Selected Issues for 2019
Public Infrastructure to Support Community Growth (Public Transportation)
Various residents of the community, such as college students, senior citizens, low-income individuals, and immigrants, require a form of public transportation to access education and employment destinations. The City of Lloydminster has a population of 34,5831, a community of this size should offer public transportation to its citizens. A first stage pilot project of public transportation should be introduced.
The policy resolution includes comparable city sizes offering public transportation, local partnership opportunities and provincial and federal public transportation grant
Saskatchewan Funding for Policing in Lloydminster
Currently Saskatchewan does not provide targeted funding for policing services in Lloydminster. This policy resolution is a support policy resolution, meaning that we support the City’s advocacy efforts in their funding requests; stating., the Lloydminster Chamber of Commerce supports the City of Lloydminster’s efforts in obtaining, from the Province of Saskatchewan, funding support under the Targeted Policing Funding Initiative in order to support and enhance the crime reduction and prevention strategies in the City of Lloydminster.
Adequate Internet Services for Businesses in Lloydminster
In General, businesses in the city of Lloydminster do not have adequate Internet service or bandwidth available, especially compared to other cities in Alberta. There are areas of the city that have fiber business internet, but for the most part companies opt for the Telus DSL, SaskTel DSL or Shaw ADSL. These 3 solutions work ok, but they are best effort and primarily, consumer grade services. Some will market them as business packages, but they are really just consumer packages, marketed to business clients. In the North Industrial Park especially, businesses here have only one physical line option through Telus, or they subscribe to Wireless Internet providers. For a Business to have no choice but to subscribe to 10 year old service or rely on Wireless Internet within City limits is unacceptable in 2019.
The Lloydminster Chamber of Commerce recommends that the City take a more active role in advocating for its business community with the Internet Service Providers (ISP). Lloydminster businesses need the ISPs to provide their services everywhere within the city, not just in specific locations. Understanding that a fiber optic build can not happen overnight, but our business community has been fighting with the main ISPs here for years and we are still suffering from inadequate Internet service in a majority of the community.
We suggest a committee of business representatives who are interested in advocating for our business community and a representative from the City of Lloydminster undertake the task of engaging the ISPs in Lloydminster to implement their business fiber services to the entire business community. By working together to achieve a commitment from the ISPs to deliver their services sooner than later, we will have a stronger voice than each business contacting them separately. We will be offering the ISPs a city of business clients all at once, instead of each individual business separately.
Access to Net Care in Alberta by Saskatchewan Clinics in Lloydminster
Although the hospital in Lloydminster has access to Net Care (online patient records) in Alberta, the clinics on the Saskatchewan side of the border do not have access to Net Care, and this poses a problem with information sharing between hospitals and treatment centers in the provinces.
Affordable Housing Strategy for the City of Lloydminster
The City of Lloydminster does not currently have a municipal housing strategy that would assist the City
and/or community-based organizations to develop a meaningful and relevant plan to create social and
affordable housing units and access federal and provincial funds to build such units.