2025.12.16 Civically Speaking - This Week's News and Technology Trends in our Civic Arenas

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Dear Listeners,

Thanks for tuning into Civically Speaking. This two-part episode of Civically Speaking brings together what’s happening right now and what it means for civic life moving forward.

In Part 1, we walk through the most important stories from the past week, moving from global events to local City Hall decisions, including:

• Major earthquakes and tsunami warnings in Japan
• Severe flooding in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia
• Solar flares and space weather affecting global systems
• Canada’s federal government moving one seat away from a majority, raising questions about opposition leadership
• A fatal incident at a Saskatchewan potash mine and its impact on the fertilizer sector
• Renewed U.S. tariff threats on Canadian fertilizer
• Rising food bank demand in Saskatchewan
• City Hall decisions in Saskatoon and Regina, including budget debates, transit pressures, neighbourhood naming, Wildwood Park and infill discussions, and governance processes shaping growth and public space

This segment focuses on what’s happening now — and why these stories matter for communities and civic decision-making.

Part 2 steps back to examine how technology is reshaping civic systems, with real-world examples from Saskatchewan, across Canada, and globally:

• Artificial intelligence becoming decision-making infrastructure
• Technology’s role in reshaping work and labour
• Data as municipal infrastructure
• Platform consolidation and the loss of public digital space
• Cybersecurity as a public safety issue
• The growing relationship between technology and inequality

Together, the episode connects the week’s news to broader trends shaping governance, democracy, and community life.

Civically Speaking,

Lenore Swystun with Christina Cherneskey

Civically Speaking- Saskatoon Saskatchewan's #1 show about civic issues.