Mayor's Annual Address
Editor's Note: Each year in January Moose Jaw's mayor traditionally gives an address. A look back at the past year and the year ahead.
The address gives insight into the Mayor’s vision for the city and where they see us headed.
We carry the address below in its entirety below and encourage you to read it.
By Mayor Clive Tolley
Moose Jaw in 2023 is one of the most welcoming cities in the world. Through our Moose Jaw Multicultural Council, Newcomers Centre and the immigration programs operated out of our Moose Jaw Chamber of Commerce, we are seeingimmigration from many parts of the world creating more diversity in our populationthan we have ever seen before.
We welcome our First Nations and Metis people, along with our other new citizens, to fill many of the new jobs created in our city through our existing businesses and our economic development initiatives. Sask Power has kick-started the Agri-Food Industrial Park with the construction of the Great Plains Power Station. This $780Mproject, coupled with Donald’s Fine Foods North 49 Sow Processing Plant and Brandt Industries conversion of the old Phillips Cable plant into a utility trailer manufacturing plant, plus initiatives from local entrepreneurs, has pushed building permits in our city to $1B for the first time ever.
In 2022 we created our “Get a Life” campaign, suggesting to people from the rest of Canada, to move to Moose Jaw to live, work, or study allowing you more time for play and the pursuit of happiness. Our home prices and cost of living, while rising, are still very affordable as compared to the rest of the country. For entrepreneurs wanting to start a new business, or move an existing business from another location, we have commercial and industrial land available at less cost than our neighbouring cities. We are a city with job openings, and we are a city ripe for business development.
The Snowbirds Alumni 50 Year Reunion 2022 successfully hosted 500 people in Moose Jaw utilizing the facilities of the Grant Hall Hotel, the Moose Jaw Events Centre, and the Western Development Museum. We have been awarded the 2025 Mid-West Shriners Conference where more than 800 Shriners and their families will come to Moose Jaw. Curling Canada will hold their 2022 & 2023 Wheelchair Curling Championships in Moose Jaw. We are becoming notorious for hosting conventions and events.
Added to that, our existing tourism facilities are constantly being improved and upgraded. Temple Gardens Mineral Spa, under the ownership of Peepeekisis First Nation, will invest more than $10M in renovations, the Tunnels of Moose Jaw opened Bunker 24, a cold war experience to go along with their Capone and Chinese Connection tours. And our Moose Jaw Municipal Airport has an extended runway which is spurring on new hangar development and helping establish an even closer relationship with 15 Wing.
Just down the road from our airport, the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant is undergoing a major improvement, which along with a new supply line to Moose Jaw and our recently opened High Service Reservoir Pumphouse, will secure our clean water supply requirements for the next 50 years.
Moose Jaw is growing and poised to continue that growth in the coming year. Led by this, Moose Jaw City Council and our City Administration, and all our citizens can be a part of the effort to expand our tax base and grow our city. We need to continue to be welcoming and to encourage people to relocate here to “Get a Life” in Canada’s Most Notorious City!
To those that have worked so diligently in this past year to make our city a better place, thank you for your contribution!