The RMs of Sliding Hills, Wallace, Calder, Saltcoats and Churchbridge plus the Village of Rhein are six of the 10 Saskatchewan municipalities to win this year’s Saskatchewan Municipal Awards which recognize innovation and excellence in Saskatchewan local government.
The six municipalities received the award for regional co-operation for having “founded a watershed association to proactively manage water resources to reduce flood damage to agricultural land, and protect private property and municipal infrastructure.”
The awards were to be distributed to the winning rural municipalities at the SARM (Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities) midterm convention on November 9 at TCU Place in Saskatoon. The winning urban municipalities will receive their awards at the annual SUMA (Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association) convention in February in Saskatoon.
An independent, six-member committee reviewed 15 nominations, submitted on behalf of 21 municipalities to choose the five winning projects, including a tie for third place, according to a release from the Awards’ organizers. The committee members were: Keith Schneider, former executive director of SUMA; Ken Engel, former executive director of SARM; Jim Scarrow, former mayor of Prince Albert and former vice-president of cities for SUMA; Gordon Barnhart, former lieutenant governor of Saskatchewan; Don Taylor, former board member of SARM, and Jeff Mulligan, managing partner of AHHA Moments Inc. and former mayor of Lloydminster.
The other winners of the Awards this year were: first, The City of Prince Albert for its oil spill and water crisis response for having “activated an emergency operations centre in response to an oil spill that contaminated the source of its drinking water, the North Saskatchewan River;” second, the City of Humboldt for the Humboldt Strategic Framework which “developed and implemented a framework setting out a vision and strategy for Humboldt, and used it to align policy and the budget process to the framework, and third, a tie between the RM of Blucher for its Highway 316 concept plan that developed a comprehensive concept plan for the area that addressed infrastructure needs, existing development, future development, surface water considerations, and environmental factors, and Town of Kerrobert for its unmanned aerial vehicle/laser survey which used drones and laser technology to survey the town to create an asset map and topographical map to help develop an infrastructure upgrade master plan and drainage plans.
Last year, for its doctor recruitment and retention strategy and its Community Health and Wellness Centre, the Town of Kamsack won first place in the awards program.
