The City of Saskatoon has been holding its yearly public ward meetings over the past few weeks. These meetings are usually held in the autumn, but were delayed because of the timing of the federal election (looks like they may have to permanently find another time for them, as we may well be having another election this October too).
The Ward 6 meeting on 22 January, which I attended, was a good opportunity for area residents to ask questions of Mayor Don Atchison, Councillor Charlie Clark, and representatives of various city departments. As I posted on Twitter the day of the meeting, so many people focus on national and provincial politics and forget that we can often make bigger and more positive changes to people’s lives at the civic level!
People at the meeting got up and spoke about the need for community gardens and more public green space in the ward, as well as their desire for better infrastructure and support for cyclists and pedestrians in the city. They also expressed their concern about lead levels in the tap water in older homes and the availability of recycling facilities. Justifiably high praise was also passed on to city council about the new Saskatoon Farmers’ Market location on River Landing.
So what is the city doing about the public’s concerns? It is currently investigating the possibility of converting some of the Victoria and Nutana school grounds to public park space, and is scoping out a number of potential community garden sites (sadly, the current Nutana Community Garden will be no more after the 2009 growing season, as the lease will soon be up and the land is slated for development–I’ll be writing more about this soon). I believe that the city is more than willing to try to accommodate and help set up community gardens, but the main obstacles are finding a suitable public space that has easily available water for irrigation. We need to push hard to identify more of these spaces and get gardeners behind the projects. If you’re interested in finding out more about community gardening in Saskatoon, get in touch with the Saskatoon Community Garden Network (you can join the Facebook group or email Dana Barrand for the next meeting details in March–I’ll also be posting them here soon).
The mayor freely admitted that the development for cycling paths is woefully behind schedule (it would apparently take 25 years to carry out the city’s planned scheme at the current rate) and pledged his support for the concept of human-powered transport. However, he didn’t give any details on how an accelerated timeline would be achieved. Saskatoon is so compact that a bike journey often need take no longer than one by car (and is very often faster, when you consider time to find parking). Riding a bike keeps you fit, reduces air pollution, and saves you money. It’s a no-brainer. Interested in improving cycling access, safety, and support in Saskatoon? Tell your city councillor and the mayor that this is something you strongly believe in. There’s also a Facebook group to support safe cycling downtown (a notoriously dangerous hotspot, as even the mayor admitted at the meeting that Saskatoon’s drivers “are not very good”).
Advice was given out to worried homeowners who cannot afford the estimated $4,000-7,000 it costs to replace old lead water pipe connections (and renters whose landlords are not willing to replace them. It was stressed that that the source water in Saskatoon is extremely pure, but that lead can accumulate while the water sits in the pipes nearby or inside the home. This has become a concern in cities across the country. To minimise horrible water wastage*, it was recommended that people take showers first thing, then let each individual tap run for 30 seconds before using it for drinking. Filters were also recommended. I’m not quite sure how the many people on limited incomes in the city who may be having problems finding the money for their existing water bill are supposed to find extra money for filters and for all this additional water (not to mention the expense of getting the water tested)!
It is a really unfortunate situation, as Councillor Clark pointed out at the meeting, because many people have bought (often older) homes closer to the centre of the city at least in part to try and reduce their environmental footprint. When we moved back to Saskatoon, we chose our neighbourhood largely because it was within easy walking distance of most places that we want to go. I collect rainwater to use in the garden and have put in more drought-tolerant plants. Through much more careful use of water and lights, we had managed to greatly reduce our utilities bill over the past year. But if it happened to have lead connection pipes, we would either have to use our fridge water filter for cooking and coffee/tea as well as fresh drinking water, or run a huge amount of water down the drain every day. Fortunately for us, I discovered that the main line had been replaced about 15 years ago, before we moved in. But there are thousands of homes that still have the old connection. To find out whether you have lead water connection pipes, phone the city at 975-2491 and they will look up the details for your address.
The issue of recycling was also raised. Mayor Atchison expressed his support for recycling facilities, but thought better results could be achieved through the use of several “super-depots” located throughout the city. Councillor Clark disagreed, stating that he thought that a curbside blue box collection program could work well in Saskatoon. I have to say that it doesn’t personally seem to make much sense to me to have thousands of cars burning gasoline hauling newspapers and plastic back and forth all over the city when one vehicle could do pickups. The success of Saskatoon Curbside Recycling seems to show that when people have the convenience of door-to-door pickup, they will recycle anything that isn’t nailed down and will often pass the recycling bug onto their friends and neighbours. It would also provide the necessary infrastructure to begin collecting organic/kitchen waste, which would be so much better properly composted rather than dumped into the landfill to create methane gas. I don’t think people will really be willing (or should be willing) to drive their used coffee grounds or potato peelings halfway across the city twice a week to a central collection point.
There were many other issues raised at the meeting that night, but these are the ones of most relevance to my blog. For a good overview of the issues raised at the ward meetings, check out Sean Shaw’s blog–he has attended many (if not all?) of the city ward meetings this month and posted notes on those for both Ward 4 (where he plans to run for councillor in the autumn) and Ward 6. Thanks, Sean!
If you feel strongly about any or all of the above issues or anything else (I’m sure you do!), you can get in touch with City Council via this online form or get contact details for your local councillor here.
* It has been recommended that a tap be left running for 10 minutes before water is used for drinking if it has not been flushed out in for 6 hours. The expense and sheer waste is staggering, frankly. But then, so is the idea that you might be drinking water with an unsafe level of lead in it.
The Saskatchewan Perennial Society will hold its spring plant exchange on 19 May. Admission to this event is for SPS members only (see below to find out how to join, or pick up your membership at the door). Attendees are asked to bring along a dessert to share.
