Thank you for considering my candidacy for one of Saskatchewan’s positions on FCM’s Board of Directors. As elected municipal officials, we have first-hand knowledge of the importance of FCM’s advocacy and programs in vital areas including infrastructure funding, western economic development, and environment sustainability. Safety and policing, particularly dealing with drugs and gangs, and community health and well-being, especially tackling homelessness, are challenging all Saskatchewan hometowns.
My six years of experience on the SUMA Board of Directors has helped me understand effective advocacy. My service on SUMA committees including intergovernmental affairs, bylaw and governance, convention planning and resolutions, and environment, has shown me that communities large and small, from all provincial regions, are stronger when we face our common challenges together.
For the past ten years, through three elections, I have worked with Regina city council on policies that will make our city a renewable, net-zero community by 2050. In the spirit of reconciliation, we have participated with our Indigenous partners through programs such as our recently adopted Indigenous procurement policy. We have also provided new funding and service delivery coordination to confront the intertwined challenges of poverty, addiction and homelessness.
Recently, I have co-chaired a council committee studying downtown revitalization through major above ground infrastructure projects. In my own ward, I have led campaigns to redevelop one neighbourhood park and to create a community association in a new sub-division. I have worked as a Board member on the Provincial Capital Commission to preserve Wascana park as a nature habitat. On another front, my introduction of a bylaw to fluoridate our city’s drinking water will dramatically improve the dental health of our young citizens.
I grew up in Dauphin, Manitoba, and earned degrees in law and history from the universities of Manitoba, Toronto, Oxford, Yale and the Panthéon-Sorbonne. My career as a law professor and university administrator has taken me to Kingston, London and North Bay in Ontario, to Antigonish in Nova Scotia, and finally back to my prairie roots when I became President of the University of Regina in 2005. My volunteer service has focused on children. Serving as president of the Board of Directors of the Children’s Hospital Foundations in London, and subsequently in in Saskatchewan, at a time when both foundations were raising funds for new children’s hospitals, has allowed me to give back to my community.
There has never been a time when FCM’s advocacy has been more important to Saskatchewan’s cities, towns, villages and the north. I believe that my experience equips me to make a meaningful contribution and bring a strong Saskatchewan voice to FCM. For that reason, I am asking for your vote. Thank you.