News Releases

The City of Saskatoon (City) and University of Saskatchewan (USask) recently collaborated on a study to see if chemicals that leach from rubber tires are entering the stormwater system. Water that enters storm drains, through snowmelt or rain runoff, flows into the South Saskatchewan River.

“Chemicals from rubber tire leachate have been associated with mortalities in Coho salmon in Washington State,” says Markus Brinkmann, USask Assistant Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability. “However, we currently don’t know the effects on wildlife in our region. The results, in what we believe is the first study of its kind in a Canadian municipality, show high readings of the tire rubber related compounds in Saskatoon’s runoff.”

The findings are a result of samples taken from snow facilities, snowmelt puddles, and about a dozen outfall sites along the South Saskatchewan River within the city in 2019 and 2020. The study indicates the high concentrations may relate to occasional but intense rainstorms in the summer and snowmelt in the winter. Both types of events can lead to significant accumulation followed by sudden flushing of tire rubber chemicals from roads into the stormwater system.

Russ Munro, Director of Saskatoon Water, says further research is required to better understand the factors driving the findings.

“This is a great example of why continued research and partnerships with institutions like the University of Saskatchewan are so important. Saskatoon Water operates within the guidelines set out by the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency and we’ll work with them to determine what next steps should be.”

Munro points to positive City initiatives already in place that are designed to protect the environment from contents within stormwater. Initiatives include the annual street sweeping program, numerous storm ponds that help reduce contaminants and manage water runoff, and the new Snow Management Facility. Melt water from the Snow Management Facility runs through an oil and grit separator into a meltwater/stormwater pond. The meltwater then enters a series of specially designed barriers before being discharged in a controlled fashion into the stormwater system. The City also participates in the Yellow Fish Road Program to educate residents about the impact communities can have on water runoff.

The study has been supported through an Engage Grant of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Because the risks to species of fishes and aquatic organisms in the South Saskatchewan River are unknown, the USask team has submitted a grant application to dig deeper into the mechanisms of toxicity. Another joint application from USask and the City that focuses on detection of the compounds is being prepared.

The study has been published in the peer-reviewed Environmental Science & Technology Letters.

On Monday, October 4, the Administration will present an information report to the Standing Policy Committee of Environment, Utilities and Corporate Services outlining the proposed service level and budget requirements to support the new waste diversion regulations for the Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional (ICI) Sector.

The proposal aligns and expands on a January 2020 report to City Council. The program includes administration, education, and support to improve compliance and reduce the administrative burden on businesses. The annual operating cost of $284,000 for the program services would be considered in the City’s 2022-2023 budget process later this year.

“This is a good step forward in achieving our waste reduction and diversion target,” says Angela Gardiner, General Manager of Utilities and Environment. “By implementing the necessary service levels to support these programs, we expect to divert approximately 5,400 tonnes of recyclable and organic waste from the City’s landfill every year, extending its life by approximately 5%.”

At its meeting on August 30, 2021, City Council passed Bylaw No. 9775, The Waste Amendment Bylaw, 2021. With a phased-in approach beginning in 2022, all businesses and organizations will be required to have a separate container for recycling, and those that generate food or yard waste as part of their operations will be required to have a separate organics waste container.

The full report and attachments can be found here.

Progress updates and a decision history can be found at saskatoon.ca/iciwastediversion.

• Wallet cards received at time of immunization
• A printed copy of your MySaskHealthRecord vaccine certificate (with or without a QR code) or a ‘screenshot’ of your vaccine certificate (with or without a QR code) saved to your device
• An earlier version of your MySaskHealthRecord COVID-19 vaccine certificate
• A COVID-19 vaccine printout from Saskatchewan Health Authority Public Health
• To come - A QR code/MySaskHealthRecord vaccine certificate uploaded to SK Vax Wallet app which will be available free from Google Play or Apple App stores
• Official proof of vaccine documents from other provinces may be considered

September 30th marks the first annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in our country’s history. Previously, Sept. 30th has been recognized as Orange Shirt Day and wearing an orange shirt continues to be one way to acknowledge the day.

The federal government created this federal statutory holiday in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action #80: “to honour Survivors, their families, and communities, and ensure that public commemoration of the history and legacy of residential schools remains a vital component of the reconciliation process.”

The City of Saskatoon will be observing the stat to demonstrate a commitment to reconciliation and so that employees may participate in events that promote healing and awareness and reflect on the residential school legacy.

Saskatoon City Mayor, Charlie Clark says: “This is a day for all Saskatonians and Canadians to take time to honour the strength and resilience of Survivors of residential schools. We acknowledge the pain that they, and their families, have carried for generations. And we recognize that this pain was brought on by government policy and the churches that ran the residential schools.”  

He continues: “In naming these truths on this day, we must recommit to building a future that overcomes the colonial thinking that allowed residential schools and policies to be established. Instead, we must create relationships and systems based on mutual respect where every person is valued to be who they were meant to be.”

In order to establish and maintain a mutually respectful relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) found that “there has to be awareness of the past, an acknowledgement of the harm that has been inflicted, atonement for the causes, and action to change behaviour.”

Melissa Cote, the City’s Director of Indigenous Initiatives says: “The impacts of residential schools are felt by generations of Indigenous families. This day is a day to honour all the children who went to residential school. We need to acknowledge that it's going to take generations to heal from the trauma and effects of residential schools. It will be hard work, but important and meaningful work that we all have the responsibility to carry out.” 

The City has been actively engaged – as a municipality, Co-Chair of Reconciliation Saskatoon, and through other community partnerships – in efforts to help raise awareness about the day and in providing opportunities to participate. This Community Calendar of Events hosted on the City website contains dozens of activities and initiatives that the City and other organizations have organized. Through its work with Reconciliation Saskatoon (City as Co-Chair), new reconciliation resources are being shared such as this Personal Commitment to Reconciliation and this Pathway for Moving Forward.

Saskatoon Transit buses and other City vehicles will be displaying orange t-shirt stencils this week. The City social media channels and website are being “painted orange”. City Hall, the Prairie Wind art installation and SaskTel Centre will light up orange Sept. 29-30. The flags on City-owned facilities will be lowered to half-mast to honour Survivors, those that never made it home, and the families impacted by residential schools.

Residential school Survivor John Merasty says this about Sept. 30th: “Don’t stay at home. We need to go out to the street on Orange Shirt Day. Maybe someone will be asking, why are you wearing this shirt and you can tell them why. The students should learn about Indian people and the struggles that they lived and they are continuing living today.”

The City’s winter roads emergency response plan was approved by City Council on Monday, September 27. With this response plan in place, extra staffing and contractor resources would be activated to restore mobility after a blizzard with an accumulated snow fall of at least 25 centimetres and reduced mobility to the point that light vehicles cannot travel on city streets. This plan was developed by the Administration after 30-40 centimetres of snow fell in November 2020, which required day and night city-wide snow grading and removal to restore mobility and safety in the city.

“We have a fine-tuned response plan for snowstorms that we scale up for the handful of times each year when more than 5 centimetres of snow accumulates,” says Goran Saric, Director of Roadways, Fleet & Support. “And now, this plan is a more robust, multi-agency strategy for a future extreme event like we saw in November, allowing us to respond faster and more efficiently city-wide.”

The response plan was developed using lessons learned from the November 2020 blizzard and examples from other winter cities, with input from other agencies and stakeholders to ensure it follows an approach that works for the whole community.

Residents should have an emergency plan too. “Residents should always have a 72-hour emergency plan for any emergency event.  You should be prepared to take care of yourself and your family for a minimum of 72 hours (about 3 days),” says Pamela Goulden-McLeod, Director of Emergency Planning. “It could take that long for emergency services to reach you in a city-wide emergency at any time of year.”

The City’s previous extreme blizzard was in 2007 when 36 centimetres of snow fell in one day. Projections using 30 years of historical data for Saskatoon estimate this type of blizzard may occur again in 10 to 14 years. As the frequency and severity of inclement weather is predicted to increase with climate change, the frequency of future extreme snow events may be higher (e.g., 1 occurrence every 7 years).

More information and education about the response plan will be available this winter. For more information about the City’s regular winter operations, visit saskatoon.ca/snow. 

• green – minimal risk
• yellow - caution
• orange – high risk
• red – critical risk

• review of current Public Health Orders
• review of current COVID-19 situation
• consultation with local MHO and other key stakeholders
• review by City Council
• any approved measures would be activated on the first day of the next month and would remain in place until a review at the next Council meeting

Over 2,500 participants have registered for the virtual 2021 Wîcihitowin Indigenous Engagement Conference on October 5-7. The event will provide registrants with important teachings to assist them on their paths to reconciliation.

“With registration closing tonight at 11:59 p.m., we can announce that this year will be our largest group of attendees to date,” says Brad Bird, Co-Chair of the Wîcihitowin Organizing Committee and Director of Reconciliation, Saskatoon Public Library. “We are looking forward to welcoming thousands of people virtually to learn from our speakers—including Residential School Survivors and Knowledge Keepers—about the Seven Sacred Teachings that guide Indigenous Peoples’ ways of knowing.”

Established in 2014, the Wîcihitowin Conference was created to provide Residential School Survivors and Sixties Scoop Survivors with a platform to share their voices and teachings, to inspire respectful engagement and meaningful inclusion of Indigenous peoples within the community, and to share resources and tools to form and maintain culturally respectful organizations. “Wîcihitowin”, a Cree/Saulteaux term meaning “to help each other/to work together”, is the driving force for the now annual event.

“The Wîcihitowin conference provides an opportunity for community members to learn from survivors and for survivors to share their experiences, resilience and strength,” says Gilbert Kewistep, a Residential School Survivor and advisor to the conference organizing committee. “I want to thank everyone who chooses to virtually attend the conference, because fully committing your time and attention to learning matters. And, these conversations matter.”

“The City makes a point to contribute financial and human resource support to this conference every year,” says Melissa Cote, Director of Indigenous Initiatives for the City of Saskatoon. “The feedback we get from this event is always incredible – how it influenced individuals and organizations to change their thinking as well as their practices. Past participants feel that this conference has contributed to progress on Indigenous engagement and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action.”

The theme of this year’s conference is The Seven Sacred Teachings: love, respect, courage, honesty, wisdom, humility and truth. These inherent beliefs and values guide Indigenous Peoples’ ways of knowing and are shared by generations through oral traditions of storytelling and ceremony. The conference presentations will demonstrate how the Seven Sacred Teachings can guide people through their personal journeys; help community members, organizations, governments, and businesses respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action; and ensure respectful Indigenous engagement and inclusion within communities.

2021 conference presenters include:

• Chief Cadmus Delorme, Cowessess First Nation
• Dr. Cindy Blackstock, Executive Director, First Nations Child and Family Caring Society
• Dr. Dave Courchene - Nii Gaani Aki Innini (Leading Earth Man), Elder and Knowledge Keeper, Anishinaabe Nation
• Richard Van Camp, Storyteller and Author, Dene Nation from Fort Smith, Northwest Territories
• Stephanie Harpe, Residential School Survivor, International Advocate for Murdered, Missing and Exploited Indigenous Peoples, Singer/Songwriter
• Representatives from the Saskatoon Survivors Circle

“It’s important that we acknowledge there are so many different ways of learning,” says Bird. “This conference provides many Indigenous and non-Indigenous people with a connection to traditional teachings—I promise that the content will be eye-opening and thought-provoking whether you’re attending for the first time or the seventh.”

Registration is available free of charge at wicihitowin.ca, closing on September 27 at 11:59 p.m. (CST). For conference updates, you can also follow Wîcihitowin YXE on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

The Wîcihitowin Indigenous Engagement Conference is made possible through contributions from the City of Saskatoon, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, Saskatchewan Health Authority, Saskatoon Public Library, United Way & Area, Saskatoon Community Foundation, and Nutrien (premier investor).

In response to the new provincial public health measures, the City wishes to remind residents that masks are required when traveling on Saskatoon Transit and when accessing indoor City-operated facilities and services. City Council approved the action at its meeting on Monday, August 30 as an added safety measure to address the increasing spread of COVID-19 in our community and it is now required and enforceable under the public health order.

According to the Government of Saskatchewan public health order, youth athletes under age 18 are exempt from the masking order for indoor youth athletics and while they are actively engaged in athletic activity. Masking in venues hosting youth athletics will remain required for general entry and exit into the facility, for athletes and spectators. 

The Government of Saskatchewan also introduced a mandatory vaccination or COVID testing requirement for all Government of Saskatchewan ministry, crown and agency employees. These employees will be required to be fully vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine by October 1. Employees that do not provide proof of vaccination will be required to provide proof of a negative test result on a consistent basis. 

The City has been planning the launch of regular mandatory COVID-19 rapid tests for all staff who report to the workplace, with adjustments for fully vaccinated staff who choose to share their vaccination status. The program will launch October 4 for City staff.

At the earlier request of City Council and in response to the Government of Saskatchewan’s October 1 requirement to show proof of vaccination or negative test for public access to certain establishments, businesses and event venues that bring groups of people together, the City will explore the impact to civic facilities, programs and services once full details of the proof of vaccination system and technology are shared by the province.

More details on the Government of Saskatchewan’s announcement are available on their website. For the latest updates, visit saskatoon.ca/covid-19. 

The City welcomes a decision of the provincial government to place further restrictions on social gatherings.

“Based on discussions with our Director of Emergency Management, City Council and Senior Administration I gave notice for a Special City Council meeting at 3:30 this afternoon,” says Mayor Charlie Clark.  “This was done in anticipation of needing to take further steps in addressing the growing concern that as we try to reduce the risk of spread of COVID-19, gathering in restaurants and bars was an ongoing risk in our community.

“Based on the announcement today by the provincial government that additional restrictions for bars and restaurants will be included in the Provincial State of Emergency restrictions, the Special City Council meeting is cancelled."

“We thank the Province for providing leadership with this difficult decision,” Mayor Clark says. “We know it has significant impacts on many local businesses”

Mayor Clark adds this decision will meet the local advice he is hearing from the City’s Emergency Management team about what is needed to keep our community as safe as possible at this time. 

Director of Emergency Management Organization Pamela Goulden-McLeod echoes Mayor Clark’s sentiment.

“The Saskatoon Emergency Management Organization would like to thank the Province of Saskatchewan for their leadership and direction in enacting the extended measures to support our provinces safety during this unprecedented event,” Goulden-McLeod says.

“The provincial government’s bravery in taking these extraordinary measures will make a significant difference within our communities. We value the hard work of our provincial partners and we continue to look forward working together in this ongoing rapidly changing situation.”