More FCM Thoughts

Hi Everyone:

Tonight was the gala reception at the FCM Conference. It was a wonderful evening with good food, great entertainment, and the requisite speeches. As a note: approximatley 2,500 representing 91% of the population attended the conference. 

Vancouver Gala Reception, June 2, 2013

Some of the highlights of the conversations included:

·         Policing: should the province be looking at forming our own provincial police force? We don’t know and there are a lot of unknown questions and answers; but, we have to explore it as an option.

·         Something I learned about police investigation: a murder investigation can cost in excess of $1 million. Ouch.

·         Firefighting: around the table it was controlling costs for the cities who had career firefighters. It is a significant issue for them.

·         Budget: in the larger centres policing and fire consume almost 30% of the budget.

·         Governance: people are interested in our governance model and how we manage Council business.

·         There was interest in my governance report.

·         SJHL Teams: every community has challenges with their respective teams of one degree or another.

·         Managing Growth: the question was – what are you doing?

·         Asset Management: we are in decent shape compared to other municipalities. Congratulations go to our previous Council and Administration for getting the ball rolling on this matter.

·         Health: for the people I spoke with the past few days it is not an issue as it is for us.

·         Infrastructure: everyone wants more repairs and expansions sooner than later.

·         FCM: we hope to have the first SK President of FCM in 5 or 6 years.

Those are some of the highlights and I will report more over the coming days.