Saskatoon’s Mayor has never seen this level of cooperation among community partners trying to change the system to break the cycle of increasing crime and drugs. Charlie Clark says the Safe Community Action Alliance is a coordinated effort. As an example, one group under that umbrella is working on a coordinated crystal meth strategy and another is working on affordable housing.
Mayor Clark says the next step is to get the province on board and all of their departments from Health to Justice to Social Services to Corrections and Policing to change the system and break the cycle of crime and addiction.
Another big challenge for the City of Saskatoon which leads to one of the Mayor’s goals in 2020 is improving the economy. Clark believes it’s important to create the conditions to make it more inviting for companies to invest and create jobs. He cites that Saskatoon has the second fastest per capita technology sector growth in Canada.
Clark considers 2019 as a turning point for downtown. For years, City Councils have been planning and working on getting more people to live, work and play downtown and Clark feels the City turned a corner in the past year and is seeing those results with the construction at River Landing including a hotel, condos and office space. He adds that work continues on Bus Rapid Transit routes, a new library and finding the right space for an entertainment centre and arena project.
Clark didn’t say whether he would be running in the next election in November of 2020. He says he was elected to be the Mayor and to deliver on his campaign promises, and “for now, that’s my job”. At the appropriate time, he will announce his intentions.