By Teena Monteleone

Mayor to address economy in State of the City address

Jan 26, 2017 | 5:00 AM

Greg Dionne is preparing to host his annual ‘State of the City Address’ today, Jan. 25. He’s set to speak about the city’s accomplishments and challenges over this past year and the goals for 2017. 

“Our main topic will be the slowing down of the economy and what we’re doing to try and keep people at work in Prince Albert,” Dionne said.

While the retail sector continues to grow in Prince Albert, Dionne said the housing market has slowed down. As a result, the city will reintroduce an incentive to purchase city owned lots for residential construction.

“We will offer them at a discounted rate again… so that program will help to get carpenters, electricians and plumbers working,” he explained.

The mayor expressed concern about the mining industry. He said lots of people who have been affected by layoffs live in Prince Albert. As the province tightens its purse strings to offset a billion dollar deficit, Dionne said the city will feel a trickledown effect.

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“People have less money to spend. We are concerned about government wage freeze and rollbacks. We don’t think that is the right way to go because if you stop people from spending, you’re going to affect the economy even more,” Dionne said.

During the civic election, Dionne campaigned on a new hospital for the city. He said that now takes priority over the need for a second bridge.

“That hospital is one of our largest employers and it brings in economic development. People from the North come to that hospital to see doctors and specialists and they stay at hotels. It’s a big economic draw,” he said.

Dionne is expected to explain details on a $24 million project to build two new water reservoirs for the city funded, in part, by the federal and provincial governments. No major announcements are expected at the mayor’s address.

 Teena Monteleone is paNOW’s Director of Information Programming and co-host of 900 CKBI’s morning show. She can be reached at teena.monteleone@jpbg.ca or tweet her @TeenaMonteleone.