Mayor Tolmie's 2019 State of the City Address

Editor’s Note: The following is the annual New Year’s Address given by Mayor Fraser Tolmie at the January 14th City Council meeting.

The annual address is traditionally given by the Mayor at the first meeting of Moose Jaw City Council to start off the new year. It is a look back at the year that was, what the City went through and where the City is headed in the year to come.

The speech highlights the accomplishments of the past year and where the Mayor sees the City heading in the coming year.

We encourage our readers to read it in its entirety as itr gives key insights as where the City is headed in the coming year and exactly what the City is going to try to accomplish. We graciously thank the Mayor’s Office for making this important available to Moose Jaw residents as well as our readers.

By Mayor Fraser Tolmie

Persevering in challenging times requires grit and determination.
Persevering takes courage and heart.

Persevering is required to see things through, to weather the storms of the day
and achieve the goals set before us.
The challenges of this city cannot be overcome without clear goals, a strong plan and a willingness
to work together.
2018 was a year of bringing people and organizations together to make Moose
Jaw a better community!

The challenges we faced were numerous. Those challenges were not ignored
but were faced head on.

The City led the conversations in uniting people and organizations.

Many of our citizens were invited to participate in strategic planning for our
community. The future success of this plan started with a willingness to collaborate
between different organizations in our city. A community strategic plan was discussed and put
in place. The planning process opened doors between different organizations in our community
and built a strong foundation for future cooperation. This cooperation builds on
individual organization’s strengths to benefit the community as a whole.

The Chamber of Commerce, Tourism Moose Jaw, the Downtown Business Group and the Destination
Marketing Fund were, and are, key partners with the City of Moose Jaw.

Using reverse psychology, Doug Griffiths spoke to these organizations. He noted
that there are 13 ways to kill a community, but doing the opposite helps grow and strengthen a
community. The success of this unity was expanded as we had honest talks about our past and how do
we capture our city’s unique stories so that we can expand and attract more tourism and more
business to provide more jobs and grow our tax base. This was all done collaboratively!

The organizations that partnered with the City also saw success.

The Chamber of Commerce saw 465 people attend their Moose Jaw Business Excellence Awards, the
highest attendance numbers for this event to date. It should be noted that the Moose Jaw Chamber
of Commerce has the highest number of business memberships per-capita in Saskatchewan.

The surrounding economic climate has posed its challenges, but the businesses of our community
continue to persevere by investing in the future and growing.

Parrish and Heimbecker has invested over $5 million in upgrades to their local
plant.

Gibson’s Energy is investing $20 to $25 million in their local plant to improve
efficiencies that will result in an increased capacity of 19% in production.

Doepker Industries has rehired over 110 employees and are almost back to full capacity, and CP Rail
has hired 90 new employees as of November.

The City is doing its part by creating new partnerships to prepare for new
opportunities in the future.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Saskatchewan Polytechnic, Canadian
Aviation Electronics (CAE) and the City of Moose Jaw.

This memorandum will see a new training program starting this year at our own municipal airport,
the first of its kind in Saskatchewan that will have unmanned aerial systems being used in
courses to help create innovations in farming, pipelines and security.

This is just the beginning that will lead to other innovations for future applications
in this area.

Having a Council and Administration working together to solve problems benefits
all citizens in our community.

Jim Puffalt, our new City Manager, is working hard, as is Council, to build a better working
relationship and solve problems together.

Mr. Puffalt’s first week saw the City move in to solve the High Street issue that affected our
local community.

The City recognizes the important role it plays in creating an environment for economic
growth in helping businesses.

Key to our economic growth is having an Economic Development Officer pursuing and
following-up on potential economic opportunities. This has helped by eliminating red tape and
hold-ups for businesses wanting to seek opportunity
in our city.

Internal silos and having all the relevant people in the room to collaborate on
projects such as economic development when businesses have questions, has proved to cut down wait
times and get things moving.
The City of Moose Jaw ended 2018 and enters 2019 on a high note!

The announcement of SaskPower’s $700 million project in our industrial park was a group effort that
will pay dividends for our community for many years to come.

Foundation stones have been laid to prepare this city for 2019 and coming years.

2019 will see the return of the Saskatchewan Airshow at 15 Wing. Moose Jaw will not only benefit
from the return of the Airshow but have a role as host city to ensure people are made to feel
welcome.

Steps are being made to attract more concerts and events to Mosaic Place.

Success has already been
achieved with the announcement of the 2020 Scotties
Tournament of Hearts, which will bring more people to our city.

We must take pride in who we are and what we have to offer.

The City will continue to look to beautify our community whether it’s local
volunteers doing spring clean-up programs or continued infrastructure repair through our
cast iron replacement project and road rehabilitation.

Exciting things do happen here in the City of Moose Jaw!

This spring will see the introduction of a city-wide pass that will allow residents in more than
one City-owned facility.

New programs will be introduced to continue to improve customer service at
City Hall.

Modernization continues to improve efficiencies which ensure better reliability
and helps prepare the people of Moose Jaw for the future.

Finally, we cannot ignore that the community of Moose Jaw has a heart. There
are those who have shown their heart for our community. Recently, Jenna Meili, Madison DeCorby,
Aimee Dumlao and Allison Grajczyk-Jelinski showed their hearts for those less fortunate and
raised $8,000 for Riverside Mission by holding a celebrity volleyball tournament.

The business and local partner Mosaic started 2019 off by announcing $2.5 million that is being
donated over three years to four local charities in Moose Jaw, Saskatoon and Regina.

This generous donation includes Riverside Mission, the Moose Jaw and District Food Bank,
Wakamow Mosaic Community Gardens and Hunger in Moose Jaw.

2019 will be a year to build on the strong foundations of the previous year’s hard work and to
continue the forward momentum.

The people of this city must continue to work collaboratively, to persevere together so
that we can achieve the goals set before us and never to lose the
heart that bonds the community of Moose Jaw together.