringing together a number of seasoned and new city managers allows them to tap into that base of knowledge and learn new things.
During the meeting a presenter from SUMA (the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association) gave a presentation to attendees about the work being done related to the ongoing provincial and municipal elections.
Pollard explained that the bulk of the meeting on Friday revolved around the elections.
“Given that the municipal elections are coming up, a lot of our focus is around the landscape, how many people are running in each municipality.”
“It's nice to know what's happening in Weyburn and Estevan, in Lloydminster, we don't always communicate with them on a regular basis. So, it's always good to see what's happening across Saskatchewan."
This was the first time Moose Jaw has hosted the forum, as a more central location is usually chosen for convenience of the attendees, although efforts are made to have the location rotate throughout the province.
Pollard was asked if he or the other attendees had the opportunity to check out Christmas in October during their stay in the city.
“We had lunch at the Grant Hall, the hotel and then we walked down the street last night and it's a very interesting idea for sure. It's kind of neat. But we didn't get out till about 9:00 p.m. A lot of the stores were closed by the time we got out. But it’s certainly an interesting idea and I applaud the City of Moose Jaw.”