Paul Miazga is running for city council in Ward 5.

Miazga says Saskatoon can’t continue to delay issues of homelessness and poverty in the city. He suggests the city needs to be thinking on many different levels and outside the box. He brings up Medicine Hat as a good example of what can happen, and doesn’t believe the solution is to move the Lighthouse but there is a need to think about how it’s been managed.

Miazga says he is very much in favour of a new library being built but the city needs to be rethinking what the library is going to be doing. He wants to see it built without any borrowed money and in partnership with an organization like the YMCA. Miazga says it may cost money to stop the current process, but it’s worth it to make sure it’s the right project for the city.

In the short term Miazga would like to see parking fees waived on Saturdays in the run up to Christmas. He says this may be a small gesture but anything that can help encourage people to visit downtown is meaningful.

Miazga says he has spent the last 7 to 8 years working with small businesses, and he has had the ear of hundreds of small business owners around the city. He says when the fallout from COVID-19 finally comes down, the city will need economic development and support for the economy. He says continuing with half measures and the status quo will not cut it. Mizaga believes new ideas and thinking, instead of the usual formal processes will bring new solutions.