City councillors discuss items on the agenda during an earlier budget meeting. (Kenneth Cheung/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By battlefordsNOW Staff

Emerg plan

The Battlefords working on a resolution following miscommunication over regional plan

Feb 5, 2025 | 3:13 PM

The City of North Battleford and the Town of Battleford are working towards finding a resolution after some miscommunication about funding for a 2023 Regional Emergency Management Plan.

The City claims there was an agreed upon funding request between them, the Rural Municipality (R.M.) of North Battleford and the Town of Battleford, to share the cost of the $100,000 plan that would help the area better prepare for things like natural disasters.

The project received a $75,000 Targeted Sector Support grant from the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association. The remaining $25,000 would be shared by the City which would contribute $15,000 while the RM and Town would each take $5,000.

Battleford Mayor Ames Leslie, however, said the Town didn’t agree to pay for anything. He said they only agreed to support the submission of an application for the grant.

“Some time ago, the city approached the town about whether we would support their application funding through the government for this,” he said.

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“The resolution is very clear that the council of the Town of Battleford would support the City of North Battleford for this application,” he said.

Leslie said nowhere in that discussion or that agreement did the Town say it would help fund anything, nor was the Town directly asked for funding.

“Then all of a sudden there was an expectation put on the Town that we would pay $5,000,” he said.

The issue was spoken about during a budget meeting in January by City Councillor Greg Lightfoot.

“I feel really slighted as a community that they would not fund something like this or approve something like this based on the small amount of dollars that was asked of them to cover this,” he said.

Lightfoot said the study was developed for the region as a whole and its something the Town would benefit from.

“It’s unfortunate that the Town of Battleford does not want to cover this off and pay this and ask our taxpayers to write this off,” he said.

Lightfoot acknowledged there may have been some miscommunication between their then-CAO and Leslie agreed.

“I can’t speak to what the CAO promised on behalf of the Town, but the CAO has no authority to promise anything on behalf of council or the Town without support of council,” he said.

Lightfoot said its upsetting to have to deal with the issue between the Town and City in public “but unfortunately this is the way things are.”

The two communities had scheduled a meeting to try and solve the cost sharing dispute, however, Leslie was unable to attend.

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cjnb-news@pattisonmedia.com