Students weigh in on Saskatoon’s future growth plan

Watch above: A unique addition to a Grade 8 curriculum, one Saskatoon teacher has her class planning the city’s future. Aaron Streck sits in on session and finds out what the young minds foresee.

SASKATOON – The City of Saskatoon has been asking for the public’s input as it plans for future growth with a number of consultations bringing together residents young and old. The Grade 8 EcoQuest class is curious to see what Saskatoon will look like 20, 30, even 50 years down the road.

“We’re always looking for projects that we can take on where students sort of have that chance to lead and then to explore how they can find authentic learning spots but also authentic learning audiences where they can share what they’ve learned,” said Tyler Rittinger, an EcoQuest teacher at Buena Vista School .

The city’s growing forward project has fit the mould. The EcoQuest students have been to consultations and have their own half-a-million population projection concerns and recommendations.

“I thought the park and ride thing they proposed was a little weird, because if people are going to drive somewhere they’ll just drive all the way and not park and take a bus,” said student Mette Siemens.

“The long term of building a bridge, new bridge on 33rd Street it kind of didn’t make sense cause you kind of want to encourage taking transit for less pollutants in the air,” added another student, Nand Patel.

Dissecting and discussing the city’s growth plan is part of their healthy communities curriculum.

“Our project looked at the areas of health, transportation and there were six different groups all looking at moving Saskatoon forward thinking through that lens of sustainability, thinking through that lens of safety and thinking through that lens of inclusion of everybody in Saskatoon,” said Rittinger.

READ MORE: Saskatoon residents help city grow

It’s also been of interest to an urban planning associate professor at the University of Saskatchewan.

“By doing this kind of planning now we’re ensuring that we can grow properly and progressively over time,” said Ryan Walker.

Walker thinks public consultations are an important step for the city to move in the right direction.

“If we don’t start to integrate our land use decisions better with our transportation decisions how we move people around like by the proposed Bus Rapid Transit system, if we don’t start to integrate that stuff better we’re going to be chocked up as a city down the road with a lot of congestion a lot of public expenditure,” said Walker.

Walker says costs associated with future growth can’t solely be on the local tax payers, it takes higher levels of government to make it work.

Another growth plan public engagement discussion is scheduled for Tuesday March 10 from 3 to 5 pm at Louis Loft on the U of S campus.