News Releases

To promote Reconciliation at work, home, and play, the City of Saskatoon, Office of the Treaty Commissioner, Saskatoon Tribal Council, Central Urban Metis Federation Inc., along with 29 supporting organizations, are challenging residents to share their personal contributions to Reconciliation calls to action with their Facebook friends and twitter followers on using #ReconciliationSK.

Share a selfie showing your response to either of the questions below on Facebook and Twitter using #ReconciliationSK:

• What does Reconciliation mean to you?
• ​What is your Call to Action?

Template signs are available at www.OTC.ca or Saskatoon.ca/reconciliation.

Other ways to get involved with Reconciliation Saskatoon on social media:

• Read for Reconciliation - Browse the Saskatoon Library’s reading list: saskatoonlibrary.ca/reconciliation and choose a title that interests you. Option to post/tweet: “I commit to #Read4Reconciliation by reading xtitlex #ReconciliationSK”.

• Lend your voice to the Vision of Reconciliation - Read, share and comment on the Community’s Vision for Reconciliation at www.otc.ca.

• Visit our Facebook event page to say you’re attending National Aboriginal Day & Day of Reconciliation (June 21 - 22): share the event on Facebook and Twitter using the hashtag #RockYourRoots

• Tweet about Reconciliation using the hashtag #ReconciliationSK and “Like”, “Favourite” or retweet posts.

The City of Saskatoon’s commitment to the TRC’s Calls to Action supports the City’s Corporate Strategic Goal of Quality of Life by identifying actions for enhancing Aboriginal well-being and participation in our community.

The City of Saskatoon today announced its construction zone safety campaign, Respect Work Zones, urging drivers to obey signs and follow posted detours while passing construction zones this summer.

“Respecting a work zone is not just about slowing down, it’s obeying posted signage,” says Angela Gardiner, Director of Transportation. “We rely on the participation of drivers to keep workers safe. A variety of measures have been used on our side to ensure everyone’s safety; we count on drivers to meet us the rest of the way by obeying signs and staying out of work zones.”

Through programs like enhanced work zone setups, public education and increased safety training for our workers, the City has been able to record its lowest level of lost-time injuries for city workers in 2015. This shows safety is a top priority in work done by City employees for citizens, a trend that is the result of an increasingly successful safety culture. 

At times construction work may appear halted or complete, but construction signs and barriers are kept in place where the roads are hazardous to drivers. Projects that include night work have signs and speed reductions around work zones that remain in place 24 hours a day. It’s important to obey signage even when there are no vehicles or workers present and never enter a work zone or drive past signage even if it appears complete or inactive.

“The wellbeing of our employees is a priority in everything we do’” says Gardiner. “The Respect Work Zones campaign is an important message as we continue to build better roads. The work zone signs are there for your protection. And ours.

This year, through the Building Better Roads program, $59 million is being invested to build, maintain and repair more roads than ever before, which means more construction zones. Respecting these work zones will allow crews to focus on the job and safely complete this summer’s projects.

Know before you go! Plan your route around road work by checking our Road Restrictions and Construction Projects interactive map. Find traffic detour information and subscribe to Traffic Detour Service Alerts at saskatoon.ca/service-alerts. You can also follow us on Twitter @YXEServiceAlert.

Each year, the Project Management Institute, North Saskatchewan Chapter (PMI-NSC) recognizes one project that best demonstrates exceptional performance, leadership and delivers significant value and return on investment for the customer.  This year, the City of Saskatoon’s Neighbourhood Traffic Review program was awarded this prestigious honour for its community-wide approach to resolving traffic issues that is built around finding solutions through engagement with residents.                                                                                                                

“Rather than looking at each traffic issue individually, we take a step back and consider the traffic movements, safety requirements and culture within the entire community,” explains Angela Gardiner, Acting General Manager of Transportation and Utilities. “We encourage people to take an active role in the traffic review process for their neighbourhood so we can hear about issues that matter to them.”

A typical neighbourhood traffic review is a complex, year-long process aimed at improving the quality of life in the neighbourhood by making adjustments to how people use local and collector streets. The process begins with community meetings to collect feedback on issues such as speed, pedestrian safety, traffic volume and short cutting. In addition, residents can also provide feedback through online forums.

Studies are then conducted to measure vehicular speed, traffic volume and pedestrian usage, which are analyzed and used to develop recommendations presented for feedback by residents. The City completes eight neighbourhood traffic reviews each year.

“Each Saskatoon neighbourhood is unique and this approach allows us to get right to the core of the issue,” says Gardiner. “Our approach values the feedback of the people who are using the area every day to help solve the issue.”

The City was presented with the “Project of the Year” award today at the PMI-NSC Annual General Meeting.  

Learn more about the City’s engagement process at saskatoon.ca/shapingsaskatoon

Mayor Donald Atchison today condemned the attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

"I was shocked and saddened at the tragedy in Orlando, Florida. Once again the world stands united against an act of terrorism and hate.  Today we grieve for the victims and offer our condolences to their families and friends.  Our thoughts and prayers are also with those who are in the hospital recovering from the attack."

“Members of the LGBTQ2 community, those with different religious beliefs, or ethnicity should be safe in our communities.  Acts of terrorism and hate must not divide us rather we must unite as a community against them."

Flags on civic buildings, already at half-mast, will now take on additional significance.  The City of Saskatoon will follow the protocols established by the Government of Saskatchewan and the Government of Canada to determine timing.

Lost-time injuries for City workers were at the lowest-recorded level in 2015, while overall average days lost to absenteeism also continued to decline and remain well below the national average for public sector employees.

“We are encouraged with the positive direction reflected in this report,” says Catherine Gryba, General Manager of Corporate Performance.  “We always look for ways to be more efficient and at the same time make health and safety a top priority in the work we do for our citizens.”

The results highlighting successes in health, safety and absenteeism are outlined in a report to be presented June 13, 2016 to the Standing Policy Committee on Environment, Utilities and Corporate Services.

The report* to the Committee shows:

-Incidents of injury/illness from the Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) decreased from 121 in 2014 to 102 in 2015. 
-In 2015, lost-time injuries reached the lowest recorded frequency of 3.70 lost time days.  This is a 20% decrease from the 2014 reported lost-time injury frequency of 4.60.
-In 2015, the COS total, as well as the City (18%), Boards (10%) and Police (25%), had reductions in lost-time injuries.
-There was an overall decrease of 11% in injury severity and resultant number of work days lost per 100 employees for COS.
-Overall, for all civic employees, average days lost to absenteeism, total hours of absenteeism, and total costs of absenteeism was reduced in 2015.  The City’s average days lost is below the Statistics Canada public sector.
-Costs, hours and incidents of medium-term absences (more than 10 days and not long-term disability) continue to decrease over the last few years. 
-The majority of absenteeism is driven by short-term absences at 64% of total cost.  Incidents of short-term absences continue to increase at the City.

“These trends are the result of an increasingly successful safety culture at the City that values the wellbeing of our employees,” Gryba says.  “The trends also demonstrate everyone working for the City of Saskatoon wants to make safety a key aspect of civic operations – from beginning to end.”

Proper management of absenteeism supports the City’s Strategic Goal of Continuous Improvement and being the best-managed city in Canada.

*Throughout the Committee report, the City of Saskatoon (City) is used to denote all areas that are under the direction of the City Manager.  COS is used to denote the overall grouping of the City of Saskatoon, Saskatoon Police Service and the civic Boards. The Boards are comprised of the Saskatoon Public Library, Mendel Art Gallery (Remai Modern), SaskTel Centre and TCU Place.