The Town of Battleford received an early view of the 16 resolutions that SUMA will discuss at its upcoming conference in early February in Saskatoon.
The resolutions, from communities all around the province, cover a broad swath of subjects.
The first, from Cut Knife, would prohibit citizens owing money to the municipality from running for council. The second, from the Southwest region, is to stagger urban municipal terms of office, to eliminate situations in which there are no incumbent council members.
A resolution, from Kerrobert, recommends making commercial mill rates comparable to agricultural and residential mill rates. One from the village of Bulyea and the town of Lumsden, suggests removing the requirement that the Saskatchewan Municipal Board approve all utility rate changes. The resort village of the district of Katepwa made a resolution that would amend the Municipalities Act to allow for the creation of municipal districts.
Lampman made a resolution that would see volunteer first responders compensated for out-of-pocket expenses, and Willow Bunch created a resolution requesting provincial funding for assistance in controlling wildlife.
St. Walburg made one of the more interesting resolutions, to forgive up to $100,000 in student loans for medical students working outside of Saskatoon and Regina for five years or more.
The ninth resolution came from the Town of Stoughton, and it recommended the SGI deem all calls received by fire departments in the province "productive" and billed as such, as fire departments treat all calls as emergencies regardless of whether they are false alarms.
St. Walburg also wrote the 10th resolution, which would create a different per capita rate for RCMP in communities served by a satellite detachment. St. Walburg explains in the resolution that communities who have had full detachment offices downgraded to satellite offices are still billed as if they had a full detachment with full services, a cost that is not "equitable."
The Village of Invermay created a resolution that would permit small urban communities to use their social housing units as affordable housing units, because of the lack of affordable housing in many small communities.
The City of Meadow Lake's resolution proposes making the Community Grant Program conditional, as there is no indication community grant funds are being misused by the benefiting municipalities, and the regulations and checks around the funds are unwieldy.
Humboldt's resolution acknowledged the successes of the SUMA Urban Marketplace, SUMAdvantage and SUMAssure, especially in reducing operating costs associated with banking fees, telephone costs and bulk purchases of calcium chloride and water pipe purchases, and recommends the SUMAdvantage program be expanded along with group purchasing services in general.
Another resolution from Bulyea and Lumsden, recommends SUMA lobby to have a portion of the urban revenue sharing pool allocated to support a municipal administrator internship program. The resolution mentions the "unprecedented growth" of the province, which has created a shortage of qualified municipal administrators, a shortage that will only worsen as more administrators retire.
The Southeast region made the second-last resolution, which recommends SUMA look into the feasibility of retaining the services of a lawyer and engineer.
The final resolution, from the Central region, is to increase the limit on the maximum value of prizes from local authority-issued lottery licenses from $1,000 to $2,500.
All resolutions will be discussed at the SUMA Convention that will take place Feb. 3-6 in Saskatoon. The News-Optimist's John Cairns will be at the convention to report on the proceedings.
