MOOSE JAW — As part of her regular duties, city manager Maryse Carmichael attended a recent city manager’s meeting but with a first — because of the ongoing civic and provincial elections, the forum was held in Moose Jaw.
The Saskatchewan City Managers' Forum took place at city hall on Oct. 25 and included Carmichael along with around 13 other city managers from across the province.
“Quite often we see the similarities of every city and every municipality across the province,” said Dion Pollard, the city manager of Lloydminster, Sask. “(We all have) different issues, but (we) also have a lot of the same issues, and so it’s an opportunity for us to share how we handle them, and what that might look like in every municipality.”
The role of city manager entails a responsibility for most day-to-day municipal administrative operations. These duties include technical advising on governmental operations, public relations, oversight of all recruitment, dismissal, and disciplinary tasks, and overseeing the city budget.
The purpose of the forum is to allow city managers from across the province to share and discuss ideas, talk about potential solutions to common problems, and just to “help each other out.” The meetings are not meant to result in policy decisions and topics can range from council administration to budgets.
“It’s nice to know what’s happening in Weyburn and Estevan and Lloydminster,” Pollard said. “We don’t always communicate with (each other) on a regular basis, so it’s always good to see what’s happening across Saskatchewan.”
The meetings, he explained, usually involve both a mayor’s caucus followed by a manager’s meeting and happen twice annually in either Saskatoon or Regina.
With civic and provincial elections now on the horizon, one key topic of discussion at this meeting was how to orient the new council members to their roles and what best practices would look like.
“An example brought up today is (the question of what if) one council, or one city, does a mock council meeting as a training tool for newly elected officials,” Pollard said. This training tool, he added, would demonstrate “not only what the orientation looks like, but what the first three to six months might look like in terms of how we help our councillors get oriented to the job.”
Pollard said this manager’s meeting involved experienced chief administrative officers (CAOs) — municipal administrators whose job is to advise council on its operations and to manage the city’s daily administrative functions — as well as some that are new and was therefore “a great opportunity” for them to learn more about the role.
Such meetings often feature guest speakers, and this year was no different. A representative from the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) was in attendance and spoke about an update on its role in the ongoing elections along with “half a dozen” other topics.
“We’re also in budget season, so you know, (we will also share) ideas (about) what some of the factors that municipalities are experiencing across the province — lots of different things like that,” Pollard added.
Although no policy outcomes will result from the meeting, Pollard said Moose Jaw is in “a reasonably central” location for most participants. The meeting may even — it could be argued — draw more attention to Moose Jaw as a possible destination to host these and similar events in future.
