Martensville City Council held their final Committee of the Whole meeting of the year on Tuesday, December 14th.
The meeting began with a delegation from Councillor Jamie Martens regarding Moose Hide Campaign Day, an event taking place on February 10th, 2022 to bring Indigenous and non-Indigenous people from across Canada together to help end violence against women and children. Martens spoke to Council about the importance of this event and provided information.
Next, administration provided a report to Council regarding the SaskWater transition agreement between Saskatoon, Martensville and SaskWater. The City of Martensville has been working with Saskatoon since 2014 to provide water directly to the community without SaskWater’s involvement. This agreement would also include treatment of our wastewater.
In the report to Council provided by City Manager Scott Blevins, it is stated that, the transition fee, which was endorsed by P4G in 2017, is part of the master agreement between SaskWater and Saskatoon. “Saskatoon and Martensville will pay SaskWater two-thirds of the net margin loss incurred for a ten-year period after the supply of potable water is transition.” Payment for this will be made in 120 equal installments of $39,084 and will be split equally between Saskatoon and Martensville. This fee may be reduced to account for SaskWater securing new contracts to resell potable water to new customers with existing infrastructure.
Saskatoon has already approved the Master Service Agreement and the Transition Agreement, and the item will be brought back to Council next week for formal approval.
The next item on the agenda was regarding the fee for criminal record checks to be done. In 2006, the City of Martensville adopted a criminal record check fee of $10 with an exception for anyone seeking employment with the RCMP, City of Martensville, or for individuals volunteering with an organization in Martensville. This was rescinded in 2016 as Warman was not charging for criminal record checks and the RCMP wanted to have consistency between the two detachments.
It was recently noted that at our local detachments, RCMP Clerks spend a considerable amount of time conducting criminal record checks. In Saskatoon, a vulnerable sector check is $75 and a criminal record check is $45 with no exceptions. The RCMP Advisory Board Committee is recommending that a fee of $40 be charged for both a vulnerable sector check, as well as a criminal record check, with the same exemptions remaining in place.
This past November, the City of Martensville received a petition from residents within Aspen Parke Estates and Aspen Pointe Estates requesting that the City pave the gravel portion of 10th Avenue North from 3rd Street in front of the homes facing 10th, including the two condominiums to help reduce noise and dust. The petition was missing key requirements such as residential addresses, witness to signatures, as well as providing a representative of the petitioners, and was therefore deemed not sufficient; however, administration is seeking direction from Council regarding this.
Matt Gruza, Director of Infrastructure and Planning asked Council for direction regarding a proposal from Neptune Technology Group (NTG) to upgrade water meters within Martensville. This upgrade would allow meters to be read remotely. Currently, NTG is working on a water meter replacement program in Yorkton, and if Martensville were to approve this project before the end of the year, NTG could mobilize quickly, saving Martensville approximately $200,000. A final proposed price of $1,542,168 plus tax was provided. Although this is an unbudgeted cost, Gruza noted that there is additional Canada Community Building Funding that could potentially be diverted to offset some of these costs.
The final Council meeting of 2021 will be held on Tuesday, December 21st at 5pm in Council Chambers at City Hall. Meetings can also be attended virtually. See more information about this on page 2 of this weeks issue.
