By Katie Ryan
In Lloydminster’s next civic election, “four more years” could be the new catch phrase.
Requests have already been made by the city councils of Regina and Saskatoon for the province to extend the time between municipal elections to four years and Lloydminster’s newly elected mayor is following suit.
“Absolutely,” said Mayor Jeff Mulligan quickly, when asked if he thought a four-year term would benefit urban municipalities.
Voters across Saskatchewan in urban municipalities, including the Border City, currently head to the polls every three years, however, Mulligan agrees with the councils in Saskatoon and Regina, that an extra year could go a long way when it comes to accomplishing major projects.
“The reason really is one with the pace of and the size of projects, the length of time they take to go from concept to finish,” said Mulligan, adding the continuity and flow of multi-million dollar projects would improve.
“When you look at a project, be it a road project, be it a building project, be it a restructuring of the organization, many of these projects today span a long period of time. And if every two to 2.5 years, because of the three year election cycle, you are only effectively getting 18 months of energized, educated focus on them. That means that the taxpayer is not getting fair value for their dollar.”
A similar resolution was brought before the government in 2008 by the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association, but a consensus was not reached.
Though Mulligan said he has not polled all of city council on the issue, he said management officials and administration are in favour of four-year terms.
“Oddly enough I have a message from Jeremy Harrison (Meadow Lake MLA and Municipal Affairs Minister), asking us if we favour the four year window. And my response to him will be yes we do,” said Mulligan.
“If Mr. Harrison asks us to send a letter recording a motion, a letter of support and would you be in favour of this, does this meet your constituents’ needs – our answer of those would be yes, absolutely.”
The mayor said if a motion of support is required for a four-year term by the provincial government, then city officials would vote on the matter.
“Us making a motion is little more than evidence of good faith,” he said.
According to Mulligan, not only would a four-year term enable the city to accomplish more and improve efficiency when it comes to large scale, long term projects, it would be a financial benefit for the city.
“For the city itself, the cost to pull people away to administer the election and oversee it is great. Obviously the cost for the candidates too,” he said.
The productivity of elected officials would also increase said Mulligan, noting that the first year for the newly elected is one of orientation and finding your bearings.
“The next year you are quite effective on executing the business on behalf of the taxpayers and then in the third year, in politics, if it’s the last year before an election, there tends to be a different climate that creeps into political circles in the year of an election,” he said, adding people tend to become more conservative with their decision making because they know there is an election looming and an election campaign within the next 12 months.
“If you put a four year window in there, it’s quite conceivable that you would get closer to three years of good productivity and good decision making in a four year window. That means 75 per cent of the time, government would be functioning at a higher level than today, for every three year window it might be 18 months.”
Local MLA, Tim McMillan, said that while the issue has not been directly brought to him by the city or his constituency, it’s something he’s open to discuss.
“When we meet, it’s something that I am sure we will chat about,” he said, referring to Mayor Mulligan.
Four-year terms for urban municipal officials are standard practice in seven provinces. Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Alberta currently have three year terms, while term length varies in the territories.