Incumbent mayor Ryan Bater is making his pitch for a second term by touting the need for North Battleford City Hall to have experienced leadership in place to lead the city out of the current pandemic.
“The city really needs experienced leadership from the mayor and council to get through what is currently the largest economic and health crisis of our generation,” said Bater.
He particularly points to the challenges seen at the city’s leisure services facilities.
“Experience is really important. We’ve got a situation right now where the city is seeing a massive decline in revenues in our recreation facilities. These are due to closures, and now public health orders that limit our occupancy. When we opened the Battlefords Co-op Aquatic Centre in August, we realized 22 per cent of the revenue that we saw during the same time period last year. So we anticipate losing or having reduced revenues of about $500,000 in that single facility over the next year.
“I have four years of experience as mayor, eight on council, overcoming a number of challenges positioning the city to weather storms like this and come out on the other end in a stronger position, and I really think that that experience is important during this unprecedented time. We’ve got our finger on the pulse of how to overcome these challenges. We talked about the financial outlook the other night at council. I am prepared, I am ready to lead council and administration through this, because we are going to see reductions in revenues in recreation. We have to ensure that our facilities are still available to the public because it’s a large part of the quality of life here — but we have to balance that, of course, with people’s safety and the ability of the city to fund them financially.”
Bater says that his campaign will be based on “keeping the city moving forward.”
“We generated a lot of momentum in some very key areas in the last couple of years,” said Bater. “We want to keep moving forward with our community safety initiatives which include research-based crime prevention strategies. That includes the CPTED, the security camera registry, supporting Citizens on Patrol, safety audits, community perception surveys and so on. We want to keep supporting the Gang Task Force, which has had a tremendous impact on violent weapons and illegal drugs in our city.
“We also want to keep moving forward on all the financial fiscal responsibility measures that we’ve seen in the last couple of years. These are very important. Four years ago, this council inherited long-term debt of around $43 million. We were able to make debt reduction a priority, and as reported the other night we are on track for a $33.1 million debt-balance at the end of the year. Which means we have effectively been able to pay off 23 per cent of our long-term debt in this term, which is a remarkable achievement. And I’m committed to continuing that momentum.”
Bater also points to efforts to revitalize the downtown.
“I’m very proud to be part of the council that made downtown revitalization a priority. It was this council that adopted the Downtown Master Plan, it was this council that initiated the replacement of the underground infrastructure. We had pipes that were 800 to 100 years old under the ground that were failing. So we replaced the infrastructure people don’t see, but we also replaced the infrastructure people do see — we have new streetscapes, we have introduced new sidewalks and amenities and trees. We’ve been able to attract 23 new businesses downtown since doing all this work, and that includes the new cinema, that includes Giant Tiger, it includes a new boutique, some new restaurants. Downtown is the vibrant place to be again, and I’m very proud of that, and I am committed to moving forward on continuing downtown revitalization.”
He also points to other areas of the city that are growing.
“We have also the Yellow Sky neighbourhood, which we used to refer to as the south east quadrant. This is the fastest growing commercial area in the entire region. We’ve seen in the last couple of years investments in new hotels, new restaurants, a new strip mall, and the work out there is very noticeable. Of course, council also made the decision to invest in the Carlton Trail upgrade to allow further economic development and we’re looking forward to that.”
Infrastructure will remain a priority next term, says Bater.
“We have sewer and water underneath our streets that really needs replacing. We have a UPAR (underground pipes and asphalt replacement) program, which is very effective at achieving that, and I’m very committed to continuing with that. We have been able to replace underground pipes and asphalt at a rate that we’ve never seen before. It’s a very innovative model, it replaces the local improvement program.”
“We’ve also seen major investments in some key infrastructure to allow further economic development. I mentioned the Carlton Trail project, there’s also the 100th Street service road. That project has been sitting there for 13 years ready to go, and I’m really happy that we’re able to see that.”
Bater also points to regional accomplishments such as the joint Parks and Recreation Master Plan between North Battleford and Battleford — already approved by North Battleford council and due to come up for ratification at Battleford council — as well as the Battlefords Regional Community Coalition which emerged from the signing of the Sacichawasihc Agreement.
“We were really operating as an island before,” said Bater. “I don’t think that our relationships within the region as strong as they ought to have been and that’s why council made that a priority. Now we have a situation where First Nations leaders are meeting with mayors on a regular basis. We meet every month. And we are meeting with federal cabinet ministers, we are meeting with leadership in the RCMP. We have met with provincial cabinet ministers. And it’s all about addressing the shared challenges and potential opportunities within the region.”
He says he is encouraged by the number of people running for office. However, “in order to be a good mayor you really need to know how to be a good councillor first. Council experience is key, and I think I’m the only mayor candidate who brings that to the table.”
Being mayor, said Bater, is “a very big responsibility, it’s a very big job. It’s one of those jobs that I think people don’t realize the responsibilities until they are in the role, and that’s why I think experience is very important.”
