By Chelsea Laskowski

P.A. councillor takes to social media at SUMA

Feb 5, 2015 | 5:36 AM

Most people in Prince Albert don’t get a chance to get answers from senior levels of government, but one city councillor made that possible at this week’s Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) conference in Saskatoon.

The annual event brings together city staff, councillors, and provincial government representatives to discuss common urban issues in Saskatchewan and plan to bring the issues forward to the province.

Coun. Martin Ring started what he calls his “councillor” Facebook page more than a year ago to share City information, answer questions, and take concerns people want brought forward.

When he took part in face-to-face meeting with provincial ministers, Ring noticed a question about motorized vehicles in provincial forests on his Facebook page that was addressed to the provincial environment minister.

Ring then had his fellow member of council, Coun. Ted Zurakowski, go up to the mic with the concern. Ring said he views this as one of many positive elements of social media.

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“I was able to directly address the question with the minister, and that’s not something that you would normally get, or would people normally have that opportunity,” he said via telephone on the last day of the conference.

He acknowledged the answer wasn’t exactly “cut and clear,” but said it was a win just to let the minister know how important areas like Little Red River Park are to people in Prince Albert.

 “That’s the whole purpose of SUMA, it’s No. 1, it’s expressing the interests of the City of Prince Albert, and we’ve got a number of different issues that happen within our city,” Ring said.

While Ring said even though he’s on Twitter, he hasn’t gotten the hang of it yet.

Meanwhile, his Facebook page has given him the opportunity to share information with the public.

“Probably the biggest thing though is ‘thanks for the information and thanks for letting us know what you’re doing, what’s happening.’”

The only drawback has been a smattering of negative feedback and comments.

“It’s been a really interesting experiment,” he said.

Ring also took to Facebook to keep people in the loop on the four-day SUMA conference, which was filled with education seminars, meetings with ministers, other mayors, and councillors from other cities.

One example is Ring telling his Facebook friends about information he was seeking on landfill costs in Prince Albert.

“I took it as an opportunity when I was at SUMA to just let people know what we were doing during the week.”

claskowski@panow.com

On Twitter: @chelsealaskowsk