Despite a long history of referendums on big city projects, those votes have been triggered by residents gathering thousands of signatures. yxe
The $120,000 project to build a 5,400-seat downtown arena only proceeded when virtually the entire cost was covered by local fundraising via the sale of $10 shares — during the Depression, no less.to seek widespread public approval for a proposed new downtown arena and likely an upgraded convention centre to anchor an entertainment district.
There’s no history in this city of council valuing the opinion of residents so much that the elected politicians decided to defer the decision-making power to them.Photo by Michelle BergSaskatoon’s current arena, SaskTel Centre, was built after two votes in the mid-1980s, both of which were forced by citizens collecting the thousands of required signatures.Article content
But then-mayor Cliff Wright, the lead supporter of the northern location for what was originally called Saskatchewan Place, hardly engaged in post-vote celebration. What’s interesting about Wright’s opinion on direct democracy is that a decade earlier, he had triggered a public vote on a new arena, although not everybody could cast a ballot in that one.Article content
More than 80 per cent of the ballots cast supported the police station financing, but only nine per cent of eligible voters turned out to the polls. That police station was supposed to last until 2000, but was not replaced until 2014.Article content
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