After a challenging but successful year for Dawson Creek in 2010, Mayor Mike Bernier is looking forward to 2011 to see some big name projects get completed as well as address the grass roots of the city.

“Last year was an exciting year in the city,” recalled Bernier. “There were a lot of challenges, but I think we worked through them.”

One of those challenges he identified was making cut backs in the city’s budget at the start of 2010. Dawson Creek cut nearly $2 million from its budget in order to help keep tax rates as low as possible. Bernier admitted that he heard loud and clear in various town hall meetings that many people didn’t want their social programs cut, but he thinks the city was successful in balancing its services and its spending.

Bernier called 2010 Dawson Creek’s “best year on record” in terms of private development, with over $50 million spent.

“That shows that even though a lot of other communities and areas are still struggling to pick up, a lot of the investors have faith in what’s happening in Dawson Creek and see longevity in their investment,” he said.

He said the city had a few hiccups in getting the Calvin Kruk Centre for the Arts underway, but now that the project is not going to a referendum, he sees it as a major highlight of 2011.

A big issue in the city last year was the water shortage, he added.

“You don’t really have a lot of say when Mother Nature doesn’t rain down on you, but I think a big pat on the back goes to everybody in Dawson Creek. People really stepped up when they needed to and were very creative and understanding in not watering lawns and how to be economical with the water. It was an unfortunate situation we were put in, and hopefully we can restrict ever having to do that again. We always rely on snow and rain to provide us water. It’s a delicate resource, unfortunately.”

For 2011, the city is still working on getting the Water Reclamation Project open. Bernier said the city is going through the designs with Shell and its engineers to make sure it has a project that meets the needs of the city and be on budget. He hopes to have it up by the end of the year.

Bernier warned that one thing he doesn’t want to do is have the city bite off more than it can chew. He wants to put a lot of attention into the Water Reclamation Project and the Calvin Kruk Centre for the Arts and get those finished. Besides that, Bernier is looking to concentrate on the grass roots of the city, namely its roads and sidewalks.

“We’re going to go back out and really look at roads and sidewalks and how do we get some more paving done and really work on some of that core infrastructure that the city requires,” he said.

“If you let it go too many years, then it just deteriorates to the point where it costs more money, so we want to get out there this year and really do some of that core work that people are asking for.”

Bernier said the 30 per cent price hike in BC Hydro rates is going to be a continuous concern over 2011. But he said that such price raises are out of the city’s control.

“When you’re running a city and running a city budget, one of the biggest challenges is the impact to the taxpayer that we have no control over,” he said.

“A 30 per cent hit is a big hit, and we have to figure out how to continue running the core services and running the city. Those are all the decisions in running a city that make it challenging. If you cut taxes, you cut services. It’s always a balancing act. When hydro goes up or if natural gas goes up or any of these things we don’t have control over, it definitely can make it more challenging to balance the budget.”

Bernier anticipates continued growth in the city and its housing market. He is encouraging more businesses to come to Dawson Creek and more people to move here for work.

Of course, that creates a tricky situation for any city to balance a growing economy with not leaving people behind. Bernier addressed the affordable housing situation in Dawson Creek, saying it’s a difficult challenge to address.

The provincial government’s mandate is to deal with affordable housing whether through BC Housing or similar projects, but from a city has power only to draft community plans or tweak zoning to encourage affordable housing.

“One of the downfalls of being in such a robust, booming economy is everybody can raise their prices,” said Bernier. “Everybody can charge more because a majority of people might have more income. The problem is those who don’t start getting left behind, and that’s really problematic. As a city, it’s one of those things you can identify and the challenge there is the city doesn’t go out and build affordable housing. The taxpayers aren’t going to do that, so how do you encourage affordable housing?”

He said he’s starting to see more people building multi-family dwellings, apartments and duplexes, but of course the booming economy is pushing rent prices up.

“It’s a product of the environment,” said Bernier. “You could move to a community that the rents are really low, but it’s harder to find a job, so both sides have pros and cons.”

He said that’s a recurring problem for anyone running a city: benefiting every member of the population, not just one group.

“The challenging part about running a city is how do you make one decision that’s going to affect everybody and be fair? It’s almost impossible.”

Bernier called controversy in a city a good thing, because if people aren’t talking, that means nothing is happening in the city or nobody cares.

“2010 was really good for that,” he said. “The community really got engaged.”

This year is also an election year. Bernier said there is no question he’ll be running for a second term as mayor, but he doesn’t let that influence his decisions.

“One thing about being in a city is it never slows down,” he said. “There’s always something, and you’ve got to stay on your toes. Being an election year, I don’t put too much thought into that, because every day you have to be doing what’s right for the city and not worrying about what’s going to get you reelected. That’s not why people do this.”

Bernier said he will continue having an open-door policy and is looking forward to the projects and challenges in the new year.