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Moose Jaw’s 41st mayor, Clive Tolley, was sworn in during a ceremony Monday night during the regular meeting of city council.
Tolley beat out nine other candidates in last week’s byelection. He won by 41 votes over the second-place finisher, current city councillor Crystal Froese.
A professional mediator and arbitrator, Tolley will be taking over the mayor’s office and the centre seat around the council table.
Tolley said in his inaugural address to city council that the status quo is no longer good enough for Moose Jaw.
“We’ve been stuck in and around the same population for 100 years and our costs keep going up every year. Our income has to expand to address that need. So we’ve got to grow our community,” he said.
He added that one way to boost the population is encouraging immigration and making newcomers feel welcome. Tolley looked back at his own roots — his grandparents were Scottish immigrants who moved to Moose Jaw.
Along with a growing population, Tolley said there needs to be jobs for those people.
“There’s about 7 million people that were born in Saskatchewan that live elsewhere in Canada,” Tolley said.
“So many of our children, along with children with all the other people who live in this province, have gotten a good education then moved somewhere else to get a job. We’ve got to keep more of those people here. In order to keep them here, we must have jobs for them.”
Finally, he addressed 15 Wing and how important the military is to the community of Moose Jaw, appropriately during the week of Remembrance Day.
He looked back at his own family experiences as both his grandfather and father were veterans who sacrificed a lot for the freedoms we have.
“I’m getting a little bit emotional here, because these people paved the way for us to have what we have today. They both gave their lives, ultimately at a young age, where others actually died in battle,” Tolley said.
Tolley takes over from now-former mayor Fraser Tolmie. The byelection was triggered when Tolmie announced his resignation on Aug. 17 to run for the Conservative Party in the federal election.
Tolmie ended up winning the Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan riding.
Tolley likened his position to that of a hockey team whose head coach got promoted. Now city council has a new head coach and can work as a team moving forward.
