Yorkton Mayor on-side with group name change

An organizational name change was one of the biggest news stories to come out of this week’s Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association’s annual general meeting, says Yorkton Mayor Bob Maloney.

The Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) announced Tuesday that it will be changing its name to the Municipalities of Saskatchewan (MOS).

The new name is said to better encompass communities - cities, towns, villages, resort villages, and northern municipalities – that are part of the organization.

“It’s something the Board has been working on for a few years,” said Maloney.

The new name does seem to hint at an eventual coming together with the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities as it no longer differentiates between rural and urban.

“The Province is really leaning on municipalities to cooperate whenever they can,” suggested Maloney, pointing to area such as water and waste management. “There’s more of that kind of urgency from the province.”

The name change does open the door to bigger changes, said Maloney, adding he believes it is widely felt “there are too many municipalities” as they system exists now.

“The funding runs out. There are only so many dollars to go around,” he said.

Maloney added a single entity representing all municipalities will not happen anytime soon though, noting SARM “wants to defend what they see as their turf.” He said as a result SARM was “not very happy” with the SUMA change.

Maloney said while change is not always a good thing he added “I see it as being a positive thing,” then noted ultimately it comes down to what the organization does, not what it is called.