We may not have it perfect, but we must be heading in the ight direction if we're garnering national attention.
And maybe sharing information is the key to getting it right, after all, we're all in it together.
Apparently Saskatchewan's municipal revenue sharing program raised national interest among municipalities from throughout Canada at the recently held Federation of Canadian Municipalities annual conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Saskatchewan's Municipal Affairs Minister Darryl Hickie attended the conference and the subject of Saskatchewan's unique revenue sharing approach with municipalities, which ties revenue sharing to a percentage of Provincial Sales Tax, generated considerable discussion.
Currently, the Government of Saskatchewan's municipal revenue sharing formula has the equivalent of one full point of the Provincial Sales Tax shared with municipalities. In the current budget year, the first year the formula has been fully implemented, amounting to $216.8 million, a 29.5 per cent increase from the previous year.
"The aspect that municipalities and provinces are finding interesting and innovative is that the revenue sharing formula we developed together, in full partnership with the municipal sector in Saskatchewan, is designed to grow with the economy," Hickie says. "It is a strong signal of our commitment to working together with municipalities, through our government-to-government partnership. It also helps illustrate the Saskatchewan Advantage, where people benefit directly from a strong economy."
Hickie says this year's municipal revenue sharing is the highest amount of operational funding shared with municipalities by the provincial government in the history of Saskatchewan. Municipal revenue sharing has grown by 70 per cent in Saskatchewan since 2007-08.
With infrastructure aging, and the province on a continual upswing, there's no question revenue sharing will be crucial to continued growth. If we can work together with other provinces to get the formula right, then why not?
