News Releases

Until further notice, the Water Security Agency (WSA) has issued a “Do Not Use” notice for an address in the Rosewood neighbourhood.

“First of all, I want to express our frustration that we’ve made this discovery in a different developing area of Saskatoon,” says Angela Gardiner, Acting General Manager of Transportation and Utilities “Hydrocarbons have been detected in three hydrants on the line that supplies Costco.”

“Right now we are conducting water tests to check the supply in the lines beyond the hydrants.  However, because we found hydrocarbons in these three hydrants, it means the WSA has ordered – as a strict precaution – the water supply can’t be used for personal contact.”

“Our investigation in Aspen Ridge revealed some information that led us to probe other areas under development and this is part of the overall ongoing investigation,” Gardiner says.

“We want answers just like everyone else and unfortunately we don’t have those answers at this point. Until we know, the safest course of action is to abide by the WSA’s order.”

City staff have met with the affected business officials to communicate the WSA order and to answer any questions they may have.

The City of Saskatoon’s Emergency Measures Organization (EMO) report that yesterday’s May 10, 6:00 p.m. test message sent to Saskatoon residents was executed successfully. With twice-yearly testing, more and more residents are becoming familiar with notifynow emergency notification messages.

“Saskatoon’s population is now over 270,000 and growing. So far, we’ve had just over 23,000 residents customize their notifynow profile,” says Pamela Goulden-McLeod, Director of Emergency Planning. “We are pleased that this number continues to grow, but we would really like to see more residents tell us their preferred method of communication. It’s important to remember that notifynow can’t reach you and your family if you have incomplete or out-of-date contact information in the notifynow system.”

Did you receive your notifynow test message? Have you taken steps to be prepared, connected and informed in the event of a citywide emergency or one affecting only your neighbourhood?

“If you have a phone number that is publicly available, you may be in the notifynow system,” says Goulden-McLeod. “However, we encourage residents to visit the City’s website to indicate how they want to receive their notifynow emergency notification messages. Many residents now prefer cell phone, text or email, or maybe all of these options.”

It’s easy to customize your notifynow profile and your communication preferences. Help notifynow reach you - and more Saskatoon residents with timely, trusted and targeted emergency notification messages.

“Notifynow messages should play an important part of you and your family’s emergency preparedness plan,” adds Goulden-McLeod. “These emergency safety messages can tell you what to do, what to expect, or even where to go in an emergency situation, and this greatly helps to reduce stress for you and your family.”

Visit saskatoon.ca/notifynow today to customize your preferences or call 306-975-3210 for more information.

The Saskatoon Emergency Measures Organization (EMO) encourages residents to take steps to Be Emergency Ready during Emergency Preparedness Week, May 6 to 12.

“Everyone has a role to play in emergency preparedness,” says Pamela Goulden-McLeod, Director of Emergency Planning. “Making sure your household is well-prepared helps to reduce stress in the event of an emergency.”

Emergency Notification Tests

Wednesday, May 9 at 1:55 p.m.

Canada Alert Ready

• This is the first test of this system.
• The Canada Alert Ready test will be sent via Canadian radio and TV, cable and satellite operators. Emergency alerts will also be sent to compatible wireless devices connected to LTE networks.
• Residents do not have to sign-up for Canada Alert Ready emergency notifications.
• Visit alertready.ca for more information.

Thursday, May 10 at 6:00 p.m.

Citywide notifynow test  

• Tested twice a year, notifynow is a trusted, timely and targeted emergency notification system for the residents of Saskatoon that plays an essential part in reaching residents in instances of emergency.
• Should you receive a notifynow message - you’ll know what to do, where to go and what to expect.
• Tell us how to best reach you in the event of a large-scale emergency, or one affecting only your neighbourhood. Sign-up for this free service to customize your preferred communication method and profile.
• Visit saskatoon.ca/notifynow for more information.

In addition to the two emergency tests next week, Saskatoon EMO emphasizes the importance of personal preparedness through these three steps: know the risks, make a plan, and get a kit.

Emergency Preparedness Week began in 1996 and is an annual, national event coordinated by Public Safety Canada.  The week highlights the importance of personal preparedness and raises awareness of the importance of having an emergency kit, making an emergency plan, and identifying risks that may be specific to a region.

Saskatoon residents wanting to learn more about personal emergency preparedness may call Saskatoon EMO at 306-975-3210 or visit saskatoon.ca/notifynow.

The Building Better Roads program is aiming to improve another 206 lane kilometres of roadway and replace more than 20 kilometers of sidewalk during the 2018 construction season. Since the establishment of a dedicated road levy in 2014, 876 lane kilometers of roadway have been improved and 36 kilometers of sidewalk have been replaced under the program.

“Now that a funding base has been built up, we have an annual funding level of $61 million to cover road construction, road repair, pothole patching, sidewalk rehabilitation, back lane upgrades, street sweeping, and snow and ice management for the year,” says Angela Gardiner, Acting General Manager of Transportation and Utilities. “Various projects are scheduled in 2018 - everything from resurfacing to total rehabilitations. This season also includes the completion of some major projects that will alleviate congestion and improve traffic flow on main arterials.”

Key 2018 Building Better Roads funded projects include:

• Circle Drive over 33^rd Street – rehabilitation of northbound overpass
• Arlington Avenue and Taylor Street - intersection improvements
• Victoria Avenue - rehabilitation
• Idylwyld Drive North - resurfacing
• Water and sewer improvements (i.e. Idylwyld Drive, City Park)

Gardiner says residents will continue to see 24-hour work in various construction zones to allow the projects to be completed timely and effectively, while reducing the impact to drivers, residents and businesses.

“This is shaping up to be another busy construction season so we would like to remind drivers about the importance of respecting work zones, for their safety and for the safety of the people working in them.

“Day or night, when you see lights, reflective cones and work zone signage, slow down, obey signage, and pay attention, even when construction work may appear halted or complete.”

In addition to Building Better Roads funded projects, traffic flow on the east side of Saskatoon will vastly improve this fall with the opening of the North Commuter Parkway and a new interchange at McOrmond Drive and College Drive.

“The North Commuter Parkway will connect commuters from neighbourhoods in the northeast to the Marquis Industrial area, alleviating congestion on Attridge Drive and Circle Drive,” says Gardiner. “The new interchange at McOrmond Drive and College Drive will not only cut down on traffic congestion, but also serve as a safe pedestrian connection between the Willowgrove and Arbor Creek neighbourhoods to Brighton.” 

Downtown, a new wider and taller Traffic Bridge will also open this fall, once again providing a convenient link for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists crossing the South Saskatchewan River.

Facts and Resources:

When the 2018 construction season is complete, the Building Better Roads program will have rehabilitated 1,085 lane kilometres of roadway! That’s roughly the one-way distance from City Hall to Salmon Arm, BC. The 56 kilometers of sidewalk replaced would create a path the distance from City Hall to Borden.

Saskatoon.ca/betterroads (construction, street sweeping, Report a Pothole map)
Saskatoon.ca/interchanges (McOrmond/College & Boychuk/Highway 16 interchanges)
Saskatoon.ca/bridging (North Commuter Parkway and Traffic Bridge)

Residential street sweeping starts on Monday, May 7 for up to seven weeks through 56 neighbourhoods. In addition to positing bright yellow No Parking signs ahead of sweeping, the City is inviting people to search their sweep day by address to plan ahead.

“It’s really important for people to move their vehicles by 7 a.m. on their sweeping day so we can properly sweep the area,” says Brandon Harris, Director of Roadways & Operations. “This new search function is designed to make it easy for people to plan ahead and avoid parking on a street scheduled for sweeping.”

After a successful pilot project in 2017, priority streets through neighbourhoods with high on-street parking were fully swept in April, leaving these areas free for parking when the surrounding streets are scheduled. 

“There are fewer vehicles relocated each year as people become familiar with the signs and we can offer alternative streets for parking,” says Harris. “Even so, too many people are ignoring the No Parking signs and the last thing we want to have to do is ticket and tow residents so we can do a good job.”   

In order to sweep streets from curb to curb, vehicles left on the street are relocated to a nearby location, which may be outside of their neighbourhood or on a previously swept street. The driver then has to locate their vehicle and pay a $100 parking violation.

If your vehicle is relocated, you can use the Find My Vehicle! search function or contact the 24-hour customer service centre at 306-975-2476.

Search your sweep day and find other information about street sweeping at saskatoon.ca/sweeping. Street Sweeping Service Alerts will be issued if there is a change to the residential sweeping schedule.

As of January 1, 2018, China, which buys approximately two-thirds of North America's recyclables, set new standards which prohibit the importation of recovered paper bales that are overly contaminated with plastic film (stretchy plastics such as bags and wrap).

The resulting decrease in market options and increased demand for higher quality recyclable materials means that Saskatoon’s recyclers cannot sell all the material that they are collecting and are instead stockpiling a substantial portion.

“Soft stretchable plastics too easily end up in bales of paper and cardboard which is the cause of the contamination that will no longer meet China’s standards.” says Brenda Wallace, Director of Environmental and Corporate Initiatives. “By eliminating plastic film from our recycling program we are able to ensure our other materials, such as paper and cardboard – which make up 76 per cent of our recyclable materials – are still meeting global standards and can continue to be recycled.”

To help explain the new change to the program, a communications campaign launched April 30, 2018.  It promotes tips for reducing the use of plastic film while encouraging the use of reusable products such as cloth bags, and hard plastic and glass containers.

With the recognition plastic film can’t be avoided sometimes, the campaign also promotes some helpful tips for re-using bags and film to keep it from being a one-time use item.

The recycling campaign supports the Strategic Goal of Environmental Leadership and the City’s target of diverting 70% of waste by 2023.

For more City of Saskatoon Public Service Announcements, News Releases, Traffic Detours and Service Alerts, visit www.saskatoon.ca or connect with the City of Saskatoon on Twitter and Facebook.

• 2017 - The SASF program was featured as an international case study by the Global Environmental Education Partnership (GEEP)
• 2017 - St. Volodymyr School’s participating grade 7/8 class received the Rob Dumont Energy Management Education Award
• 2016 - St. Anne School’s participating grade 8 class received the Rob Dumont Energy Management Youth Award
• 2013 - The SASF program received a Regional Centre for Expertise Award for Education for Sustainable Development
• 2013 - The SASF program received the Saskatchewan Waste Reduction Council Waste Minimization Award for Youth/Schools

Warm weather has arrived after a long winter and is now causing ice on the City’s lakes and ponds to deteriorate or rot. The Saskatoon Fire Department now asks people to stay off the ice since it may be unstable.

Assistant Chief Wayne Rodger says Saskatoon Fire Department staff have evaluated the ice conditions and have determined the ponds are no longer safe for recreational use.

“The degradation we’re observing along the shoreline could make access treacherous,” Rodger says.  “Once the ice starts to deteriorate -- as it has this year -- the thickness of the ice is no longer an indication of its strength.”

He says with warmer temperatures, several different factors come into play to make the ice unstable:

• When the snow cover melts, the sunlight and solar radiation travels through clear ice and is absorbed by the water below causing it to warm.  Through this process the ice melts from the bottom up. The solar radiation causes ice crystals to deteriorate dramatically weakening the ice.  Because this happens from the bottom up, even ice that appears stable may not be safe.

• When water pools on top of the ice, perhaps from the melting snow cover, it will be warmer than the ice and again allow solar radiation to travel through the ice causing it to melt faster.

• When water is moving above or below the ice surface, such as the inflows to our storm retention ponds from attached to storm sewers, ice will weaken. In the same way, river currents constantly affect the quality of the ice on the river making it unstable and dangerous for use.

The Saskatoon Fire Department again reminds residents to never go on the river ice and asks them to stay off the ice on the city’s lakes and ponds for the remainder of the 2018 season.

The City wants to warn residents about a phone scam involving someone pretending to be from City Utility Collections.

The City has received phone calls and e-mails from concerned customers.  The customers report they have all received the same phone call with someone making a claim their utility bill is overdue and their service will be disconnected.

The calls appear to be coming from a 1-800 number. Although the City has a 1-800 utilities customer service number, the City does not call customers from that number.

The City only disconnects service after the customer receives a written notice and if accounts are not kept current

Do not give credit card numbers or other banking information over the phone if contacted this way.

To confirm the identity of a City of Saskatoon Utility Collections employee, please call Utility Collections in Revenue Division by calling 306-975-2405 or 1-800-667-9944.

Anyone who receives a suspicious call of this nature is encouraged to attend to the Saskatoon Police Service (located at 76 – 25^th St E) and speak with an officer to leave a report.

Thanks to warm temperatures this week, roads are drying up enough for street sweeping and pothole repairs. With late snowfalls, these road maintenance programs are three to four weeks behind the average year.

“Today is our first day with hot-mix asphalt and City crews are already a few loads in,” says Brandon Harris, Director of Roadways & Operations. “We have utility cuts to maintain, countless potholes to repair, and six weeks of priority-street sweeping to complete before residential sweeping begins on May 7.”

Over the next two weeks, City crews will be working longer days and through the weekend to repair potholes beginning with those at highest-risk for causing injury or damage. Citizens will also notice sweeping along priority streets, business improvement districts, and on medians and boulevards.

“We are operating at maximum staffing and equipment capacity and expect unprecedented progress for sweeping and pothole repairs,” says Harris. “However, roads in general will still be bumpy and dusty on secondary roads for a few weeks because of this late start to spring road maintenance.”

In addition to sweeping and pothole repairs, the City is maintaining more than 1,000 utility cuts with gravel until they can be permanently repaired beginning next week. Citizens can report dangerous locations to our Customer Service Centre and continue to report potholes on our Report-a-Pothole app to help the City prioritize repairs.

City-wide residential street sweeping will begin May 7, weather permitting. Bright yellow No Parking signs will be posted in neighbourhoods 36-48 hours in advance of street sweeping, followed up with ticketing and relocation towing. At the same time, City crews will be permanently repairing potholes with a hot mix asphalt.  

Visit saskatoon.ca/betterroads to report a pothole and for street sweeping schedules and information on spring road maintenance programs.