Council members attend annual municipalities convention virtually estevanmercury.ca - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from estevanmercury.ca Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Gordon Barnhart can enjoy the rest of his vacation in Hawaii, free of the burden of leading the organization that represents Saskatchewan’s urban municipalities.
Barnhart soundly lost his attempt for a second term as president of Municipalities of Saskatchewan this week.
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The province’s former lieutenant-governor attended the organization’s annual convention from Hawaii an almost certain guarantee that his holiday during a time of outrage over travel by public officials would ensure defeat.
The Municipalities of Saskatchewan (MOS) is stepping into the deep end of wetlands drainage and water quality on the Prairies. Previously called the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association, the lobby group representing cities, towns, villages and resort villages voted to approve the two matters during a resolution session at its annual convention Tuesday afternoon. For the wetlands policy item, delegates voted 170-46 to lobby the provincial government to “develop and adopt a wetland policy comparable to the policies currently in place in Alberta and Manitoba.” Thanks to the second resolution, which won with 192-23 votes, the MOS is to lobby the province to “direct (the Water Security Agency, WSA) to publish online quarterly” water quality test results from lakes and rivers, with comparisons to the WSA’s 2015 contaminant water levels.
Hayward defeated incumbent Gordon Barnhart, the mayor of Saltcoats and a former lieutenant-governor, 351 to 115. Rennie Harper, Nipawin’s mayor, will serve as the new vice-president of towns. Barnhart, who campaigned from Hawaii, came under fire recently for his comments on amalgamation and for travelling despite the pandemic – which Hayward said partly led him to mount a campaign. Barnhart said he wasn’t surprised at the results on the afternoon of Feb. 8, adding that he felt a bit of relief. He said he plans to focus on his duties as mayor of Saltcoats and still predicts big changes are on the way for municipal governance.
“This been one of the toughest years for us, to Saskatchewan people, I would say this is one of the toughest years, the people of this province have ever experienced,” Moe said. He noted that, like virtually every other jurisdiction in the world, Saskatchewan had to shut down sizable portions of its economy to contain the spread of COVID-19. “It was one of the toughest decisions ever faced (by) government, and one of the toughest decisions I was involved with as premier. But it had to be done, at least temporarily, to protect us,” Moe said. It was necessary to protect the health care system and its workers.