WEYBURN - The candidates running for mayor and city council in Weyburn fielded a series of questions by the Weyburn Chamber of Commerce at a forum on Wednesday evening at the Weyburn Legion Hall.
Due to the number of candidates, each question was answered by a group of candidates, and questions were posed for the mayoral candidates separately.
The forum had all but one candidate present, with Jeff Richards and Marcel Roy for mayor, and for council, John Corrigan, Larry Heggs, Dana Pretzer, Laura Morrissette, Kellie Sidloski, Ryan Janke, Todd Bedore and Lorri Wiberg. Mayoral candidate Bruce Croft did not attend the forum.
Only one question presubmitted by the public was asked, and no questions were allowed from the floor due to the time and the number of candidates.
The first group of candidates were asked about the need for downtown revitalization and what they think the next steps should be.
Janke pointed out that downtown businesses told him the biggest day of the year for them is when the car show is on in mid-June. The city could be putting on many more similar type of events to expand on this, he said, such as street fairs or sidewalk sales, with the Chamber and downtown businesses working together to put events on.
Morrissette suggested having a dialogue with the members of the Chamber to see what works for them for revitalizing the business community.
Wiberg noted she used to work with the City of Prince Albert, including with the downtown business association and other groups, and said events in the downtown could be held on a regular basis.
In addition, the city could bring forward more programs and have dialogue to find out what the business require.
Heggs said the city could help by being more open about the processes to apply for development permits, or how programs like Weyburn Builds is available for use in the city.
“We certainly should look continuously at some fo the policies we have,” he said, noting it’s important the city stays competitive with other cities to attract residents and new businesses here.
A group of candidates were asked what should be done to make Weyburn more attractive in terms of tax levels, to bring in more investments to the community.
Bedore thought Weyburn is tax competitive now, and said he doesn’t believe there is any cookie-cutter way way to attract investment to the city.
“We are a beautiful great community,” he said, adding some tax incentives would be good, but the city needs to figure out what businesses want, “not what we think they want.”
Corrigan also thought Weyburn is very competitive in terms of tax levels, and pointed out that a commercial incentive program is available for businesses to improve their facilities, their façade or to do some renovating, along with incentives for new construction.
Tax abatements are also available for vacant buildings, he said, but added the city needs to evaluate their programs and update them as needed, and collaborate with the Chamber and the community to see what the needs are.
Sidloski responded, “I think it’s important to spend the dollars we have wisely,” and wondered if there are new or different ways they could do things to attract businesses here, such as seeing what works in other communities.
Pretzer noted the provincial chamber has programs available, and the newly-elected provincial government should also be approached to see what programs they have available.
He added people are going to be looking at their tax bills and asking, “How much do I have to pay? We have to pay for things, and maybe some things will have to be put on the backburner.”
Posing the question on downtown revitalizing to the two mayoral candidates, Richards responded, “Small business is one of the hardest jobs in the world. It’s a bloody hard job,” adding he and his wife had done it and knows how difficult it can be.
He suggested that if every business in the city hired one new employee, overall there would be hundreds of new jobs available, and there would need to be an influx of new residents to fill all the spots.
Thus the question for the city should then be, “what do we need to do, and what can we do for you? Adding 1,000 people to the population wouldn’t hurt one bit,” said Richards.
Roy said the city looks great right now, and the city is helping to ensure Weyburn is a safe city, plus the roads are improving.
The issue is, for the city today, is they have to pay up to 40 per cent of projects that are shared financially with the province and federal government, where the municipality only used to have to pay 20 per cent years ago. Having to pay more, with increased costs of everything, means there is a limit to what improvements the city can do, he said.
“We need to show the city is a wonderful place to do business, that is what we have to do,” he said, noting as more people come to the city, the more the tax revenues will be.
