City: Saskatoon, Canada

Reporting to: Integrated Communications & Marketing Manager

The Challenge

Effective communication between government and the public builds trust, fosters community engagement, and enables informed decision making. That is why Saskatoon city leaders are worried about a recent trend. According to the city’s annual Civic Satisfaction & Performance Survey, resident satisfaction with the city’s communication efforts has been steadily declining year after year (see page 44 of the linked survey). In 2021, 86 percent of residents said they were either “somewhat” or “very” satisfied with the city’s efforts to communicate information about its services, programs, and plans. By 2025, that had dropped to 67 percent.

City leaders have made efforts to respond. They updated the city’s website to make it easier to find information, request services, and get questions answered. Regular campaigns and communication efforts promote city services and programs through the channels residents identify as most preferred (page 46). City councilors individually share information with residents through their available tools. And work is underway to establish a city newsfeed/blog as a dedicated platform to tell city stories. However, city leaders have not had the opportunity to do a comprehensive audit or analysis of residents’ communication preferences, leaving gaps in knowledge about how different demographics consume and trust municipal information.

Saskatoon city leaders want to dig deeper into the declining survey results to understand what explains the drop in resident satisfaction. They also want to take stock of rapid changes in technology and community expectations, look at best and emerging practices in peer cities, and assess how to overcome equity and accessibility barriers in communicating with residents. Modernizing the city’s communication strategy would advance Mayor Cynthia Block’s vision for an open, responsive, and digitally advanced municipality.

Key questions to be addressed include:

• What is driving the decline in residents’ satisfaction with the city’s communications?
• Which messengers of city government (i.e., City Council, individual councilors, or administration) do residents trust and prefer as information sources?
• Which channels and formats are most effective, and how do preferences vary by demographics and digital literacy?
• What content gaps exist, and how do residents define being “well-informed”?
• What barriers must be addressed to improve equity and accessibility?
• How are emerging technologies and platforms reshaping expectations for municipal communication?
• What impact does the evolving media and social media landscape have on trust and engagement?
• How do Saskatoon’s communication strategies compare with other municipalities, and what best practices can be adopted?

What You’ll Do

The fellow will analyze the city’s current communication strategies, assess the changing landscape of communication channels and community expectations, and recommend future-focused approaches based on feedback from residents and examples from other cities. To gain an understanding of current practices in Saskatoon, the fellow will interview city councilors and members of the city’s executive leadership team. External engagements will include surveys and focus groups with the general public, including individual market segments such as Indigenous residents, seniors, and people who have recently moved to Saskatoon. In addition to recommending communication strategies, the fellow will identify administrative policies, procedures, processes, or tools that may be needed to enhance the reach, transparency, and timeliness of municipal communications. City leaders hope that in the next civic survey, they will see an increase in resident satisfaction with the city’s communications efforts rather than a continued decline.

Deliverables include:

• A report summarizing key themes of interviews with councilors and executive leadership on their perspectives of what is and isn’t working in the city’s communication with residents.
• An audit of current communication tools and tactics used by councilors and city administrators; key practices, policies and procedures governing their use; and engagement metrics.
• A resident survey and focus groups meant to uncover residents’ communication and messenger preferences, channel usage, trust factors, barriers, and equity or accessibility issues.
• A report assessing communication strategies in peer cities, including best practices, emerging tools, and modernization opportunities for Saskatoon.
• A report consolidating findings and making high-level recommendations for Saskatoon’s approaches to communication.

What You’ll Bring

The fellow will be expected to possess the following skills:

• Data Analysis
• Policy Analysis
• Qualitative Interviewing & Analysis
• Marketing & Communications
• Strong Writing Skills

Apply here

Back to Summer Fellowships page