MOOSE JAW — City council is sticking with SAMA for property assessment services because there are few qualified individuals to offer those services in-house and the contractor has the people and knowledge, the mayor says.
Mayor James Murdock and city manager Maryse Carmichael spoke with the media recently about council’s decision to renew the SAMA contract.
“There’s a lot of moving components with SAMA and I’m learning that,” said Murdock. “It’s just trying to come up with the best services possible for the city.”
Continuing, the mayor said the contractor is still the best option, based on “the great direction” that city administration provided to council and the different options it offered. However, he thought SAMA needed to provide more information since it knows this topic.
“… the formulas are difficult to understand,” Murdock admitted, but noted that if the agency worked on making its processes more understandable and communicated that to citizens, that would help everyone.
Murdock acknowledged that the business community has had problems with SAMA’s assessment processes during the past five years. He noted that the pandemic-related shutdowns allowed people “more time to really dive into things” with how their assessments worked.
The mayor was a business owner — he operated Moose Jaw Funeral Home — during that time, and with his assessments, he treated them as “what it was.”
“But I do understand from some folks that there’s some inconsistencies. And I think that we need to, on the SAMA side of things, strive for better there,” Murdock said.
However, he pointed out that council and administration focus on taxation and set the mill rates, while SAMA and the province oversee the assessments. So, city hall is between “a rock and (a) hard place” with fulfilling its role of operating the municipality and allowing SAMA to focus on assessments.
Carmichael said administration reviewed assessment services in other cities, such as Prince Albert, and discovered that city is experiencing similar — but larger — problems. However, it doesn’t use SAMA and has higher legal fees than Moose Jaw, even though it follows provincial legislation like everyone else.
“We looked at the entire situation and then (looked) at other options,” she continued. “The other option is we have city assessors, which we discussed, and there are a shortage (of people) in the province. SAMA at least has a great number of assessors (and) they can rely on people remote at times.
Carmichael added that Swift Current had an in-house team handling property assessment, but ran into problems and fired those individuals.
Meanwhile, Carmichael said she, the mayor, and the Chamber of Commerce met recently with the Prairies-focused executive director of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). She noted that the trio participated in the conversation to ensure they could support business owners since they know how important this topic is.
Murdock said the executive director “is a very sharp individual” and is willing to work with municipalities. Also, the CFIB, like city hall, wants “nothing but the best” for Moose Jaw. He also thought the meeting provided an opportunity for people to “pool their thoughts” and attempt to move things forward.
Another organization focused on property assessments is the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA), which has been working on this issue over the past year, discussed it during this year’s annual convention, and has communicated municipalities’ concerns to the province, the mayor said.
Carmichael also noted that the province is currently finalizing changes to The Assessment Management Act and will make it public later this fall.
The audit would happen every revaluation cycle — every four years — and the independent agency hired would have to be approved by the CFIB.
Murdock commended Van Slyck for her knowledge, passion and ability to communicate the facts about this issue. However, he said the city’s actions are limited with property assessments, while the province must be involved in these discussions to improve the situation.
