There's a new "app" in town and it promises to help better connect rural people, many of whom live in this reading area.
Scenario You come across a washed-out road on your way to town. You use your smartphone to take a picture with a GPS tag attached, describe the problem and hit "send." Not only is the RM office alerted to send a repair crew, others in your municipality are automatically informed of the danger.
That's just one use for the myRM network, a free service that gives users instant access to the maps, emergency alerts, municipal news, weather, and contact information for more than 85 Saskatchewan municipalities signed on with the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS). The myRM app will be made available to the remaining 200-plus RMs in Saskatchewan early in the new year.
With most rural residents now connected to the Internet or owning a smartphone, myRM now allows rapid notification of news ranging from dangerous weather or road conditions to a cancellation of a local hockey game or curling banquet.
The myRM.ca online network (http://myRM.ca) was launched by APAS in 2012 to provide its member RMs with easy-to-administer municipal websites with real-time local weather, detailed local forecasts, municipal news, agricultural events and more. Participating municipalities are now able to push real-time notification and alerts to myRM app users.
"The myRM app will do all this for Saskatchewan's rural citizens. It's very exciting. It's a game changer," says Norm Hall, APAS president.
It's a fitting release for APAS, an organization representing the diverse interests of a wide swath of agricultural stakeholders across Saskatchewan. APAS developed the app in partnership with Weather Innovations Consulting LP (WIN), which also owns WeatherFarm, Canada's largest network of weather stations. With several hundred stations in Saskatchewan, that also means myRM users have access to real-time weather in their area.
"Farmers are, after all, always on their smartphones," ads Robin Busby, office manager for the RM of Antelope Park, and an administrator who helped flesh out the final product. "How am I supposed to know if this or that road is closed, or if there is a heavy haul ban in place? If you can have that information available to everyone with a smartphone, why not?"
"This myRM will help protect rural infrastructure," says Aj Thakker, WIN's director of community initiatives. "Saskatchewan's rural residents will now have the ability to instantly communicate with their local municipal government offices, regardless of whether they are at home, in town or somewhere in between."
The app is attracting attention across Saskatchewan, and Manitoba has already expressed interest in offering such a service to its ratepayers.
"It's a very important connection between those in the agriculture sector and their municipal governments," said Hall. "The myRM app will make that connection stronger then ever. The implications of its widespread use are exciting, democratically and generally. It's the first of its kind, and has already proven to be an exceptional online benefit for our member municipalities."
