Saskatchewan's city mayors met last Thursday, and came away from the meeting looking for a different provincial formula for divvying up grant money to municipalities.
Yorkton Mayor Bob Maloney said the cities are thankful the province has altered the revenue formula, tying it to provincial sales tax.
"That's been a real boon to cities," he said, adding it has meant a "growth in revenues" to municipalities. That said the Yorkton Mayor did remind that it was a case of playing catch-up too as past governments "off-loaded" a number of programs and costs to municipalities as a way to improve the province's bottom line.
And the cities think there is still room for adjustments to how the money rolls out, said Maloney, adding they want to work with the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities "on a new distribution formula" one which would ultimately mean "some more money to cities."
Maloney said cities are "looking to have more of the revenues follow the population," adding they recognize they "may not get there in the short term," but want to start the dialogue.
Maloney said there is certainly a need among cities, in particular "to help us deal with infrastructure."
Looking at Yorkton, as an example, Maloney said the current drainage plan being implemented has a $19 million price tag, trunk water main upgrades will cost at least $4, but could escalate to $14 million depending in the exact condition of existing lines, repaving Broadway Street and upgrading underground infrastructure at the same time will run $7.5-to-$10.5 million, and a new public works building will be $9-to-$14 million.
"For a city our size these are scary numbers," he said.
While recognizing the city can't undertake all the projects at once, Maloney said there is a need for more money too.
"In the future we want to see money flow more to where people are," he said, and that means cities, where 60 per cent of the population already resides in Saskatchewan. He added it is estimated 80 per cent of new Saskatchewan residents end up in cities.
Maloney said money to cities is good business too.
"Cities are driving the economy right now," he said.
Maloney said it is not a case of wanting "to throw anybody under the bus," said added chance is needed. He reminded cities get left paying for infrastructure which provides services to people in a large region, so the money needs are larger.
"We're working with SARM," he said, adding they have met once with another planned. "Hopefully we can find a deal."
