Weyburn as a community, and as a city, has led by example at various times, and once again the city has taken a leadership role for the province with the passing of the new WeyburnDistrict Plan recently.
Weyburn as a community, and as a city, has led by example at various times, and once again the city has taken a leadership role for the province with the passing of the new WeyburnDistrict Plan recently.
As a fitting symbol of what was involved in the drafting and developmentof this plan over the last three years, the councils for the City and RM of Weyburn met for a historical joint session, after which they were able to hand the plan over directly to the minister of Government Relations, Jim Reiter, for his department's perusal and approval.
This was fitting for the express reason that the District Plan is all about cooperation and collaboration, as the municipalities seek to coordinate the efforts to promote Weyburn as a region, and not simply as just the city, or just the RM area around it. This is precisely the sort of cooperation that developers look for when considering what areas to build in, and of course they are attracted when the municipalities themselves work well together in their efforts to promote the best areas for development.
As Reiter told the joint session of councils, there are unfortunately many examples where the adjoining municipalities simply do not get along, and rather than getting plans drawn up, there are drawn-out arguments and disputes about who gets what and for how much - and in general, make for a bad business environment.
Part of what makes Saskatchewan attractive was not only the economic growth and expansion of recent years, but even when the growth slows down there is still a heart for seeing developments go forward in a sustainable ongoing fashion. This is what a District Plan can promote and enable to go forward, and the Weyburn region is now in a perfect position to allow this to occur.
The City and RM haven't always been in such a cooperative mood, as over the years, various issues have arisen to cause disputes to arise; what other municipal regions can take heart from is how, with a purposeful effort put forward, two municipalities can hammer out all of their issues and concerns to mutual benefit of all area residents and businesses.
This can only be a good thing for the future planning of the Weyburn region, as symbolized by the historic joint session of council, and thus is Weyburn once again leading the province. - Greg Nikkel
