Transit the big challenge for 2015, mayor says

Mayor Greg Dionne already has his sights set on the City of Prince Albert’s top priority for 2015: transit.

He has been spending his time during the Christmas season attending many events, from skating parties to formal banquets. He called December “the mayor’s handshake month” because he said he does more handshaking this month than anything else.

And with the new year less than a week away, he has zeroed in on overhauling transit, which he gives a failing grade. When he speaks about transit, he’s not only talking about Prince Albert Transit, but he’s also referring to seniors and special needs transportation.

“Because the money we are spending and the service we’re delivering, if I have to grade it today it’s an ‘F’. Because I have people who are shut in, they can’t go to hockey games, they can’t go to shows.”

Over the Christmas holiday, Dionne picked up his pastor, who uses a wheelchair, and took him to the grocery store to ring the bells for the Salvation Army Kettle Campaign. His pastor had called to reserve a ride with a special needs bus, and was told he wouldn’t be able to get a ride for two weeks.

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“He should have that right every day,” Dionne said.

The push for transit improvements comes against the backdrop of renewed calls for improvements to the publicly funded system. A recent administration report described the current state of operations as financially unsustainable. [http://panow.com/article/487671/poll-calls-change-transit-system-grow-louder]

Dionne said the problem is transit can’t be funded any more than it is – he noted the City is subsidizing the system at a rate of about $135 per rider.

“So, if we’re going to subsidize that much, we have to come up with a better way,” he said, calling it 2015’s biggest challenge.

The year in review

Dionne said the city fared “excellently” in 2014.

“Of course, no road is smooth, especially in the City of P.A. We’re working on that with our new paving program. But, you know, we had no major controversies, and the ones that did come out, I felt that council dealt with them very swiftly and professionally.”

The year was one where the city spent a total of $15,356,027 on infrastructure projects. With the decrease to the municipal operating grant in 2015, the City expects to spend $11,619,900 on various infrastructure projects, which will include bridge inspections.

Spending this past year on infrastructure is up from $9,039,612 in 2013.

The main highlight of the year for Dionne is the 2015 budget process, which wrapped up on Dec. 8. He said this is the reason why the tax increase was low.

“Because when you’re that ahead of the game, you can be tendering in the middle of winter when people are looking for jobs, you can get the job done. You can get in the queue, you can buy things cheaper,” he said.

But Dionne is looking ahead to other things in the coming year, in which the City will finally be at full staffing levels in its most senior positions. All of the department head positions have now been filled. On Wednesday, the City filled the public works director position left vacant by Colin Innes, who took a similar position in Nelson, B.C.  The city hired Amjad Khan, who is currently working as the engineering manager in Cold Lake, Alta.

“We’ve been more particular,” Dionne said. “We really worked hard to hire local people first, then people from Saskatchewan, and then in certain positions, when you couldn’t fill, we went outside the province.”

The short-staffing has meant others within City management had to take on additional roles. In public works, Alain Trudel and Wes Hicks had to fill in as acting public works director.

But when it comes to future, the mayor is looking even further ahead. Dionne foresees the similar low tax increases in 2016, 2017 and 2018 similar to the one in 2015.

He said the key to this is the multi-year plans the City has come up with for various initiatives. This future planning is something officials are looking to share with residents. The list of challenges for 2015 and for 2016 will be included in the 2015 tax notices.

“So, if you know the issues, you can plan and save for them today. So, any savings that we get today will go into our capital program in ’16. And that’s what keeps your taxes down.”

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames