Meet Saskatoon mayoral candidate: Cynthia Block

The job isn’t finished for Cynthia Block.

The farm girl that grew up just south of the city was surrounded by politics as a child. Her father was the reeve of the local rural municipality and helped cultivate Block's interest in public policy.

Even after spending the past eight years on city council representing Ward 6, she has greater ambitions for rapidly growing and changing Saskatoon.

“I feel an obligation to run. I want our city to move forward, not backward. I think the mayor's office needs to be very focused on homelessness, community safety and affordability,” Block said. “But I also want to make sure that we're a city that doesn't fall behind.”

Block is the only current member of city council running for mayor, and her fellow candidates have been critical of her political past, labelling her as someone representing an old regime in need of change.

During a debate last week hosted by the Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce, each candidate took turns criticizing budget decisions and comparing her to outgoing mayor Charlie Clark.

But Block certainly doesn’t see it that way.

“I try to hear all sides, and then I do my homework. I read the evidence and the data that exists, and then it's a judgment call in the field,” she said. “That's the process that I take, and if it happens to align more or less with one colleague or another, that's never going to be how I make a decision.

“It will always be based on the foundational principles of what I think good governance looks like.”

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Throughout the campaign, all candidates have spent time talking about the city reducing its expenses and returning to basic core services.

Block agrees, but unlike her counterparts, she’s asking what is the cost of that line of thinking? And isn’t a city more than just snow removal and pothole patching?

“There are all kinds of programs that any of us can point to you that we would not support, but they are a tiny fraction of one per cent of the budget. If you want to impact the budget, it's roads, it's sidewalks, it's policing, it's fire,” Block said.

“There isn't an easy way to reduce the kind of inflationary pressure we have right now without a paradigm shift.”

The paradigm shift Block is looking for is what she calls an “advocacy approach,” joining with other municipalities across the country to create “economies of scale,” to convince Ottawa to help reduce the burden cities often must bear for inflation and other recent cost pressures.

Compared to other levels of government, cities have limited ways to create revenue, which often results in property tax increases to cover unexpected costs.

Block has repeated the same example of rising costs of fire trucks throughout her campaign. In 2020, a new fire truck cost roughly $800,000. That same fire truck in 2024 costs $1.5 million.

“When we have national programs like public transportation, we should have baseline funding for operations from Ottawa, and that would also help to contribute to lowering those overall pressures,” Block said.

While Block is focused on maintaining current services, she looks to Saskatoon’s recent past as an indication of what happens if any other candidate wants to reduce the budget for basic infrastructure now or into the future.

Demolition of Victoria Bridge began in 2012 after the structure was deemed unsafe by engineers. In 2016, two spans of the bridge were imploded to make way for construction of a new bridge, which opened in 2018.

“There will be a cost,” Block said. “It’s not normal to blow up a bridge and have to rebuild it. It only happens when you don't maintain it.”

With Saskatoon’s population experiencing massive growth in recent years, and a combination of social issues like an increase in homelessness, declining affordability and low housing inventory, Block is keeping her sights set on the future.

She says she plans to work with the Saskatoon and Region Home Builders Association to figure out ways to incentivize mixed growth directly along corridors where the incoming revamped transit system, Link, will be.

Block also says those two pieces will work together to revitalize downtown, another issue she says is key to Saskatoon being a 21st century city where people will want to work, live and play.

More than anything, she wants a city everyone can take pride in.

“If we truly want the city to be affordable, safe and sustainable in the long run, then it takes vision and leadership,” she said.

“I want Saskatoon to be a place where everybody's kids and grandkids stay — where everybody feels welcome and safe and has a place to live that they are proud of.”