Brenda Wallace is a Registered Professional Planner (RPP) and Member of the Canadian Institute of Planners (MCIP) with certification and broad experience facilitating professional engagement and public participation processes in Saskatchewan as a Certified Public Participation Professional (CP3) through IAP2. She is Principal of Wallace Insights Inc. and has worked at senior professional and executive levels whin public, private, and non-profit organizations. She has a Masters Degree from Cambridge University, U.K., and is currently completing a PhD at the University of Saskatchewan where she is also a Professional Associate within the Regional and Urban Planning Program.
Saskatchewan’s Planning and Development Act, 2007 (PDA) governs land use, zoning, and subdivision regulations for over 750 municipalities — from resort villages and small towns to major cities. A single piece of legislation applies to all of them. Our premise is that the PDA has become increasingly outdated, process heavy, and misaligned with Saskatchewan’s economic and social realities. The cost of this misalignment is measurable: approvals take longer and longer, developers work around regulations rather than with them, and councils spend more time focusing on zoning rather than planning. The end result is a loss of opportunity, frustration and exhaustion amongst stakeholder groups, and wasted resources. It’s time for a fundamental rethink. This interactive workshop invites Saskatchewan planners and associated professionals to engage directly in shaping an agenda to create an entirely new PDA — not a patch or an amendment, but a clean-sheet approach grounded in evidence, designed for the 21st century and built for efficiency.
