Some familiar issues such as infrastructure, derelict properties and provincial and federal funding highlighted discussions at the SUMA convention in Regina in early February.
As usual, a large contingent was on hand from North Battleford. Mayor Ian Hamilton did not attend, but City Manager Jim Puffalt (in his first SUMA convention since coming to North Battleford) and several councillors were there for the annual four-day gathering of municipal officials from across the province, held Feb. 2 to 5.
Addressing municipalities' infrastructure needs - the replacement of roads and of water and sewer lines - was a prime topic among the approximately 1,000 delegates at the Queensbury Centre.
"The biggest issue for most municipalities is the funding for infrastructure deficits," said Greg Lightfoot, one of the North Battleford councillors who attended the conference.
Those big-ticket projects are usually funded on a one-third basis involving the municipal, provincial and federal levels of government. Past SUMA conventions have highlighted the need for the federal government to come up with a replacement to the Building Canada Fund that was to end in 2014.
The cost of infrastructure have been a consistent theme at North Battleford council meetings.
"It's certainly something I have been focusing on in my time here as councillor, and previous councils have too," said Lightfoot.
In speaking to reporters Monday following the regular council meeting, Lightfoot noted the keen interest in what the 2014 federal budget would bring, with considerable talk beforehand that there would be an announcement of infrastructure funding.
"There's some anticipated funding coming from the federal government that we're hoping would be matched by the provincial government and of course our dollars to do some major infrastructure projects," said Lightfoot.
He did express concern, however, about whether there would be enough federal money to go around.
"Unfortunately, some of the numbers I've heard is $14, $15, $16 billion. You take the amount of municipalities in the country, especially some of the larger ones, it could be very difficult for us to get a good chunk of that to do some of the projects we want to do. So the key message was set priorities and get your thoughts in place about what you need to work on first."
Puffalt was another who wanted to see information from the federal government on infrastructure programs.
He noted that "every time they've brought out an infrastructure program there's been great progress and great steps forward made on the infrastructure deficit."
The federal budget was handed down Tuesday afternoon in the House of Commons by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, and shed some light on the new Building Canada plan that is being brought in, though details about the plan will have to wait.
According to the budget document, the government pledged $14 billion over 10 years "for a new Building Canada Fund to support major economic projects that have a national, regional and local significance." The budget document adds that the government continues to consult with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and other stakeholders "to finalize the parameters of the new Building Canada Fund and is committed to launching the new fund by March 31, 2014."
The government has also committed to an additional $1.8 billion in support over 10 years to the Gas Tax Fund, and a commitment of $10.4 billion over 10 years under the incremental Goods and Services Tax Rebate for Municipalities.
Specific infrastructure commitments announced in the budget include $391 million over five years going to infrastructure at Canada's national parks including bridges and highways. The government also committed money to bridges in the Montreal area and to the new Windsor-Detroit crossing.
One of the usual highlights of SUMA was the Monday morning address of Premier Brad Wall. This year, the premier mused publically about the possibility of increasing the education property tax and having that revenue go towards infrastructure projects.
While he didn't comment directly on that prospect, Lightfoot made clear he wanted to see more provincial money for infrastructure.
The revenue sharing from the one per cent of PST was "certainly a help for some of the projects we're working on," said Lightfoot.
"But as you all know with the deficits each municipality has with respect to infrastructure issues, that's certainly not going to be enough. We're certainly hoping the provincial, federal governments come out with some big numbers in the budgets that are coming forth."
Other highlights at the convention involved some of the issues with moving grain on the railway, as well as issues with respect to building pipelines to move oil.
There weren't a lot of resolutions directly impacting on the city, Lightfoot noted. There had been discussion at SUMA about policing costs and how to alleviate those costs, he said, but "I'm not sure there's resolutions in there that would stem to that."
Resolutions at SUMA are a way for the organization and its members to take a stance on an issue or lobby provincial or federal officials on changes they want to see.
A familiar proposal that came up yet again, and which again did not get very far, was a resolution to stagger terms of councillors so that half of them come up for election every two years. Puffalt said even the rural municipalities are moving away from that model. That resolution was handily defeated.
Another resolution from Prince Albert had some relevance to North Battleford's situation with respect to vacant or derelict properties - a longstanding issue in the city.
It called for changes to the Cities Act to give municipalities greater powers to deal with issues respecting derelict and vacant buildings, including "abandoned gas stations and those types of things," said Puffalt.
The new powers proposed in that resolution included passing bylaws to "regulate the condition and maintenance of vacant dwellings and non-residential buildings through a permit process, which includes escalating fees, fines and other penalties on non-compliant owners of vacant properties," to establish "a process for issuing preliminary derelict building orders, second notices and derelict building certificates in respect of derelict properties by which a municipality may take title to vacant and derelict buildings" and to clearly define what constitutes a derelict property, which would include "vacant buildings and contaminated properties."
That resolution passed at SUMA, a decision Lightfoot welcomes with respect to getting something done with some properties in North Battleford.
"There are definitely some key properties and very, very prominent properties in the community that we would like to be able to see some progression and movement on that, and improvement."
