A former Sask Party MLA who was a Cabinet Minister for 12 years and prior to that was a School Board Trustee and then a Saskatoon City Councillor representing Ward 5,
Gordon Wyant says his priorities are safe streets and smarter spending.  He explains that he was frustrated with the property tax increase in last year’s budget and feels that Council needs to have more control over the budget process. He suggests the way to do that is by setting parameters for Administration, giving them a tax cap to work around in the budget.

Wyant says, ” So you set a cap on what the mill rate increase will be and then you look to see what the pressures are as a result of doing that. Instead of Administration bringing back a budget with a significant tax increase and having to pare it down, you do it the other way.”   His budget plan includes prioritizing core services like policing. “This is really about investing more in our police service. It’s not really about arresting your way out of the issues we have, but we have the lowest number of police per capita in the country, for a city our size, and if you want your city to grow and if you want a healthy community, you really have to address the public safety challenges.”

Councillor Cynthia Block, former Mayor Don Atchison, Mike Harder and Carey Tarasoff have also said they are running for Mayor.  November 13th is election day for Saskatchewan’s cities, towns and villages. and for odd-numbered rural municipalities. It’s November 9th for even-numbered RMs.