Regina Mayor Sandra Masters on planning for the future, REAL and the next municipal election

Mayor Sandra Masters sat down with CBC Saskatchewan's Alexander Quon for a year-end interview before council's lengthy and contentious budget debate. Here is their conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity. 

Quon: First question I want to ask is on the official bird of the City of Regina. Do you have a bird that you would want to see as the official bird?

Masters: I was for the Canada Goose.

You were for the Canada Goose? 

What did someone say, that they're called cobra chickens? I just think that's fantastic, and we have them everywhere here. But I also know that we're a bird city, so we have a lot of kind of elegant creatures here. So I'm happy with whatever committee chooses. I think it's it's sweet.

When you look back at these past three years, what do you think your main accomplishments are? 

I think a big one is economic opportunity. Whether that's the Viterra land deal that we were able to facilitate, or the AGT Federated Co-op deal that we were able to facilitate, or even the level of co-operation that existed between the RM, the province and industry in terms of everything from roads to rails to water to wastewater. There was something really fulfilling about playing a role there and not having things happen to us, but actually to help facilitate it. 

I think the Indigenous procurement and Indigenous framework is significant. If we understand our history and we understand that economic fairness and economic opportunity, we are all going to benefit if everyone fits. If we can lift up and repair some of those systemic barriers that have existed, I think that's pretty important.

We got to an application with our