Ten Questions With Clive Tolley

To help people decipher the Mayor’s race MJ Independent has plans to feature any of the nine candidates at least once in our publication.

Today we feature Clive Tolley.

1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself personally?

I was born and raised in Moose Jaw and attended the U of S before graduating with a B.A. Psychology from the U of R. I am married to Muriel Tolley, a retired teacher who is now a substitute teacher. Our son Iden Tolley and his wife Victoria Sharp live in Moose Jaw and our daughter Afton Tolley and her partner Jonathan Lupul live in Saskatoon.

My priorities are my family, our City of Moose Jaw, and hockey. After many years of coaching hockey and training and mentoring hockey coaches, I play hockey for fun, health and fitness.

After a career with both the Federal and Provincial governments in the area of career and employment counselling, I went back to school to study mediation. I am now a Chartered Mediator and Chartered Arbitrator and a Saskatchewan Justice Recognized Family Mediator. Recently I was appointed by Order in Council to the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board.

I have travelled extensively throughout the world, having visited 16 countries and I have lived and/or worked in Saskatoon, Regina, Prince Albert, Turkey and Viet Nam. I always return to the City of Moose Jaw that I love and am passionate about.

My mother was a City Councillor and I followed her lead and was a City Councillor from 1988-91 when we drilled the spa well, built the Art Museum/Library complex, twinned the Kinsmen Pool/Kinsmen Arena, added the Bert Hunt Arena to the Plamor-Palace, refurbished downtown with replicas of our own street lights that had been sold to Victoria, installed the paving stone sidewalks downtown, began to market ourselves based on our historic downtown and provided incentives to businesses to redevelop their storefronts in historic fashion, and we started the murals program. In one 3-year term, the Council I was a part of did a great deal to beautify the city, build facilities, and start us on the way to showcasing our heritage as a tourism destination.

2. Was there one event or series of events which made you decide to run for Mayor? Can you describe them?

My love for our city and my interest in being involved in the decisions that will shape the future of our city is not something new; I have been passionate about our city my entire life.

When I attend the Saskatchewan Roughriders Alumni Golf Tournament in Regina, the M.C. calls me Mr. Moose Jaw because I am always bragging us up.

I realize I am not the only one passionate about our city but I did not just move to town a few years ago and decide I want to run for Mayor. I have been angry ever since River Street was demolished and no development was built to replace it. I want to see a significant development on River Street to re-vitalize that area, add another jewel to our crown of tourist attractions, and bring much needed wealth to the city through property tax and job creation.

I am also very concerned about making Crescent Park and downtown safe again, properly repairing the 4th Avenue Bridge to retain its beautiful heritage features, starting to plan for a new bridge to southwest South Hill and making sure we improve our minor sports facilities, including maintaining summer ice at one of our arenas. These are just my top priorities.

I will need to listen to the City Councillors, City Administration and especially to the people of Moose Jaw, to understand what they see as priorities. With my leadership, a shared vision, and working as a team, we can plan for a better future.

3. What do you see as the main issues facing Moose Jaw and how would you fix them?
The biggest issue facing all municipalities is more expenses than revenues.

How does Moose Jaw deal with this issue? Be smart and diligent in our spending and miss no opportunity to get major projects cost shared by the federal and provincial governments. Get more bang for our buck.

And, we should, where possible, benefit from developing partnerships with industry, non-profit organizations and our own citizens. We need to create a vibrant and welcoming city so that people want to do business, work, live and raise a family here.

Most municipalities are competing to bring industry, commerce and business to their communities. They, like us, need an expanded tax base to create increased revenues to cover the constantly increasing cost of operating a city. Like us, they want more good jobs for their citizens.

In order to compete and win, we need to create a welcoming environment for industry to do business here and we need the required infrastructure. With land readily available, lots of water from the recent improvements to our Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant, and an abundance of power coming on stream from the Sask Power/Burns and McDonnell project, Moose Jaw is well positioned to compete with other municipalities for future development.

In addition, we have good people in place such as our Manager of Economic Development Jim Dixon and Moose Jaw Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Rob Clark. I hope to provide strong leadership from the Mayor and Council, and working together, creating partnerships, we can collaborate to spur on economic development in our city.

4. In your platform you say you would like to change the way the City replaces sidewalks from a patch to a complete block being replaced.

At the present time the City is not keeping up with the rate of sidewalks deteriorating and needing to be replaced due to funding.

When we speak about infrastructure replacement do you think sidewalks should be treated as a core infrastructure item?

Would you be advocating for more funding for sidewalk replacement and if so where do you think the funds should come from?
Looking at our sidewalks while driving, or walking our sidewalks, you see many sections of new sidewalk, maybe one, two or three sections wide, right next to deteriorating sidewalk sections. I am hard pressed to be able to understand how we have determined which of these sections to replace.

So we fix a few sections, and then return next year to fix the adjoining sections? It reminds of how we pave a street and then dig it up the week after. When we review the condition of sidewalks and determine which are in the worst shape, I think we should replace that entire block, not just patch the worst sections.

Then go to the next most deserving block based on our engineering departments' determinations and replace the entire block.

There are savings to be had by allowing the contractor to do the entire block while they have their equipment and workers in place.

I see no benefit in replacing damaged and cracked sidewalks a few sections at a time when the entire block needs replacing. I think replacing sidewalks a block at a time is a more effective and efficient use of our taxpayers' money.

The 2022 budget process is starting and at that time the Mayor, Council and City Administration will begin the difficult process of deciding where/how we are going to spend the taxpayer's money.

I regard sidewalks and gutters as core infrastructure along with streets and roads, and water and sewer service.

With more demand for expenses than we have income, our City Council has to make policy choices and then ask the administration to come up with ways to implement those choices. Once we are into that process, Council and I will be better prepared to make those decisions, based on what we learn from our administration. We will hear options for funding and we will make the difficult decisions that have to be made, keeping in mind what we hear from our fellow citizens.
5. When was the last time you attended a City Council meeting?

On Monday, June 28, 2021 I attended Council as a co-presenter, representing the Board of Revision, along with Board Chair Terry Gabel.

The Board of Revision is a quasi-judicial tribunal that hears property assessment appeals. We requested an audience with Council in order to alert Council about the urgency to add qualified members to the Board of Revision.

I spoke to Council about the qualifications, training and experience that would enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the Board. I also spoke to the need to increase the remuneration and training budget for the Board, as means to be more successful in recruiting and retaining Board members.

Currently I am a member of the Board of Revision but I have declined to be named to any 2021 appeal panels in order to concentrate on this election for Mayor.

6. What is your strong point?

I believe my strong point is being a leader.

I lead by being an active listener and communicator, by gathering consensus and seeking agreement as important decisions are made. My professional training and experience as a mediator, arbitrator and negotiator means that I have developed the collaborative skills to work with a team of people to achieve desired results.
7. Conversely what is your weak point?
Impatience!

I want things done right, and done now. I am very particular about making sure that all different aspects and views of an issue are examined and considered, but, once that is complete, lets make a logical, educated, measured decision and get on with it.

8. A main issue which Council has to deal with is a sense the City is conducting too much business in-camera or in secret. Some things such as legal, land and personnel must be conducted in private while other matters could be discussed in public.

Do you agree? If so how would you help to increase transparency - where permitted - at Council and Executive Committee meetings?
When I appeared before Council on June 28, 2021 with respect to the Board of Revision, our presentation was held in-camera; the reporters waited in the hallway and no one other than Council and administration heard what we had to say.

This was wrong.

Many people could have benefitted from hearing our presentation and gained a better understanding of the process of appealing your property tax assessment. If I was Mayor, that presentation would have been made in open Council.

As Mayor, I would ask the City Clerk to determine if any issue required confidentiality under our rules and only go in-camera when necessary.

9. Do you have any concerns about the hours or sacrifice necessary to be Mayor? Is the remuneration too little, just right or too much in your opinion?

The Mayor is the face of the City of Moose Jaw and will need to be present at as many public events and meetings as possible. I have no problem with that. I am very active in the community and I go to as many things as possible right now.

I do think the Mayor has to maintain his family relationships, friendships and mental and physical health in order to be an effective Mayor. I plan to be myself while keeping in mind my role, the public and media scrutiny, and what expectations are in this role. I anticipate many long days of working for the citizens of our City in the most intelligent manner that I can. I will work hard and still take some time for my exercise, fitness and health. I will rest on Sundays, if possible.

The Mayor's salary is about where it should be. I am not running for Mayor to earn a living.

I want to be Mayor of our City of Moose Jaw, the city that I love, so that I can contribute in a meaningful way as we make better decisions on the important matters that will shape our city's future. By learning from our past successes and failures and by being smart about how we proceed, we can plan for a better future, for ourselves, our children and their children.

10. Do you have anything else to add?

I can talk or write all day about Moose Jaw. I am, like many others, a proud local historian who cherishes our city and its history. Let us make this next era productive as we continue to build our future together. I want to see the second version, the family tourism version, of the roaring 20's on Moose Jaw's River Street!