Ward 3 Councillor Ann Iwanchuk will not seek re-election

At least one Saskatoon city councillor won’t be seeking re-election this fall.

Ward 3 Councillor Ann Iwanchuk announced during Monday’s regular council meeting that she considered all of her options and she will not run again.

“I made that after a lot of careful thought and consideration and discussion with my family,” said Iwanchuk. “I have certainly enjoyed my time on council, but I have some other interests I’d like to pursue, and I want to spend more time with my family. It’s a huge time commitment to be on council.”

She said for the last month, she’s been thinking about the time she’s missed with her family –  especially since the sudden passing of her father in late 2019. She also has a full time job as a CUPE mediator and negotiator, and is hoping to even go back to school.

“I’m interested in pursuing- hopefully- we’ll see – I’m interested in pursuing a law degree. But there’ a few steps to take before I get to that point, but that’s something that I’m very interested in.”

Iwanchuk has been a councillor since she was elected on October 19, 2011, and was then re-elected again in 2012 and in 2016.

She’s proud of her part in the city snow clearing budget and the need to move towards snow removal on residential streets.

“We did get to the point where we have put some additional funding into the base budget, and I think we all see there are improvements there as a result.”

Other council highlights include making progress in fixing roads with a dedicated road levy, and in her own ward, the development of Kensington and Blairmore areas.

Ward 3 includes the far western portions of Saskatoon, including Fairhaven, Parkridge, Blairmore, Pacific Heights, Kensington and Confederation Park.