During the next couple ot weeks people at City Hall will be trying to put together a framework on how this city will define itself to the world.

This comes in the wake of Monday's decision by council to approve looking to the private sector for proposals to build a hotel-spa-restaurant complex on the land that used to be occupied by the Gathercole building.

The next time council is scheduled to meet it should be presented with a report setting out the rules for deciding what sort of cultural component the River Landing development should have. A hotel-spa would be a great draw to this development while park development and an expanded farmers' market would be great additions, but these won't define the city.

That will only be done through the cultural component. It is here that Saskatoon needs to make its mark – it must convince the people of Winnipeg and Edmonton, Toronto and Vancouver and even Berlin and Tokyo that we have something no one else has.

In a city like Saskatoon that is so rich in culture – both aboriginal and European – we would think there would be no shortage of choices to be made.

So far that doesn't seem to be the case.

The cultural component of the landing project is to contain three essential elements, including live theatre, an interpretive centre and a tourism kiosk. Councillors are being courted by two live theatre groups, both looking at facilities that would contain some similar amenities, but they apparently can't agree on control.

Persephone Theatre has money and the track record of running a successful professional theatre group. Scene III began as a partnership among Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan, 25th Street Theatre and La Troupe du Jour. Only Shakespeare and La Troupe are left since 25th Street – which has evolved from a theatre group into an organization basically responsible for the annual Fringe Festival – pulled out and is watching from the sidelines. If this is our choice for the theatre, Persephone is clearly on the inside stretch. It is fabulously successful – probably one of the most succesful in the country. Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan is successful as far as it goes, a summer festival on the city's riverbank, and La Troupe du Jour can take pride in its ability to raise funding to produce productions in French, one of Canada's official languages but one that is now rarely spoken in Saskatchewan.

But it seems obvious Persephone and Scene III (act 2) will not be able to work together. The discussion falls down over who will control the development. Clearly, any time there are going to be competing professional theatre groups, the one that controls the theatre will get the best times and best days, and allocate the remainder to anyone else who will have them. This isn´t desirable for any of the parties in this competition.

And this isn't the only problem the city administration is having. There is a competition in the community (and reflected on council) for the use of Joni Mitchell to help define Saskatoon.

One shouldn't underestimate not only the drawing power of this international star but also the importance of her strong ideals to make or break either the cultural component in River Landing or the Mendel Art Gallery, both of which are in an apparent competition for her appeal.

Mitchell co-chairs the Mendel's current fundraising commitee and her remarkable artwork will form an important part of the gallery's collection. But she is also famous for her music and, while the Mendel is hoping to have a feature dedicated to her eclectic talents, the gallery neither charges admission nor plan on providing the facilities for the vast array of memorabilia that would constitute the ever-changig show necessary to keep people coming back.

Without the former there will be no money for the latter.

So far this is what we have for River Landing – a Joni Mitchell interpretavive centre in competition with the Mendel and two theatre groups, each vyng be top dog for the theatre component. Council, backed by many in the senior administration at city hall, seems to be on track for a cultural development that would be self-sustaining.

It shouldn´t be undestated how important this could be. If the development doesn't pay for itself, its success could hinge on the good graces of future councils that may have to balance any subsidy against issues such as policing ot maintaning basic infrastructure.

But that balancing must be taken in context. The city has no qualms about subsidizing its operation of swimming pools, park maintenance, the operation of the Field House and services such as transit and street engineering through the taxes. According to a recent survey of city residents about satisfaction with civic services, 82 percent said they believed they get good value for their money.

Why should subsidizing the operation of an amenity that really must set the tone for our culture, while acting as the central tourist draw, be treated so much different.

Persephone, for example, may work perfectly for the theatre component but if it is the landlord for this development, Saskatoon citizens may expect of it things no theatre company could deliver, and this could not only threaten the cultural component of the River Landing, but Persephone itself. This is in the interests of no one.

It is critical that when the administration reports back to council on Nov. 29 that it include a recommendation for some mechanism that won't only (as Scene III asked) "take a cultural inventory to ensure fair and equitable allocation os resources to foster Saskatoon's cultural community," but also create a comittee that will have a broad enough representation to define what constitutes Saskatoon's culture, what aspects must be represented in this critical development and what is the maximum this city should go for.

It must also recognize that time is of the essence. Within months Joni Mitchell's memorabilia may be in the hands of the University of Califomia (which is also bidding on it), so the committee must have the credibility to stop the city's bickering and petty competition and begin to pull us all together.

Failure to do so will be a success of sorts. There is an unfortunate aspect within Saskatoon's culture to tear down or usurp any positive ideas and drive them down. Perhaps that's what our cultural amenity will windup being.