Rhino's Ramblings: City Takes Charge
Robert Thomas
With an audible sigh of relief this past Friday at noon, the seemingly endless saga which is High Street West finally came to a head, with the City officially relieving Ungar Construction of their role in the project. The City will now finish the project on their own.
It's taken months of complaints from businesses and residents, which was then topped off with the street being awarded the dubious title from the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) as the Worst Road In Saskatchewan. It left the City with no real choice but to take action.
Now whether that action was the best route or not is something likely to be decided between lawyers. The final bill to the City may not be a financial one but rather one of lost prestige and wary contractors.
It's not an easy choice to make. But politically it looks like there's plenty of support.
I will be honest, I am not a lawyer but I will also tell you I know my fair share of them. I know lots of them from Hebrew School and we still keep in touch. A couple of my distant cousins have been to the Supreme Court of Canada on three separate occasions and done fairly well and it's to them I often ask legal advice from. It's sort of a mitzvah they do for their poorer cousin.
One of the things my distant cousins always tell me is never to be afraid to go to court but for the sake of your client's wallet try to negotiate a settlement. I'm guessing this is the likely route High Street's legal road might end up taking. But then again it all depends on your clients and sometimes emotions and pride cloud the picture.
With the bigger, out of town media painting the contractor, Ungar Construction, as the problem, this may well turn into a protracted battle. It all depends if it turns into a battle for cash or reputation. If it turns out to be the latter the legal stuff could go on for some time.
With that said, whether rightly or wrongly, something needed to be done on High Street and Council took decisive action.
After 11 months probably the smartest thing the City did was send Communications Director Craig Hemingway to pass out the City's press release and speak directly to the High Street West business owners. It's a smart move. But it's also one I cannot understand the City didn't do months ago.
The business owners on High Street took and are still enduring losses on a major scale. I've seen their books, the losses are real and I cannot fathom how some managed to survive. I also cannot say what they did to deserve what happened to them.
One of the big questions I've been asked about all of this is why did Council hold a special Friday meeting and not wait to deal with the issue at Monday night's regular council meeting? It's a question I cannot answer.
My best guess is that it's a case of "the sooner the better", "let's get this done" and "enough is enough".
For those of you who are hardcore Council watchers it's also the first full week of new City Manager's Jim Puffalt's tenure. Mayor Frasier Tolmie even made mention of it in the media scrum following the meeting, for those of you who watched it on the City Facebook page. The Mayor also let it slip that the City had been working on this with Puffalt before his active employment. It's seemingly not a knee-jerk reaction.
Whereas those who are conspiracy theorists tell me it's to keep the issue under wraps with the Canadian Federation of Business (CFIB), set to appear at Executive Committee Monday night. The CFIB is, in some ways, displacing the Moose Jaw and District Chamber of Commerce on this issue.
Monday night's council meeting is televised and who knows what might crop up for those tuning in. With Councillor Brian Swanson noticeably absent from Friday's special Council Meeting could there be more to this? Is there some skullduggery going on? Is there a dissenting voice on Council? And if so, for what reasons? Is there something being missed in all of this?
In their report, which the CFIB will present at the untelevised Executive Committee, are the comments they gathered by speaking directly to High Street businesses that are far more damning than anything I've written. It is also where the CFIB is going to release a major study into the cost of construction upon businesses and calls for compensation. High Street is about to become a national metaphor for something much larger.
The CFIB is well respected in the business community and criticism by them can impact investment more than the CAA Worst Road moniker ever can.
That's how ugly High Street has become. The public fallout is rougher than the street itself is.
Now, is the route Council has taken the best one? It's something I cannot say but I will say that they had to do something and do it quickly.
With that said, if the City wants to win the PR war on this one they need precise, timely and frequent communication with all of those affected on High Street. Anything less is not going to work. Silence might be the golden rule but not in this case.
The City is going to have to mobilize quickly and get the job done. It's as simple as that, delays, no matter how reasonable, are likely to be seen by many as a sign that nothing has changed. The public might be on the City's side but it's really on a razor's edge with public opinion set to quickly fall the other way rapidly.
With that said, at the same time the City has three other waterworks projects to complete - the new line out to the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant, the reservoir repairs and Phase III of cast iron water main replacement - this Summer. In the words of the Mayor the time to replace infrastructure is long overdue.
It's likely to be another Summer of detours but hopefully the lessons of 2017 and High Street have been learnt and we won't see a repeat. If we do I'm guessing the general public is not going to be so forgiving.
Editor's Note - This is an opinion column it is designed to get readers to think harder on the issues. As such, MJ Independent encourages other opinions as well. We welcome letters or even alternative commentary in response to this or any other topic.