Moving Towards City Status

Recently Kindersley was invited to SUMA City Mayor’s Caucus. There is recognition by municipalities across the province and government figures that Kindersley is a city. We believe we are a city but city status is sought because we believe Kindersley will benefit from the change in status.

The question is: how does a town become a city? The incorporation is found in the Cities Act Part IV, Division I Section 39. Here is an outline of the process:

·         The town has more than 5,000 people according to the StatsCan census; and

·         The council of the town requests the change.

After that is done then the Minister responds with:

·         Declares the incorporation along with the name and boundaries;

·         The day it is to become a city;

·         Determine when an election shall be held for a Council;

·         Fix the time of the first meeting of the city council;

·         Plus other necessary measures to facilitate the incorporation

Details can be found in Sections 39-41 of the Cities Act but those are the highlights.

Warman has been lauded for the great work they did as they changed status so I am going to speak with the Mayor to learn about their best practices and lessons learned.

If you want to take a peak at the legislation governing cities google: sk cities act.

I will continue to post more about becoming a city including the pros and cons and other considerations.