By Greg Nikkel
Reeve Carmen Sterling and Mayor Marcel Roy both spoke about the challenges for the RM and City of Weyburn respectively, as they addressed the Weyburn Chamber of Commerce’s first breakfast meeting of 2017, held on Feb. 14 at the Legion Hall.
Reeve Sterling summarized how 2016 went for the municipality, pointing out there was a reduced number of new buildings constructed last year with 16 development permits issued, compared to 28 in 2015, and seven were for new residences, compared to nine the year before.
There were no new commercial developments, but there were a number of businesses that did renovations or additions.
The total construction value of the new residents was $2.05 million in 2016, she noted, about a third of the year before when the value was $6.2 million, “so you can see we’re not immune to the impact of the price of oil,” said the reeve. The value of commercial permits was $495,000, while the year before the RM saw $7.8 million in commercial developments.
The RM signed a new fire protection agreement with the City of Weyburn after negotiations through 2016, and Reeve Sterling said the RM was pleased that the City agreed to their request to phase in the new higher amount over three years.
“We strongly encourage residents (of the RM) to make sure they review their fire insurance, if you’re installing a home or business alarm. You need to understand the ramifications of a false alarm,” said Reeve Sterling, pointing out that residents will be billed if the Fire Department has to respond out to the RM, even if it turns out to be a false alarm.
The reeve noted the population of the RM grew by 1.5 per cent in the 2016 census, from 1,048 to 1,064.
Budget discussions are underway for 2017, said the reeve, and the transportation budget will continue to be the biggest portion of their spending, with $400,000 to $450,000 spent just on gravel in maintaining their roads each year.
There are some signs that the oil industry is starting to revive a little bit after a tough past couple of years, as the RM is getting calls about seismic crews and oil well drilling in the municipality.
A challenge for owners of agricultural land this coming year is the prospect that assessment values of farmland will double this year. “As a farmer, we can attest we’ve had some increases in property values,” she said. “Agriculture has been doing well, so the cost of land will increase as well.”
Reeve Sterling noted the RM has been committed to being a part of the Weyburn District Planning Commission. “I’ve been involved in the commission since its inception … It’s been a significant relationship between the City and RM and will continue to be,” she said.
Taking the podium, Mayor Roy said city council will be sitting down with administration, the Weyburn Chamber of Commerce and stakeholders from the community for some strategic planning for the city, for the next four or five years.
He and most of council attended the SUMA convention in Saskatoon, and said there were a lot of comments about tough economic times from the government, including from Premier Brad Wall, as well as more comments about the government’s “transformational change” and what this might mean for the province.
Weyburn grew in population, according to the recent census numbers, by about 0.7 per cent, but this was nothing like Regina and Saskatoon saw. One coming impact of the economic downturn will be in the revenue-sharing grants to come from the province, which is tied to the provincial sales tax. Since spending has been down, then the revenues to be shared from that will also be down.
Touching on the issues around Weyburn’s Court House, Mayor Roy said they have been fighting with the province about the cuts in services and personnel to the court house, with Queen’s Bench now relegated to Estevan. “It doesn’t make any sense at all,” he said, noting that now the staff in Estevan is being over-worked because of Weyburn’s caseload being sent to them.
“There’ve been missing files, and they’re bringing clerks in from Yorkton and Regina. It just doesn’t make sense. They’ve cut the phones off and are using clerks’ cell phones. One day they had court and the prosecutor didn’t show up, and they used the clerk’s cell phone to conduct court. It makes no sense at all,” he said. “They keep saying they have to make cuts. We’re going to work together as council and help us move forward with this transformational change.”
Another victim of the cuts in spending are the plans for twinning Highway 39, which will now be delayed, perhaps for several years. “They’re looking at Band-Aid solutions like passing and turning lanes.”
Mayor Roy said there are signs that the oilpatch is beginning to get busy again, with companies already having difficulties in filling manpower needs. Noting the proposed refinery for Stoughton, he said Weyburn should be seeing some of the spinoff benefits of that facility.
One of the major projects the City is gearing up for is the new water reservoir, which the former council was able to secure federal and provincial grants for, and once it’s built it will have the capacity to handle a population of 20,000. Even so, he said, water conservation will continue to be important for the city to practice. The city is hoping there will be a good runoff this spring to replenish Nickle Lake’s reserves, but Mayor Roy feels there is a need for a “cultural change” in terms of water conservation to make sure water supplies are assured into the future.
