P.A. Civic Election 2016 – Meet Martin Ring

The city has three streams of revenue of raise money for programs and infrastructure (user fees, property taxes and levies). If during your term as mayor a tax increase is required which of the three streams would you raise and why?

Well, you know, I mean, tax increases are never an easy – it’s never an easy ask. We know that property taxes are high, we know that commercial taxes are high, at the same time, we are told that user fees are too high on some of our facilities for some sectors of our demographic. So it’s always a delicate balance, you know, I think we wanna be striving to look for additional revenue streams, you know, there is also some additional revenue streams other than taxes that we could look at, whether it’s some grand programs, etc.

And you know, I think also we have to look at our facilities and make sure that we are getting the best bank for our buck out of our facilities. Even though we’ve got some older infrastructure occurring in some of those facilities as well. You know, from our property tax perspective, we know commercial tax is, ratio wise, are considerably higher in the city of Prince Albert, as opposed to other communities or cities in our province. So you know, I think we do have to be cognizant of that fact that it might a detriment to businesses coming here.

So you know, it is a delicate balance…but tax increases are certainly not something that’s taken lightly.

As mayor, what would you do to address homelessness in the city?

Well there’s no doubt homelessness is a problem. Homelessness is a problem in Saskatoon, it’s a problem in Regina, it’s a problem in a lot of municipalities. You know, we do have an issue here, we have to continue to work with those community-based organizations, find out what their needs are, find out what their wants are from us as a city, what further can we do to assist them.

A lot of it is, it’s a health care, social issue, and it’s, again, it’s a balance of what responsibility do we take on as a municipality to solve that problem. You know, we do have some ability to help out, whether it’s tax abatements, tax deferrals, maybe there’s some facilities that we could look at that partnering with the community-based organizations. But you know, again, it is having those sit down, they are hard discussions, they are hard discussions to have with our health care professionals and our social programs to try and find out exactly what’s happening.

Does Prince Albert have issues with addictions?

I believe there is a problem, absolutely, with addiction in the city of Prince Albert. I believe there is problems in other cities with addictions as well. I don’t think we are alone on that, whether it’s alcohol, or drug abuse, etc.

You know, again, it’s working with the various agencies. We know that we’ve got access place here and the needle program, that’s one part of it, you know. And again, we have to find ways to work with those partners, to see what we can do to try and come to grips with it. The alcohol strategy is one piece of it that’s starting to be unfolded. Is it the perfect solution? No. And I don’t think anybody right now has the silver bullet that everybody’s looking for.

The federal government has announced that recreational use of marijuana will be legalized in 2017, with its distribution regulated by the provinces. As mayor, do you believe that legal marijuana will ease or increase Prince Albert’s addiction issues?

That’s a tough question for somebody not directly involved in, whether it’s alcohol use, you know, the recreational use of marijuana, you know, what does it do from an addiction standpoint, I’m not a hundred per cent positive. Again, it’s something that is going to be federally regulated and allowed, and you know, I think it is going to be something that we are going to have to deal with, and we are gonna have to figure out, you know, what’s the next program that we have to have in place. And I think, working with our police services and our health care officials, you know, we’ll have to seek out some solutions or look at what different types of programs we are gonna have to look at.

In light of this summer’s oil spill on the North Saskatchewan River, what will you do to ensure Prince Albert’s drinking water is secure in the event of another incident on the river?

Well, there’s absolutely no doubt. We have to continue to have meaningful consultation with our provincial partner, Saskatchewan Environment Ministry, the watershed, or water security agency as well. I felt through the incident that had happened here, really kudos to us as council. We stepped back, we let the administration do their job, and it’s hard. It’s hard for those of us (laugh) sitting on council to be able to do that. But, you know, we have to let, you know, the experts are the experts, and we have to let them deal with it.

At the same time, I do want to have assurances in place that our water treatment plant is being kept up, and that’s some of our regulatory requirements through the water security agency. They hold our licence, we have to make sure that we are adhering to the rules in place. So it’s very important when we are talking about capital improvements to the water treatment plant. You know, the latest ask for federal funding for some additional reservoirs, it’s a huge piece of it, so that we are going to ensure a safe flow of water here. The oil industry is something, it’s not directly in our control, and we count on the Ministry of Environment to help us out with that.

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by paNOW Staff

P.A. Civic Election 2016 – Meet Martin Ring

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