Cost of Saskatoon’s John A. Macdonald Road name change estimated at $35,000: City

The price tag for changing John A. Macdonald Road on Saskatoon’s west side has been estimated at around $35,000, according to one city official.

The money, which was approved in 2021 for the 2022-23 budget, is part of the Corporate Equity, Diversity and Inclusion project with $612,000 funding in total, for a variety of initiatives. It’s one-time funding that came from the Reserve for Capital Expenditures.

The road, named after Canada’s first prime minister, is expected to be changed to the Cree Miyo-Wâhkôhtowin Road — loosely translated as meaning “good relationships.”

Celene Anger, the city’s chief strategy and information officer, says money has been spent so far on a variety of things associated with the name change.

“To date we’ve spent approximately $15,000 on engagement and ceremony and other things. And then there may be a few further costs once the name is actually approved,” she said.

Changing the signs will cost around $2,000 while there will be additional costs around resident supports, ceremony and community engagement.

“The expected estimated project completion would be more in the $35,000 range at most,” she added. “This does not impact the mill rate.”

Anger was at a meeting last week attended by some residents who expressed their frustration over not only the name change but also what they called a lack of information from the city. She said their concerns were heard.

“We did take some feedback on the name itself. We also took some feedback in terms of more frequent updates to the residents (that) would have been appreciated for sure,” said Anger.

“That was one of our lessons learned, through this process” she added.

According to Ward 3 Coun. David Kirton, residents could either be reimbursed for costs incurred to SGI, Canada Post or the province for things like driver’s licences, home addresses and even land title changes.

Anger echoed that, but added those details are still being worked out.

“Our hope is to work with all of the different agencies to basically be able to do that change without any fees. And then for any sort of processes that may involve fees, we’re currently investigating that and working on trying to make sure that we can mitigate any potential fees for residents,” Anger said.

There may also be in-person consultations or meetings for those who don’t have access to a computer, or who may have trouble navigating websites to make the necessary changes.

The city’s Naming Committee meets Tuesday to endorse the new name, and to recommend it to city council.

Council will make the final decision, but it’s expected to be approved, with the change happening sometime near the end of September.