Rural Municipalities will gather in Regina starting today, Nov. 9, for SARM's midterm convention at the Conexus Arts Centre, with the guest speakers to include the federal minister of Agriculture, Gerry Ritz. Starting the morning of Nov.
Rural Municipalities will gather in Regina starting today, Nov. 9, for SARM's midterm convention at the Conexus Arts Centre, with the guest speakers to include the federal minister of Agriculture, Gerry Ritz.
Starting the morning of Nov. 9, SARM president David Marit will give the opening address, followed by a presentation by the Resource and Economic Development Committee, and then a speaker, Fred Ochieng, on the topic of oil and gas development in Saskatchewan, with both current and projected trends.
The afternoon will largely deal with resolutions.
On Thursday, Nov. 10, the election for SAMA (Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency) will be held if needed, and a speaker on the topic of municipal government sustainability will take to the podium.
Ag minister Ritz will speak just after the morning break, and will be followed by a presentation on the STARS Air Ambulance service in Saskatchewan.
The afternoon will consist of three sessions; one will be on SARM convention and division meeting, an agriculture report will be given by Laurel Feltin of SARM, and will be followed by a session flooding issues by the Sask. Watershed Authority.
Among the resolutions up for discussion is one co-submitted by the RM of Weyburn, along with two other RMs, on the issue of access roads to regional parks.
The resolution states that as regional parks are a major source of revenue to their immediate area, and are "in desperate need of financial assistance to upgrade the dust-free surfaces of access roads to the parks", that regional park access roads be eligible for assistance under the Municipal Roads program.
One resolution deals with the issue of charging farmers a deductible on seeded acres as well as unseeded acres under the province's crop insurance program. Another resolution asks the province to relax the rules on hiring municipal police officers, as currently retired police officers need additional training of five months before being hired.
After the experience many RMs in the southeast had with flooding, a resolution is asking SARM to lobby the province to change the regulations under th Emergency Planning Act.
Under this act, when an RM declares a state of emergency, they have to renew that state every seven days; as it costs a municipality money every time a special meeting has to be called, the resolution is asking for the section governing this section from the Emergency Planning Act.
Other resolutions grew out of the flooding of the past year, including one asking for SARM to lobby for program funding to assist with the construction of new water control projects, and one asking that the government develop and implement programs to assist municipalities for permanent solutions to flood and water control issues.
