Council tables second reading of bylaw to rezone land for UFA cardlock
Moosomin Town Council
October 14, 2025, 10:07 am
Kara Kinna
At their meeting last week, Moosomin town council tabled the second reading of a zoning bylaw amendment to rezone land on Celebration Drive from commercial to industrial to allow for a UFA cardlock west of Celebration Ford and across from Skout Brewing.
Before voting to hold the second reading of the bylaw amendment, council reviewed written submissions in regards to the zoning bylaw amendment and held a public hearing at the meeting. There were 14 written submissions presented (of which two were a duplicate), and one person, the owner of Skout Brewing, Aaron Grandguillot, who attended the public hearing.
Eleven of the written submissions were in favor of the town rezoning for the cardlock, while two were against it.
The town received written submissions from Tyler Thorn, the owner of Celebration Ford, from Jeff Cole, from Wayne Beckett, from Tykeda Ventures (owned by Tyler Thorn, Kim Setrum and Dale Nixon), from Kristjan Hebert, from Craig Roy, from Josef Tesar, owner of Motel 6, from Steve Sulea with Eecol Electric, from CBA administrator Randi Thorn, from Randi Thorn writing on behalf of the CBA membership, from Jay Hamilton, owner of South Prairie Design, from Aaron Grandguillot, owner of Skout Brewing, and from Teddi Taylor, of LB Taylor Trucking Ltd.
Of the written submissions in favor of the cardlock, the majority laid out reasons why they felt a UFA was needed in Moosomin, why they felt it would be good for the town’s economy, why the town could use a service like UFA, and most felt that the cardlock was well situated by the highway.
Both Grandguillot and Taylor listed concerns about the cardlock. Grandguillot pointed out that he had built his brew pub on commercial property and that the business has been swiftly growing to include more and more food as part of its daily operation, and a lively outdoor space that is used in the summer. He cited concerns about noise, traffic, fumes, and an overall negative effect on his business if the town were to go ahead and rezone. He pointed out that all other UFA cardlocks in Saskatchewan are either in an industrial area, or not in town limits.
Taylor laid out concerns about traffic and safety on the east side of town, which is already a busy area with trucks turning into the co-op cardlock. She also had concerns about it having a negative effect on existing commercial operations in the area.
Since Grandguillot attended the public hearing, he was also allowed to speak on his concerns.
“Me and my wife put everything we have in this business, so even though I maybe don’t expect this to go our way, we had to oppose it because it’s our life savings.
“I think they could be an excellent addition to the town, my opposition is just their location.”
Kyla Fingas said she didn’t feel it was fair to other businesses that had built in that area because it was zoned commercial. She also had concerns about large trucks on that street, especially if people were parking on the street to go to the brewery if the brewery’s parking lot was full.
Victor Santos said he has spoken to RCMP who had some concerns about congestion in that area and response time.
Councillor Devin Nosterud said he understood the concerns, but worried that if the town rejected the rezoning, that UFA would not come back to Moosomin, as this was their second attempt to put a location in the town.
Councillor Heather Truman said she wished to table the rezoning and take a better look at the site where the cardlock would go to think about some of the concerns.
Councillor Garry Towler said he was impressed with UFA’s plan to have a large green space out front of the cardlock to set the cardlock back from the street and create a buffer zone, however he said he understood the concerns about the cardlock as well.
Councillor Andie Hodgson was not in attendance at the meeting on Wednesday.
“This isn’t an easy decision for council because there are lots of points both ways, and there’s lots of points about being open for business and how you operate in order to open for business,” said Mayor Murray Gray. “This isn’t a straitforward, easy decision. In my time on council this is probably one of the biggest decisions that we’ve had around this table on the impact of it.
Outside of the zoning the community wants UFA to be in Moosomin. Outside of the zoning, if were just to say do you want UFA, it would be 100 per cent in favor. The problem is that this is where UFA picked that they want to go and it becomes our issue.”
Councillor Heather Truman made a motion to table the second reading of the zoning bylaw amendment. Including the mayor’s vote, three were in favor of her motion and three were against, so the motion failed. Garry Towler made a motion for the second reading, however three were in favor of his motion and three were against, so that motion also failed.
CAO Paul Listrom said tabling the motion was the alternative choice without having clear direction, so the decision would have to wait until the next meeting when councillor Andie Hodgson is back.
