Mayor Clive Tolley represented Moose Jaw at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Convention in Toronto from May 25 to 28. 

The yearly convention saw over 2,500 delegations consisting of leaders from municipalities across the country. 

Just being in Toronto and talking to other municipal leaders, Tolley said it makes you appreciate the life we have here in Moose Jaw. 

“It's a very expensive, very, very busy place and as I was observing at the conference and observing the City of Toronto, I kept thinking we're really on the right track in our Get a Life program,” Tolley said.  

“Come to Moose Jaw, get a life, and certainly you can do a lot more and your money goes a lot further here in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan as compared to lots of other places in the country.” 

Tolley said he found that many of the other municipalities are facing many of the same issues as Moose Jaw. In particular, the subject of taxation came up frequently at the convention. 

“The FCM did a survey and they found out that most people across this country get a little upset with their local governments and they say look, I paid this much in property tax and the roads are in poor condition, the snow removal is not up to what we hoped it to be, but on the other side of the coin, they don't understand that they've actually paid much more to federal and provincial governments in terms of income tax and sales tax,” Tolley explained. 

Tolley did find that the convention reassured that Moose Jaw is doing better than most places in the country as other communities are struggling more with the unhoused, drug addiction and treatments and high taxation. 

“We're doing pretty well here. While sometimes it doesn't seem that way, comparing ourselves to other communities, we're doing very, very well,” he said.