It’s time for celebration in Moose Jaw for two recent achievements.
The economic development award to the city for the publicity generated by the "Moose war” with a town in Norway is worth celebrating.
According to a $1,000 study paid for by taxpayers, the estimated advertising value of the media exposure from this Mac the Moose controversy was $7.4 million — not exactly chump change.
While city council was patting the mayor on the back for generating this publicity and while the mayor basked in the glory, some key players to the publicity-generating events were forgotten, left out of the celebration.
Were it not for the video by two young men pointing out that a Norwegian moose is bigger than Mac no one in Moose Jaw would likely even know about the bigger moose in Norway.
Somehow, in their haste to take credit for the Mac attention, our municipal politicians forgot about this media savvy pair of young men. That’s not surprising; politicians like to take credit for other people’s work when they can get away with it.
These two young men should qualify for a city award, if not the key to the city, but that would detract from the attention the mayor and council are getting.
The second reason and need for a city celebration involves the end of construction that has blocked access and the Highway Two route through Moose Jaw.
For most of the summer, driving through downtown Moose Jaw was like being lost in a corn maze due to needed construction of old water lines.
The Manitoba Street access to South Hill and Highway Two South was blocked. Main Street was blocked, as well as was Athabasca Street and many other places.
Understandably, drivers avoided going through downtown Moose Jaw, even avoiding trips downtown. The parking meter robbery was already reason for avoiding downtown.
Local businesses near the stretches closed by the water line construction suffered loss of customers.
As the city did with High Street merchants, there was no compensation for the loss of income caused by construction.
The least the City of Moose Jaw could do is arrange a suitable celebration and campaign to make the province’s drivers aware the city is once again open for easy traffic access and business — until next construction season.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
