Saskatoon's next mayor is going to have plenty of issues to contend with in the coming years.
That was the warning from long-serving Ward 4 Coun. Troy Davies Thursday, the day after Mayor Charlie Clark announced his intention not to run in the upcoming civic election later this year.
"It's not an easy job, and there's a lot of big things coming," Davies said.
Davies, who says he will not be campaigning for mayor in November, saluted Clark for his tireless efforts after serving as a councillor for 10 years and mayor for another two terms. Davies said even though he and Clark were often on opposing sides of council votes, he said Clark did well, considering the pressure he was under.
"The amount of integrity (Clark's) shown," Davies said. "Seventeen years and then some for him on council, which can be a lifetime at times. I wish him all the best and I'm very happy for him."
Clark is the first Saskatoon mayor since Cliff Wright in 1988 to willingly step down and not be voted out on election night.
After welcoming in long-awaited city projects like the opening of Nutrien Tower and KW Nasser Plaza, the opening of the Traffic Bridge and Mistawasis Bridge on the same day, Clark is leaving office with plenty of question marks about the future of the city.
"That's the hard part about leaving," Clark said. "There's things I'd really like to be able to see through ... but you don't get to have control over all of those things."
The long-awaited Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) program has been decades in the making, but there's been little progress on plans that have come to city council over the past five years.
Clark has faced increasing pressure in 2023 about how the city handled its homelessness crisis and helped facilitate a downtown emergency shelter's move to the Fairhaven area.
A proposed downtown event and entertainment district has also generated plenty of buzz and controversy over its potential costs and impacts for tthe city. While it is many years from breaking ground or opening, some key decisions await Clark's successor in 2024 and 2025.
"I'd actually would have liked to make more progress on homelessness and getting the continuum of care to better support people in the community in place and get more of the downtown development really driving," Clark said.
In the face of rising inflation and increasing cost of goods, Clark faced added pressure about city finances, and a $75 million budget shortfall reported earlier this year. To balance the books, council voted in property tax increases of 6.04 per cent in 2024 and 5.64 per cent in 2025.
"There's a lot of big things coming," Davies said. "Whether they have any council experience or not, you're going to be jumping into a $1.3 billion budget. Personally, I think it's high, so we're going to have to work together to get that a little lower, and that's going to be right on the shoulders of whoever is coming in as mayor."
Davies said there likely won't be any major decisions to finalize surrounding the proposed arena district, but there will be in 2025 and beyond.
Clark's announcement follows three other high-profile departures in recent months. Chief of Police Troy Cooper, Saskatoon Fire Department Chief Morgan Hackl and Saskatoon Public Library CEO Carol Cooley have all retired or announced resignations in the last three months.
With another election cycle coming to an end, some of the city's top leadership positions will have to be filled in the lead up to the civic election on Nov. 13.
