After finalizing the budget in late February, City Council announced a 3.01% increase in taxes for Moose Jaw as the city deals with a $48 million operating budget.

Part of that budget is an increase of $132,000 to snow removal.

Mayor Fraser Tolmie discussed what the increase will allow the city to do.

"With the increase in the snow removal budget we will be able to respond better, and we're still going to be tweaking this because we are not saying that it's perfect, I think we have to move this in stages. This has been a hot button for me since being elected. This will allow us to be able to hire and shorten down the response time. "

The intersection of 9th Avenue SW and Lillooet has been another hot button issue, as more traffic in the area has resulted in long lines of cars being backed up on to the 9th Avenue Bridge.

New businesses in the area have resulted in the traffic increase and Mayor Tolmie says – despite rumours that it's not going to happen – that the city is in fact looking at improving the intersection.

"That project has been carried forward, it has not been cut from the books. I did talk to the city manager about that and he says we are in working stages with that so expect something to come forward in the next little while. What is actually going to happen? I don't know. But they are going to be coming forward with some information and as soon as we know, we will let the public know."

And the multi-year Cast Iron Water Main Replacement Project will look to continue in 2019 after the month of February saw a record number of water main breaks in the city.

"We're going to be entering Phase 4. It's going to be coming up and I know engineering has been looking ahead of the game as to what needs to be done. We're looking at the hot spots like where the big breaks are, where's it continuously happening, those are the hot spots and the places we need to address."

Darrin Stephanson, Manager of Utilities for the City of Moose Jaw, said that there were 18 breaks in February and 48 overall since the beginning of November.