City representatives met with their counterparts from other Saskatchewan cities last week in order to come to an agreement on the key issues to take to the province.
Yorkton Mayor James Wilson said in the meeting held during the Saskatchewan Urban Municipality Association Conference last week, it was determined that by "collectively" taking issues to the province the cities could have greater impact than each community talking about their "individual needs."
Wilson said when the city representatives came up with the three key issues, housing once again topped the list, followed by infrastructure needs and recycling.
In all three instances Wilson said he believes Yorkton is ahead of the curve compared to other cities in the province.
For example on the housing front he said there are already discussions with local 小蓝视频 Greg Ottenbreit and the government they hope "come to fruition."
Wilson also noted "Yorkton is the only city that has its own housing corporation." He added the corporation is an asset the City "needs to leverage to create more housing."
There is also housing 小蓝视频 currently developed in the city, said Wilson, adding even when comparing to a large city such as Saskatoon the creation on a per capita basis is at least equal.
"We're doing good as a city," he said.
The same can be said of infrastructure, said Wilson, noting recent Councils have been committed to boosting investment in the area of streets, sidewalks and water. He said everybody wants to do more, but at least Yorkton has taken the first steps.
Locally Wilson said one new area has been added to the infrastructure program, and that is drainage.
"That's part of the infrastructure needs of our community," he said.
The final message from the provincial government in terms of city needs is the importance of recycling.
With the blue bag curbside program in Yorkton, and the efforts of SARCAN and the SaskAbilities Centre, Wilson said Yorkton is again well positioned in terms of recycling.
Wilson added the City is also doing innovative things such as crushing glass to use as street construction base, expanding the scope of the landfill to service 25 municipalities in the region, and looking into the possibility of generating energy through pyrolysis at the landfill.
