With the next Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association convention around the corner in early 2013, city mayors across the province have been meeting and discussing the burning issues facing their municipalities.
The Saskatchewan City Mayor's Caucus, a subsection of SUMA, held their meetings in Regina Dec. 4 and 5. It marked the first gathering of the group since the province-wide municipal elections in October.
Among those in attendance was North Battleford Mayor Ian Hamilton, who in a recent interview with the News-Optimist noted the meeting was productive in addressing some of the issues facing the city mayors.
Two of the issues that came up, according to Hamilton, were the familiar ones of municipal revenue sharing and infrastructure.
On the former issue, there was discussion of "the municipal property grant dollars that are provided by the province, and that's the one per cent of PST collected."
He notes 82 per cent of people living in the province "live in urban communities," and that many of the new residents moving into Saskatchewan are moving into the cities. However, Hamilton said the percentage the cities are receiving under the funding structure is significantly less than that at the moment.
"We're just looking for a possible way to find a different method of distribution of those funds, because right now we're receiving less than 68 per cent of those funds under the funding structure. So we're negotiating, we're trying to find ways to do this," said Hamilton.
The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities has been involved in those talks as well, Hamilton noted. The goal is to find a solution "that best satisfies everyone so that no one loses."
As for infrastructure, "we really need to continue to work with our senior levels of government, the federal and provincial governments, to determine and find a long-term, determinable and sustainable, predictable revenue stream."
The idea is to be able to "plan long term" as cities and municipalities to replace infrastructure.
He does not expect to see that in place in the 2013 federal or provincial budgets, but is expecting to see some sort of plan for infrastructure replacement introduced in the 2014 budget year.
Overall, Hamilton said the city mayor's caucus meeting was a productive one and was an opportunity to get familiar with some of the new city mayors. While the mayors of Saskatoon and Prince Albert were not able to attend, the new Regina mayor Michael Fougere was in attendance as were several other newly-elected mayors from around the province, providing a chance for Hamilton to develop new relationships.
The City Mayors Caucus also met with the provincial cabinet on the first night of the meetings and Hamilton believes the cabinet is hearing the mayors' concerns.
