What’s next for Saskatoon’s new city council and mayor

Bev Dubois is the longest-serving member of Saskatoon’s newly elected city council.

Dubois’ 17 non-consecutive years as a councilor have taught her things she wants to share with the six new faces just elected to the City Council.

“You have to strategize and prioritize,” Dubois said in an interview Thursday.

“You have to take care of yourself and try not to do everything at once. We get a lot of invitations for things to attend, and I’ve seen councilors come on and they go to every single thing in the first three to six months. , and then they just get worn out and can’t do it anymore.”

On Thursday, the city’s returning officer confirmed the results of the 2024 civic election. Turnout hit 35.04 percent, up from 27.41 percent in 2020, but still below the 2016 turnout of 40.09 percent.

Six new faces join four incumbents on the City Council in addition to Mayor-elect Cynthia Block, the first woman ever to hold the top job at City Hall.

Ward 2 voters elected Senos Timon, who will be the first black person to sit on Saskatoon City Council.

“Saskatoon … has become a more multicultural and diverse city, and to have representation in our local government that reflects who we are, reflects our community, means a lot,” Timon told CBC’s. Saskatoon morning on Thursday.

“It means a lot to the people of color, the black community and many of those who wanted to see them represented, who wanted to see them belong in our local government.”

You can see the list of winning candidates for council and both school boards here.

A city council member’s long, irregular hours can put stress on the mind, body and relationships, but Dubois said that can be minimized with enough sleep, a healthy diet and exercise.

What about political advice? Dubois said it’s about professionalism: you fight it during votes, but leave the bad blood in the council chamber.

“Not everyone is going to agree on every vote, but don’t hold on to it. Let it go after the vote,” Dubois said. “In the last election period, there were many 6-5 votes, but we still all came together.”

The new council jumps into the annual budget debate in a few weeks. Dubois said the new council members shouldn’t stress too much because the city’s new multi-year budget strategy means the new council won’t have to start from scratch.

Among the new faces is Ward 1 Councilor-elect Kathryn MacDonald, who unseated longtime Councilman Darren Hill, who finished third behind Kevin Boychuk. MacDonald said her victory still feels surreal, but she is humbled by the support for her first campaign.

“A lot of people are ready for change,” MacDonald said in an interview Thursday. “I think I’ve been working really hard with my team to try to get out the door and just really connect with as many people in the community as possible. So just being out there day after day, hour after hour, just really try to talk and get those conversations really connected to the community.”

MacDonald said she expects the new council to wrestle with some big issues right away.

“We have a lot of potential,” she said. “There’s so much we can do and the city is just growing… Speaking on the doorstep, I would say that safety and homelessness is probably going to be the top priority for a lot of people in the city. So it’s about making sure, that we are really listening and following along, and making sure that people feel safe coming to the center.”

New mayor

New Mayor Cynthia Block spent Thursday in meetings and interviews. It’s a fast pace, but one she said she’s used to after two terms as a city councilwoman in Ward 6. Her campaign often cited affordability and homelessness as significant challenges facing the city.

“(Homelessness) is connected to so many of the other things we do as a city, including community safety,” Block said Thursday.

“When people are safely housed, community safety increases for all of us. So there’s an urgency to get people off the streets into safe housing… But municipalities are on the front lines of a problem that we don’t have all the tools to solve alone , and that’s why I really want to continue with the task force as quickly as we can, to get residents and businesses to the table together with fire, police and service providers.”

Block secured 30,412 votes to defeat four other candidates running for mayor: Gordon Wyant, Don Atchison, Carry Tarasoff and Mike Harder. Wyant finished second with 20,529 votes.

Results delayed

Saskatoon’s civic election results are final, voter turnout is up and there’s nothing wrong with the new vote tabulation machines, the city’s returning officer says.

An otherwise smooth rollout of City Hall’s new vote-counting technology was marred on election night by the delayed release of results. Expectations were that the early results would come quickly after the polls closed at 8:00 PM CST, but the number was slow to reach the public.

The first results were published around 10 p.m., with periodic updates until the last of 82 votes reported shortly before 1 p.m. 1. Some results were printed out on paper and shown to reporters at the town hall before

In a statement released Thursday, the City of Saskatoon cited several factors for the delay.

Voters were still queuing at several polling stations when the polling stations closed at 8 p.m., so the results were delayed until everyone in line had voted, according to the city’s statement. A large number of postal ballots that were received before the deadline at 20.00, also had to be processed and counted. And finally, the electronic tabulators, while working as promised, took longer than expected to upload results to the city’s web portal.

“The election results reporting is accurate,” Bryant said in the statement. “The new modernization processes were successful and will be further analyzed as the entire election is reviewed.”

The city said there were no significant problems at the polls on polling day. Bryant will submit a detailed report to city council once Elections Saskatoon completes its review of the 2024 election.

The city declined an interview request for Bryant.