Clay Serby will be on the hot seat at this week’s Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities annual convention.
The minister of municipal affairs recently endorsed a report calling for a drastic reduction in municipal
governments.
Serby was scheduled to address the SARM convention March 7 and was also scheduled to be part of the March 8 bear-pit session with the provincial cabinet. Neither session could be covered in time for this week’s paper.
SARM president Sinclair Harrison said the task force’s interim report is a carbon copy of Serby’s own plan to slash the number of local governments.
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He said it has the potential to destroy the rural fabric of the province the way that larger health boards have.
“The rationale for radical change outlined in this report is poorly founded, poorly researched and poorly
presented,” said Harrison.
Serby vehemently denies Harrison’s charge that the Task Force on Municipal Legislative Renewal is working under his direction.
But he is pleased with the findings of the report, which he said could lead to the salvation of rural Sask-atchewan.
“We need to do something that will slow down the erosion of rural Sask-atchewan. One of the ways of doing that is to make our municipal structures far, far stronger than they are today.”
The report calls on the province to oversee a massive consolidation in local governments resulting in fewer than 125 municipal districts compared to the existing 1,006.
Saskatchewan has 836 incorporated municipalities (including 297 rural municipalities), which is 465 more than Alberta and 635 more than Manitoba. The number jumps to 1,006 when organized hamlets and northern settlements are included.
The report shows that Saskatchewan has the fewest people per municipality on average at 1,225. Manitoba has an average of 5,665 people per municipality and Alberta averages 7,856.
Joseph Garcea, chair of the task force and author of the report, said streamlining will reduce the burden that Saskatchewan taxpayers and residents pay for overgovernance.
And it will reduce opportunity costs.
He said one of the main hindrances to secondary processing activities in rural Saskatchewan is that there are too many layers of government tangling potential ventures in red tape.
“If we had more consolidated governments that could engage in a strategic development plan for a region, we may actually get more agricultural processing going on.”
Saskatchewan Party MLA Bob Bjornerud said the report offers no proof that less government would lead to cost savings.
“I’ve heard (Garcea) say a number of times, ‘there’s money to be saved here.’ If there is, show me.”
Bjornerud said the interim report offers no cost analysis, only sweeping statements that taxpayers would be better off with less government.
Garcea said it is impossible to calculate the exact savings without knowing the degree of consolidation, a decision in the hands of the provincial government. It also depends on economic development initiatives that come out of the new structure.
More power
Garcea points out that the process is not just about restructuring municipal governments, but empowering them by giving municipal districts greater authority and “extensive taxation tools.” The province would also give the districts more latitude in terms of borrowing money and operating deficits.
Talk of deficit budgets and expanded taxation tools makes Bjorn-erud cringe. He sees it as a recipe for disaster.
“Is this another form of downloading by the provincial government?”
Harrison is more concerned with forced amalgamation of municipalities.
“They don’t seem to understand rural Saskatchewan. If you put two RMs together, you get twice as many roads. If you put three together you get three times as many roads.”
He takes some comfort in the fact that this is an interim report and said he is glad it was released prior to SARM’s annual convention so delegates will have ample opportunity to read and respond.
The final report is due by the end of August. The task force will be accepting written briefs responding to the interim report until April 28. It will also hold 17 hearings in 15 communities beginning March 27 in Outlook and concluding April 14 in Wynyard.
