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Yorkton Council unanimously agreed to the City entering "into the memorandum of understanding and participate in the Communities of Tomorrow Leveraged Municipal Innovation fund."

"We have been participating with other Cities and the Communities of Tomorrow in pursuing innovation in Municipal Infrastructure Innovation. To date this participation has been limited to staff time to attend meetings and demonstrations in Saskatoon and Regina," explained City Manager David Putz at the regular meeting of Council Monday.

"Communities of Tomorrow are now proposing that a leveraged municipal innovation fund be developed. In the proposed model, municipal contribution to such a fund would be used to leverage matching Communities of Tomorrow funds and ultimately it is hoped that Provincial and/or Federal funds would also be leveraged in a way, and at a level yet to be determined. The funding arrangement being considered is for an upset $150,000 contribution by the cities to be matched by Communities of Tomorrow (CT)."

Putz said Communities of Tomorrow can be important for Yorkton moving forward.

The principals associated with those expectations are as follows:

*Projects will be as approved by the Cities and Communities of Tomorrow through a mechanism to be determined.

*Projects must be relevant to the priority needs of the Cities.

*Outcomes for the initial year of the innovation fund are expected to include an Idea Generation and Opportunity Identification Project. As well as infrastructure projects that meet the threshold requirements noted earlier here.

*The concept requires broad-based support from all Saskatchewan Cities.

*It is assumed that cities will continue to represent "living labs" for project development.

In terms of cost, Yorkton's participation is based on population.

"The funding request from the City of Yorkton is $4,665.64 based upon 2006 population figures as a percentage of the total population of the 13 small to mid-size cities contributing $50,000 in total. Should any of these Cities decide not to participate, our contribution would increase proportionately based on redistribution," explained Putz.