I am the City Solicitor for the City of Saskatoon in the Province of Saskatchewan. The City Solicitor is the legal advisor to the Mayor and City Council and is also the head of the legal department. I have been the City Solicitor since 1987.

I am a practising lawyer (Barrister and Solicitor), and have been awarded the designation of Queen's Counsel (Q.C.).

Our legal department is a 22 person law office providing full legal services, including all litigation services, to the City and various civic agencies.

On January 1, 2003 a new Cities Act came into effect in Saskatchewan. Its goal was to give cities much greater scope and flexibility in what they did and how they did it. In return City Councils were made more accountable to their electorates.

A unique feature of the Saskatchewan Cities Act was that it was developed by the 13 Saskatchewan cities themselves, a first in Canada. This process produced a very practical, workable piece of legislation, as well as a new public awareness of the workings of local government.

I was the co-ordinator of the Cities Act project, and received the "Scoop Lewry" award for my work. This award is given annually by the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association to "a person who has made an outstanding contribution to urban government in Saskatchewan".

In November of 2004, a Saskatchewan Municipalities Act was introduced. This Act is modelled on the Cities Act and covers Saskatchewan towns, villages, and rural municipalities.

In May of 2007, The City of Saskatoon and eleven other Saskatchewan cities undertook a study of the potential impact of the British Columbia - Alberta Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) on the jurisdiction of Saskatchewan Cities. I am the co-ordinator of that project. The cities' partners in the study are the Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade as Trade experts, and Ms. Merrilee Rasmussen Q.C. as legislative drafting expert.

The Estey study, called A Space for Cities in Trade Agreements, was completed in early 2008. It finds that there are more appropriate methods of reducing internal trade barriers than having cities involved in TILMA, and suggests specific alternatives.

I wrote a three page summary as a City Council report, which is available as a small PDF file here:

The full 145 page study is available online as an 11 megabyte PDF file at the Estey Centre:

The background to this study is that the Province of Saskatchewan, on April 25, 2007, released a number of reports regarding TILMA. Each of the reports indicated that TILMA would potentially reduce the regulatory and legislative powers of municipal governments. The reports did not include information on the extent or specifics of such a reduction. We were also not able to discover any reports which identified what those specifics might be or how they could be addressed.

The City of Saskatoon was the first municipality in Canada to voluntarily participate in the creation of new reserve lands within City boundaries. This was a "stand-alone" reserve which was not attached to any existing reserve lands. It was created for the purpose of economic development by the Muskeg Lake First Nation and today boasts a variety of First Nation businesses.

The creation of the reserve involved the negotiation of agreements regarding issues such as sale of services, tax loss compensation and bylaw compatibility within an urban setting. It also required the development of an on-going working relationship between the Muskeg Lake First Nation and the City of Saskatoon. The success of the Saskatoon/Muskeg Lake experience was a significant factor in the creation of other urban reserves in cities across Saskatchewan.

In recent years, reserve creation has primarily occurred on the rural lands immediately surrounding Saskatoon. As a result, the City of Saskatoon, the Red Pheasant First Nation and the Rural Municipality of Corman Park signed the first tripartite Agreement for Land Use Compatibility.

As City Solicitor, I have been extensively involved in developing these agreements , and in dealing with the ongoing issues which continue to arise.

For more information on urban reserves, see the page Urban Reserve Lands in Canada.