The City of North Battleford is still working on a way to honour hockey player Colby Cave.
Cave, who played minor hockey in the Battlefords and went on to the NHL with the Boston Bruins and the Edmonton Oilers, died in 2020 following a brain bleed.
Efforts have been under way by local groups including Battlefords Minor Hockey to honour Cave. A request has come in to City Hall for a commemorative memorial program for Cave that would include a monument as well as a street-naming in front of the Access Communications Centre.
But the city has found that its existing policies did not fit the request. They are now looking to come up with something more substantive.
At planning committee Tuesday, Director of Parks and Recreation Cheryl DeNeire asked council for help in developing a comprehensive policy that could accommodate such a commemoration.
The policies currently in place in place include a street naming policy, a parks and facility naming policy, and a commemoration and monuments policy. But DeNeire said there is “nothing comprehensive and nothing that ties from one to another.”
It was also noted the City of Saskatoon has a “Naming of Civic Property and Development Areas” policy, which is the closest policy they have on commemorative memorial programs.
DeNeire said the family of Cave is willing to wait while it conducts due process. In terms of timelines, her desire is to get something in place before the start of the new season.
As for next steps, the city intends to form a short-term committee of councillors and administration officials that would look into developing a comprehensive policy.
Councillor Kelli Hawtin suggested also getting feedback from the various communities in the city, including the business and the arts community and so on, to get their input on how to recognize any great accomplishments in the city.
The indication from City Manager Randy Patrick is that the forming of a committee will come back to council for a resolution to be approved at next week’s meeting. At that time it is also expected members of council will be appointed.
