The Concerned Citizens of Estevan brought forward a petition at the latest council meeting calling for a referendum on the city's Downtown Revitalization Project.

In their memo to the city, they wanted that referendum as they felt that the project had not been run by the citizens of Estevan properly.

Myles Fichter and Greg Curtis represented the group at the meeting and talked about the group's involvement in asking Estevan citizens about the project.

"In January of this year, a member brought the Downtown Revitalization Project to our attention. Considering the debt the city is carrying and capital overruns that have occurred on past projects, we were completed to learn as much as we could about the project," said Fichter, "We requested information about the project, which led to more questions than answers."

He laid out eight points they had found that came up often while canvassing the citizens of Estevan:

  1. Citizens were ill-informed or completely unaware of the project
  2. A lack of information on how much the project would cost
  3. Why only the 1100 and 1200 blocks were being worked on by the project
  4. What agreements were dictated by the federal government to receive the CTII Fund
  5. What percentage of the cost was the city expected to bear to receive the CTII Fund
  6. What expenditures would be incurred during phase 1 to accommodate phases 2 through 8
  7. What would maintenance and upkeep cost in the future
  8. What is the expected return on investment the project would provide for the city

On being informed, the council stated that they had done various virtual outreach tactics, such as local media interviews and Facebook posts while agreeing with the Concerned Citizens that a mailed package, potentially done with water bills, could be a good solution.

Information was then discussed on how much the project would cost sparked a debate between the council and the Concerned Citizens, with a figure of $40-50 million which came from a video put out by the Concerned Citizens group.

The council reiterated the $7.75 million federal investment and $1.5 million city investment, saying that the current tender of over $10 million would be lowered by changing the tender with the winners.

In terms of costs and agreements to receive the CTII funding, the council stated that the money put forward was solely for the underground work, with the federal money going towards the revitalization efforts.

When the costs associated with phase 1 which would link into phases 2 through 8 were mentioned, Concerned Citizens stated that they had heard from a city engineer that those would be included, even though the prospects of future phases looked dim.

The city council replied by saying that no such links were planned as part of phase 1, and that any future phases would likely not happen unless more federal funding was offered.

For maintenance and upkeep, the city council said that while they did not have a number on what that would cost, Estevan's crews were among the best in the province and they were certain cleanup could be handled efficiently.

In terms of a return on investment, the city council pointed to problems with flooding that downtown businesses had experienced in the past and felt that a better downtown would further improve those business's prospects.

The Concerned Citizens then ended their petition to the city council, with Estevan Mayor Roy Ludwig saying the night had bridged an information gap between the two parties.

"I thought it went very well tonight. These folks, people for the concerned citizens were very polite and had some good questions. I thought we had some good dialogue. We're all part of our community and it's very important when members of our community are unhappy or have lots of questions that we step up to the plate and answer these questions the very best that we can and I thought tonight went very well."