Photo: Mandate to Lead
Mike Harder is running for mayor in the Saskatoon civic election on November 13th.
Although biographical information on Harder isn’t available, at 40 years old, Harder states that he hasn’t had alcohol in twelve years, and he doesn’t smoke or do drugs.
In a filled-out questionnaire he provided to various news outlets, Harder writes that his would-be priorities as mayor include educating Saskatoon residents about why the city is paying huge sums of money, in taxation, to the higher levels of government, as well as how this taxation results in increased property taxes.
To tackle the cost of living, Harder says large rental corporations will be issued conditional business licenses, which will ensure they limit yearly rent increases for existing tenants at a maximum rate of 3 or 4 per cent.
He believes the Provincial Government should be the entity to fund social programs and policing, not the city. Under his administration, he also vows to keep property tax increases to a maximum of 3 or 4 per cent per year.
When it comes to the touchy topic of the Housing Accelerator Fund and rezoning the city to densify the population in certain areas, Harder is fully supportive, and says that process should have taken place 50 years ago.
Harder believes the city’s homelessness crisis can be addressed with safe and autonomous housing. “Short-term, emergency shelters are the foundation to correcting the homelessness crisis in society, which then needs to be followed up with medium-term, transitional supportive housing with rents that are geared towards income,” he explains.
He adds that there is no need to construct new buildings to house the homeless, as there are many unused buildings throughout the city that could be utilized.
The Downtown Event and Entertainment District is not on his list of priorities; however, he says he isn’t opposed to a new arena. He suggests building it in a more easily accessible area than downtown, such as Marquis Downs.
As for construction of the new library, Harder says city staff should have waited until the Saskatchewan Polytechnic buildings were vacant and used one of them instead.
