HUMBOLDT — Malcolm Eaton, Humboldt’s former mayor, has been presented the Municipalities of Saskatchewan’s [MoS’] Scoop Lewry Award for outstanding services in municipal government administration.
Other positions held in the past by Eaton include being a founding member of the Prairie Innovation Enterprise Region (PIER); a Humboldt representative for the Mid Sask. Municipal Alliance (MSMA); board member of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM); school principal; president of the Humboldt Minor Baseball Association; Municipalities of Saskatchewan board member; and board member at the Reid-Thompson Public Library.
In 2017, he was presented the Humboldt Citizen of the Year award at the Humboldt and District Chamber of Commerce Awards of Excellence event.
“I feel honoured to be recognized by the people I worked with, both at the local council level as well as the [MoS] level,” Eaton said.
“Nobody in the role of mayor or councillor does this by themselves, you’re always part of a team. I was very fortunate to be part of a great team of councillors and city staff.”
Eaton first got into municipal politics in 2003 through a seat at Humboldt council. Three years later, he became the community’s mayor. He held that position before retiring in 2016.
Looking back, he said some of his highlights in those roles include the hospital project, as well as the building of the shared recreational facility containing both the Humboldt Collegiate Institute and Carlton Trail Regional College.
“Those projects stand out because they’ll really serve the needs of the community for many, many years,” Eaton said. “They responded to the involvement of the community in wanting those projects to go forward and wanting good things to happen in our community.”
Currently, Eaton teaches at the Municipal Leadership Development Program.
The program is a series of workshops developed exclusively for elected and appointed municipal leaders in Saskatchewan. The modules target specific issues of importance to the communities.
“I teach in the planning component of that, and I think that’s very important for municipalities,” he said. “That allows me to stay in touch with what’s going on in the municipal world in Saskatchewan. Since I’ve been teaching that program, since I retired from the mayor’s position, I’ve met a lot of people right across the province.”
When asked what makes a municipal public servant, Eaton said he believes it’s a two part answer with both leadership, and having a good sense of what your community values, aspirations and visions are.
“That means a lot of community engagement with all the different parts of the community: young people, older people, business community, young families – all the different parts of a community,” he said.
“I think that’s very important to have an important sense of what vision the community has, and making sure you’re looking down the road and planning the future for the community.”
Eaton said that while the things municipal servants do on a day to day basis is an important aspect of the job, he feels the most important part is planning for the future.
The Scoop Lewry Award is dedicated to the memory of L.H. “Scoop” Lewry, a long-time mayor of Moose Jaw and past Municipalities of Saskatchewan President.
The Municipalities of Saskatchewan board chooses the recipients through nominations from communities and councils throughout the province.
Michael Behiel, Humboldt’s current mayor, said it was nice to see Eaton get the award.
“It certainly was very well received by everybody at [the MoS convention] who knew Malcolm from his years of contributions,” he said. “It was absolutely well deserved. It was very nice to see Malcolm get some recognition for that.”
