Saskatoon mayor looks back on challenges of 2024 [Video]

As Saskatoon welcomes 2025, Mayor Cynthia Block begins the year with optimism, reflecting on 2024’s accomplishments.

“We have an amazing city. We are growing exponentially, and it’s putting pressure on us, and it’s creating challenges, for sure, but we definitely have a pathway to get to the other side of this,” the mayor said.

In an interview with CTV News, Block discussed challenges facing the city. One of the key issues the city is grappling with is homelessness, which has tripled since 2022.

According to the latest point-in-time (PiT) count conducted by the city and outside partners, nearly 1,500 people in Saskatoon are homeless.

Although the mayor calls this “distressing and heartbreaking,” she says this is not shocking given the scale of the problem.

“For anybody who has been watching what’s been happening in our city, whether in every single neighborhood, we have encampments, and it’s not shocking that we have a higher count, but it …