Mayor Bill Powalinsky is looking forward to his first full year in office. (Susan McNeil/paNOW Staff)

By Susan McNeil

Looking forward to 2025

Full steam ahead; new Prince Albert mayor prepares for busy 2025

Dec 31, 2024 | 4:00 PM

From the completion of projects started several years ago to hoping for shovels in the ground on new ideas, Prince Albert’s new mayor is ready for a very busy 2025.

Bill Powalinsky said despite only being in his seat for a month, he is ready for what promises to be a packed year.

Starting it all is passing the budget and council has being doing some groundwork for several weeks already.

“We start the really serious in-depth review of budget and works worth finalizing next week,” he said.

Three full days of public budget meetings will run from January 8 – 10, going all day.

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People wanting to take a closer look will already find the agenda and documents online on the city’s website in a new, hopefully easier to digest format.

“Municipal finances and decision-making processes are complex but we’re committed to finding more ways to share quality information with residents this coming year,” Powalinsky said.

Right now, one of the things they are looking at is a live stream of budget meetings. Council and executive committee meetings are already available live on the website at the same place the agendas are located.

Powalinsky said that the more information that the public can access easily makes for better communication and more trust.

Even before the budget meetings happen, a series of four public meetings will be announced to get public input into the best location for a shelter for homeless people.

Council has committed to choosing a location before the end of March and the mayor hopes that construction can start this year.

“There has been money committed and I’m pretty optimistic we’ll be in the ground maybe even in time for next winter’s operation,” he said.

Council is also anticipating a final report into housing needs in the city in ‘very near future’ and will be opening the doors to the new Lake Country Co-op Leisure Centre this spring.

The housing report will examine the existing inventory of housing in Prince Albert and project future demands.

In the area of social services, Powalinsky and the rest of council are hoping to capitalize on a budget promise by the Government of Saskatchewan to create complex or chronic needs centres to manage homelessness, addictions and criminality at their highest level.

A mobile health clinic is planned for Prince Albert and fundraising for the Ronald McDonald House has reached the halfway mark.

Work is still happening behind the scenes on other projects.

The convention centre that should become the second city facility in The Yard District will get the city’s green light once it gets some federal funding. Advocating is still going on, said Powalinsky.

“We recognize that in order to proceed with the project, we have to make sure that there’s adequate funding to move ahead and there’s lobbying efforts right now and there’s applications that are going up to the federal government for funding support,” he stated.

How fast federal funding is made available is another story and will probably not be this year. The project will still need funding from the city and possibly other sources as well. The last council brought the engineered plans to shovel ready status but also did not want to build without other funding sources.

Another project that comes and goes on the public radar is the OSB mill at the northeast edge of the city.

Powalinsky said that is still going on and those types of projects always take a long time. In October, the province announced an expansion of the wood allocation for the mill, which in turn led to renewed commitment from One Sky, the builder.

Up to 700 construction jobs would be created once building started and around 200 long-term positions.

The most recent schedule had building starting in 2025 with completion expected in 2027.

“The key thing here is that it’s a very innovative partnership between the province and the the First Nations communities and that is really a boost for community employment within the region.”

Powalinsky is also looking forward to his first State of the City address at the beginning of February. The annual speech by the mayor is done at a luncheon hosted by the Chamber of Commerce.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: @susanmcneil.bsky.social