Following the annual Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) convention, cities across the province are still wondering what to expect in terms of funding from Saskatchewan’s revenue sharing model.
Mayor Roy Ludwig, who was honoured by SUMA for his 20 years of public service, attended the convention at TCU Place in Saskatoon with City Manager Amber Smale as well as councillors Lori Carr, Kevin Smith and Dennis Moore.
Ludwig said revenue sharing was perhaps the largest topic of discussion at the meetings. With lower oil revenues forecast in the coming year, the province has made it known that everything is on the table in order to make the coming budget work without that revenue. That may include a cut to the one per cent of PST revenue distributed to cities and municipalities that had been previously promised by the Sask. Party government.
“We didn’t get any answers to the revenue sharing portion at this time,” said Ludwig about the discussion. He said before the end of February there should be an answer as to what the revenue sharing picture will look like, which would be prior to the release of the budget in March.
“SUMA is optimistic that things will remain the same, at least for 2015, because a lot of our budget have already been set,” Ludwig added.
If revenue from the province doesn’t meet expectations, those budgets may have to be revisited.
“We as council will have to go back and put our heads together, have the necessary discussion, the necessary dialogue and see where we want to go from there,” said the mayor. “It will depend on the magnitude of what happens, and accordingly, we’ll then have to put everything we have on the table and revisit everything if we have to.”
Projects the City is already committed to will still have to be realized, like the construction planned on Sixth Street and Souris Avenue and the reconstruction project at the airport.
Ludwig said if there isn’t an immediate hit to the province’s revenue sharing program this year, it may remain a concern for the next 18 to 24 months. But that additional time to plan would be welcome.
“We’re OK with that. That was the agreement at the time when this was brought in, that in good times we need the extra monies for the good growth, but when times get tougher and there’s less revenue, we understand that,” he said.
Municipal leaders were able to engage in bear pit sessions with Saskatchewan ministers during the convention last week, and in those meetings, infrastructure was a priority.
What many residents are waiting on now is for an announcement from the Ministry of Health regarding the next steps for the establishment of a new regional nursing home in Estevan. The Hearthstone campaign completed its $8 million fundraising target, which represents 25 per cent of the expected cost.
Ludwig was unsure if any forward movement was to be expected in the province’s 2015 budget, particularly because the issue of educational infrastructure is growing in prominence.
“We’re in the queue. We’re all waiting to see how long we’ll wait. I know there were a lot of demands on the education side for school building,” said Ludwig.
A number of resolutions were passed at the SUMA meetings, including the promotion of asset management, a public works certification program, promotion of mandatory bicycle helmets for everyone in Saskatchewan, and that SUMA advocate with the province and Government of Canada to make provisions to issue of tax-free infrastructure municipal bonds by individual municipalities to help them raise money.
The SUMA board of directors has been lobbying for motor vehicle collision rates for fire departments to develop a fair call-out compensation limit to situations where no services are provided. Ludwig noted in smaller centre, Estevan included, there are growing costs the City has to bear during an emergency call that turns out to be a false alarm.
“Right now, with a vehicle accident, we don’t always get the cost of that call. Sometimes we’ll spend hours on the scene and we won’t get near the cost recovery from SGI,” noted Ludwig.
Changes sought to the funding formula may alleviate some of those costs.
