The race to choose Saskatoon’s next mayor has reached a new milestone.
Rob Norris is one of the first candidates to release a full platform in the lead-up to the city’s election.
It touches on a number of items the mayoral candidate has spoken about over the past weeks, such as limiting property tax increases and private sector growth in areas like technology and agriculture.
“We know how important agricultural research at the University of Saskatchewan is. I just think there’s a big gap between what’s going at the research level and what’s actually happening with commercialization,” Norris said.
The platform also includes a promise to maintain the police budget, address concerns around The Lighthouse and launch a Saskatoon immigration plan.
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Rob Norris on joining the race for mayor of Saskatoon
Norris also spoke about introducing a chief medical adviser to help council with decisions pertaining to COVID-19.
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“What I want to see is the City of Saskatoon drawing on world-class expertise that we have right here to ensure that our public policy decisions that are being made right now are also being seen through the lens of the COVID crisis,” he said.
In an email to Global News, the City of Saskatoon said city council has received COVID-19 advice through the city’s incident command structure which gathers information from provincial health officials.
It added the city’s response to this point has aligned with directives from the provincial and federal governments.
A political scientist said Norris’ platform is short of details for what a full platform generally looks like and it doesn’t offer voters anything new for people who have been paying attention to the campaign thus far.
The University of Saskatchewan’s Charles Smith said Norris’ serving as a chief growth officer for the city would already be part of his role as mayor if he were to win the election.
“It sort of assumes that that already hasn’t been happening. My understanding is that’s kind of the role of city council and the mayor — is to attract opportunities to the city,” he said.
On the idea behind the city medical adviser, Smith added it could be contentious if the city advisor is at odds with provincial health officials.
Current mayor Charlie Clark has released three main categories his campaign will be focused around.
They are employment and the economy, public safety and strengthening quality of life.
Former mayor Don Atchison has publicly spoken about keeping property taxes stable for 2021, public safety and concerns around The Lighthouse.
Cary Tarasoff is running for the mayor’s chair as well.
He has addressed issues around city spending and debt and bike lanes.
Mark Zielke and Zubair Sheikh have also thrown their names in the ring to become mayor.
Zielke has spoken about the city budget and large-scale projects like the Remai Modern.
Sheikh has spoken about eliminating tax increases for four years and better fiscal management.
The election is set for Nov. 9.
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