Saskatchewan’s rural municipalities will continue to meet twice a year after a resolution to drop one meeting was narrowly defeated.
The close voting took place at the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities’ annual convention in Saskatoon March 12, where delegates decided to keep both the mid-term and annual conventions.
This year’s convention and trade show attracted 1,886 people and 288 rural municipalities. The mid-term meeting in November attracts about half that number.
Most delegates interviewed before the vote were confident of a win on the resolution, seeing it as a way to cut costs.
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Ken Weisbrod, the reeve of the RM of Milton, said it costs about $4,000 to send his community’s four delegates.
He said the money saved could be used on dozens of projects back home, such as care homes, recreation facilities and a proposed regional airport.
“It’s not hard to spend,” he said.
Weisbrod sees value in an annual meeting, which allows municipalities to share common concerns and hear about other RMs’ challenges.
“Some RMs are worse off than others,” he said.
In his opening address to members, president David Marit asked members if the current convention structure is serving them well.
“In this day and age of technology, do we need two meetings?” he said.
Marit suggested that one annual meeting could be held in November and expanded by one day.
Resolutions from the March meeting come too late to be considered in provincial government budgets, he added.
Marit cited cost savings and opportunities for better attendance at district meetings, but also saw negatives in less face-to-face time, more time between conventions and a bigger agenda.
SARM added the second meeting in the 1980s to deal with anticipated workload from a liability insurance program, said SARM executive director Ken Engel.
