Nipawin's three mayoral candidates - (left to right) Rennie Harper, Brian Starkell, and Marlon Zacharias - partook in an all candidates mayoral forum ahead of the Nov. 9 municipal election (Facebook/Nipawin and District Chamber of Commerce).

By Aaron Schulze

Nipawin Election 2020

Projects, homelessness, and box stores highlight Nipawin mayoral forum

Nov 4, 2020 | 3:00 PM

A week before the 2020 Saskatchewan municipal elections, the Nipawin and District Chamber of Commerce hosted a pair of municipal all candidate forums.

In the Nipawin mayoral forum, the three candidates – incumbent Rennie Harper, Brian Starkell, and Marlon Zacharias – touched on hot button issues for the town ahead of the election.

Projects

Harper was asked if there were any projects or tasks council didn’t accomplish in her first mayoral term that she’d like to complete if re-elected. She said the heliport and an Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program application on behalf of the BARWA Landfill.

“It’s a huge application – $3.5 million – that will need to be completed within the next two years,” Harper said. “We’ll be required to close and decommission the old landfill. Whether or not we have federal and provincial funds to do that, that will still have to be done.”

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Zacharias said it’s not in his mindset to stop a project already underway just because it’s not exactly how he wanted to do it, while Starkell said he doesn’t see a problem continuing with any projects needed once council and administration are on the same page.

Homelessness

Zacharias said the biggest thing the Town of Nipawin could do to address homelessness and housing issues would be to expand housing within the community.

“I do have a few opportunities that I think we can do in terms of bringing in private developers that want to bring in the potential for tiny homes and other opportunities like that,” Zacharias said. “Where somebody doesn’t necessarily want to have a home that is 1,200 sq. ft., we can definitely downsize and offer small, more affordable houses to young families or homeless people.”

Harper said she’s aware of Medicine Hat’s plan to end homelessness and would like to replicate it with help from Nipawin’s community pandemic oversight community, which provides input from 20 different organizations.

Starkell said council would have to work with other municipalities and developers and see if Nipawin could get smaller homes for families and duplexes or apartment buildings.

Box stores and small business

Starkell said if Nipawin wanted to bring in big box stores, the companies would have to purchase and develop land themselves.

“It’d be a struggle for small businesspeople that have been in Nipawin for many years and supporting our local community,” Starkell said. “I think it’s very important that we look after them as well.”

Zacharias said there’s always a concern that big box stores would hurt local business in small communities but added that these stores are eventually going to end up in northeast Saskatchewan. He would rather see some of them developing in Nipawin to supporting local employment and paying their taxes to the community.

Harper said there have been discussions with Walmart and Canadian Tire, but it’s their decisions on if they want to set up shop in Nipawin. She said big box stores in Nipawin is something the town has to work towards, but it’s not something she’d like to see “happen tomorrow.” She encouraged local entrepreneurs to step up and start new businesses in Nipawin.

The near one-hour mayoral forum, and the 90-minute council forum, can be viewed online.

The 2020 Saskatchewan municipal elections take place Monday, Nov. 9.

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow