Former NHLer could soon operate horse-drawn carriage in Saskatoon

Two years after former NHL defenceman Rich Pilon first asked for a licence to operate a horse-drawn carriage business in Saskatoon, the cart wheels could soon start turning.

Pilon’s wife, Jackie Pilon, appeared before city council’s transportation committee this month to explain her husband’s plight.

She said her husband, who could not attend the meeting because he was preparing his horses for the looming cold, has already operated wintertime horse-drawn carriage rides outside the city.

“But when he started getting invitations from church groups, schools, people wanting to propose and do a carriage ride in the winter, you know, he started to realize that perhaps you should get a business licence in the city of Saskatoon,” Jackie said.

Rich originally applied for a business licence to operate his Horses and Hockey business inside Saskatoon on Dec. 5, 2023 — a full two years before Jackie addressed the committee.

In January 2025, Rich got notice from city hall that his business licence had not been processed and had been identified by an internal audit.

City officials told the committee that no protocol exists to grant a business licence to an unregulated vehicle to operate on city streets.

Under questioning from Coun. Randy Donauer, the city’s director of community standards, Matt Grazier, said city hall faced a similar dilemma when the Pedal Pub party bicycle wanted to operate in Saskatoon.

In that instance, city officials granted a temporary exemption for the Pedal Pub to operate while the lengthy process of drawing up bylaw changes took place.

Officials did not explain why the same process did not happen in Pilon’s case.

“It looks like something got dropped and Mr. Pilon should have got a yes or a no quicker, so that we all could have got to this point quicker, and I'm sorry that didn't happen,” Donauer said.

Mayor Cynthia Block asked about previous instances when horse-drawn carriages seemed to operate regularly downtown and in the Nutana neighbourhood.

Block was told that those operations received special exemptions from a general manager at city hall to operate during certain events, but a formal business licence request to operate on city streets had never before granted.

It now appears that Pilon’s business could be rolling for the rest of the winter, according to a report to be considered by city council on Wednesday.

The report says city bureaucrats are working with the Saskatoon-born Pilon, who played 15 years in the NHL until 2001, to issue a permit to operate the business as a pilot project for the rest of the winter.

After the pilot project ends, the city administration will evaluate the enterprise and present options by summer for possible bylaw changes to allow such businesses to operate.