Archive for February, 2010
Saskatoon Has A Mascot?
Feb 25th
You can only laugh at this one. Saskatoon has a mascot! (Thanks to David Hutton for the pictures).
Presenting……Sunny!
A question for all you readers, do you know of any other cities with mascots??
School Boards, Provincial Control, and Reserve Funds
Feb 23rd
As most may recall, the Provincial government has removed the ability of School Boards to set their own property tax mill rate. While School Boards continue to delegate budget spending, the Province now sets the amount of money coming from taxpayers (paid through property taxes) each year.
In a recent conversation I was interested to hear of one of the lesser known side-effects of this new arrangement.
Many School Boards have, in the past, put away a portion of their tax revenue into Reserve accounts – some carrying balances of millions to upwards of $15 million.
Apparently, funding allocations to these school boards will be structured in such a way that those reserves must first be spent before the Province directs additional funding to each board. If true, this new policy removes the ability of School Boards to maintain reserve accounts (I’m not sure if this includes reserves earmarked for building maintenance, etc..) and puts their year-to-year budgeting at the mercy of the Provincial Government.
This has shades of the current regime setup in Ontario, where school boards have no taxing powers and must conform their yearly budgets to whatever funds are provided by the Provincial Government. This usually results in some very tough More >
The Tech Potential – Improving the Efficiency of Cities
Feb 22nd
An interesting piece of technology is being trailed by the City of Portland (Oregon) that may help improve the ability of City Worker’s in identifying and fixing public infrastructure.
Using your iPhone (doesn’t everyone have one of these now?; okay, I don’t) you are now able to download a Portland specific app that allows you to file a report with the City Works department. Options on the report include attaching a photo of the problem/problem area, setting GPS coordinates, and being able to check on the status of your report.
Given the relatively newness of this reporting method, there is no word on how effective the process is, if there has been an increase in infrastructure reports, or if the City has been successful at promptly addressing any problems the public has notified them of.
However, similar to the debate over providing more efficient snow removal here in Saskatoon (using Winnipeg’s web based street clearing notification system as an example) current and future web-based technology has the potential to greatly improve the functionality of our cities – hopefully Saskatoon will recognize this and get aboard sooner, rather than later (that is if they are not waiting for technology to evolve to them!).
(h/t to Gordon Price for More >
Curbside Recycling – Is the Debate Finally Shifting?
Feb 22nd
In the past I have been highly critical of the positions taken by a number of interested parties when it comes to the debate surrounding a city-wide curbside recycling program (here and here). In particular, the amount of mis-information, mis-direction, and straw-man arguments offered up by Mayor Atchison and COSMO Industries have been particularly troubling, especially in the face of no published counter-arguments from those who are in favour of such a system.
However, this morning a was a bit surprised to find an editorial in the Star Phoenix penned by the Executive Director of Cosmopolitan Industries Saskatoon Ltd, which focuses on the debate between a single-stream (everything into one bin and it gets sorted a a facility) and user-sort (each resident sorts their own recyclables) system:
[...]
The 2007 Saskatoon Waste and Recycling Plan estimated that a single stream co-mingled curbside collection system would recycle 19,000 metric tonnes of household waste materials, at a cost of $415 per tonne or $7.8 million per year.
The current collection system in Saskatoon comprises the city, Cosmo, SARCAN and Saskatoon Curbside Recycling. We are proud partners! These organizations currently recycle 13,000 metric tonnes of household waste materials, at a cost to the 2008 mill rate of $10 More >
Curbside Debate Finally Getting a Public Face
Feb 27th
Posted by Sean Shaw in City Council
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After months of only hearing one side of the curbside recycling debate, the Star Phoenix finally started sharing the in-favour views with an article in today’s (Feb 27, 2010) edition.
Coming out in favour of a curbside program include Councillors Lorje, Hill, and Paulsen – stating against a city-wide curbside program were Mayor Atchison and Councillor Heidt (In the past other Councillors against curbside include Neault and Penner; while Clark, Dubois, and Wyant have been supportive).
The City plans on holding public forums this spring to solicit feedback from Saskatoon residents on different options for a more comprehensive system. This will coincide with a series of four reports produced by the Environmental Branch that outline what other cities are doing, different recycling systems, and costs involved.
Looking back to 2007, at that time the City held a round of public information open houses on the Waste and Recycling Plan. As I have written here before, that plan included only 2 options with regards to enhanced recycling – single stream and user-sort city-wide curbside recycling programs. Additionally, the open houses attracted the largest number of attendees for any city sponsored session that I have seen over the past five years. The majority view of the More >