(File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

New rules on the way?

Council continues to ponder proposed residency policy

Apr 16, 2021 | 5:00 PM

There’s still no decision on a proposed residency policy for some city employees.

The potential new rules would require new hires to senior management positions, like city manager, department heads, fire chief and battalion fire chiefs, along with all non-unionized permanent roles, to move within city limits within six months of being hired or face termination.

On Monday night, city councillors voted to send the draft policy back to a closed-door meeting for further discussion.

“There’s some new information that I wasn’t aware of,” Coun. Blake Edwards told the meeting. “This is going to impact more employees than we were initially told about.”

On Monday paNOW reported the policy would affect 63 positions.

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Discussion of the proposed policy was brief on Monday night, but it still generated some debate around the council table.

“It disqualifies people who live on reserve, people who live on farms that have been in families for a long time,” Coun. Tony Head said. “What if they can’t afford to move? What if they live elsewhere because of custody issues? An employer has no right to dictate where employees live, that’s too much government interference.”

Mayor Greg Dionne disagreed.

“The people that we are talking about are in the top 10 per cent of the income earners in the province of Saskatchewan,” Dionne said. “I think that’s an important thing to discuss because that tells us how well we pay our employees… and that’s why I support the policy.”

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alison.sandstrom@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @alisandstrom