Mayor Greg Dionne during November's budget deliberations. (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

2019 review

P.A. Mayor reflects on 2019 and looks to future

Dec 24, 2019 | 8:00 AM

Mayor Greg Dionne cited some major infrastructure funding and talks on big new projects as his council’s most significant accomplishments in the past year. With 2020 in his sights, he wants to take steps to combat the sluggish economy, and hopes political posturing ahead of the looming municipal election doesn’t get in the way.

Highlights

Looking back on 2019, Mayor Greg Dionne said securing funding for the new recreation centre was one of council’s major achievements. He told paNOW the public can expect more information on the project, including its location, within the first quarter of 2020

“We have been meeting on what the design will look like, what we’re going to put into the building, things like that,” he said. “And we hope early in the new year that we can make some further announcements.”

He’s also proud of progress made on the bringing a new hospital to the city.

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“We continue to pressure the [provincial] government, and they have announced now that they’re going to fund the hospital. So we’ve just got to monitor the situation and see when construction can start.”

He named development on the new University of Saskatchewan Prince Albert campus as another highlight.

The year to come

Looking ahead to 2020, Dionne wants to pass new incentives for housing and construction. The current ones are set to expire this year.

“We’re going to bring forward a similar package to encourage people to build because one of our goals, of course, is the keep our people working,” he said.

He explained the city will also keep applying for federal and provincial funding for infrastructure projects.

Meanwhile, he’s conscious that the November municipal election could heighten tensions around the council table and affect their ability to make progress on important files.

“Some people will lose focus on why they’re there and concentrate more on getting votes,” he said. “I hope that doesn’t happen, at the end of the day we still have a city to run. I just hope people conduct themselves in a professional manner.”

The municipal election is scheduled for Nov. 9, 2020, one week after the provincial election.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom