Summerside facing challenges of growth, says mayor in state-of-city address [Video]

Mayor Dan Kutcher delivered Summerside’s first-ever state-of-the-city address Wednesday morning.

In a document containing the text of the speech provided in advance to CBC News, Kutcher spoke of the challenges facing Summerside, many of them connected to rapid population growth, and how the city is addressing them.

Kutcher delivered the speech to a small crowd at Credit Union Place.

“Our population has grown by over 10 per cent in just a few years,” the mayor said.

“Recently we have been adding as many people each year as we added in total for the 20 years before.”

LISTEN | A first for the City of Summerside:

While this growth, much of it through immigration, is required to deal with labour shortages associated with an aging population, the speed of it has caused problems, Kutcher acknowledged.

“There are a growing number of unhoused persons in our community,” he said.

The city is doing what it can to coordinate support services, Kutcher …