North Battleford was one of many communities anxious to hear what the new premier had to say at the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association convention in Regina this week.
North Battleford Mayor Ryan Bater was among the many civic officials interested in hearing remarks from new Premier Scott Moe and the new government affairs minister Warren Kaeding. In particular, the officials wanted to hear their take on topics important to municipalities, such as municipal revenue sharing, and payments in lieu.
“It was different from any other SUMA I’ve been to because we had a new premier there,” said Bater.
Of note, he said Kaeding indicated the provincial budget will have a revenue sharing formula that will be the same as it has been in the past.
“We can expect the same formula to be used that’s based on one per cent of the PST,” said Bater. The indication is that the amount for this year will be the same next year as well.
But Bater says they also know there will be a reduction in revenue sharing money because of the “economic downturn in the whole province.”
The other important item came from Moe, who indicated there would be provincial budget discussions having to do with grants in lieu of property tax regarding SaskPower and SaskEnergy.
“That’s obviously of concern to us because not only do we get grants in lieu of property tax from those Crowns, but we used to get royalties that were paid to the city from SaskEnergy. And those royalties are no longer being remitted to the city,” said Bater.
“So there’s just a lot of questions around all of this, a lot of questions around the payments in lieu of tax. Just a lot of uncertainty leading into the provincial budget.”
It’s been confirmed the budget will come down on April 10.
Bater says the indication from the province is they want to do something “equitable and fair” on payments in lieu of taxes with all municipalities in Saskatchewan.
“It sounds like they want to start having some consultations, discussions on coming up with formulas that are consistent around the province.”
The difficulty for the city, said Bater, was that people were throwing around terms such as grants in lieu of property tax when the item of contention really wasn’t about that.
“It was about the royalties that are owed to the city because the city sold that distribution system to those Crown corporations back in 1954.”
The contract, Bater said, included the payment of royalties to the people of North Battleford.
“They’re still relevant as far as I’m concerned,” Bater said of it.
Bater did give his impressions of the new premier, Moe.
“He’s got a big job,” said Bater.
“Scott Moe, I believe, is the closest premier geographically to the Battlefords that we ever had.”
Bater said he had a chance to meet the new premier, and adds he looks forward to a “strong government-to-government relationship” with the new premier.
The speech by Moe to convention delegates Monday morning highlighted the SUMA convention that took place Feb. 4 to 7. In addition to Bater, all members of North Battleford city council attended as did city manager Jim Puffalt.
As for other issues of interest that came up at the convention, Bater confirms cannabis was a big issue.
There were dedicated sessions at the convention related to the upcoming legalization.
“I think that most communities were well aware, and we’ve already had the discussion at our council table, about the province allocating permits to different communities,” said Bater.
There were also a lot of questions about law enforcement, taxation, and revenue sharing with municipalities.
“Hopefully those are all addressed,” said Bater.
