Saskatchewan municipal government minister Jack Hillson offered rural councilors a gift of more local power.
He was greeted by a slap in the face when he visited the recent Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities semi-annual convention.
“Mr. Minister, I don’t know who’s advising you, and frankly as a friend of yours for many years, I expected better from you,” said RM of Val Marie administrator Barry Dixon.
He and other rural politicians objected to Hillson’s suggestion of giving more power to local governments to decide the qualifications needed for administrators.
Read Also
Strong cattle prices boost forage sales, reps report at Ag in Motion 2025
Representatives from Proven Seed and BrettYoung at Ag in Motion 2025 are reporting strong forages sales across Western Canada this year, driven by high cattle prices, as well as more producers establishing new, higher-quality stands and exploring drought-tolerant varieties.
RM administrators are now required to be professionally certified. But a change in legislation that Hillson is promoting would leave it up to municipalities to decide what standards they will demand.
“Has SARM ever requested the removal of the certification of administrators,” asked Allan Brigden of the RM of Brock. “I’ve never seen it in 18 years I’ve been here. We are proud of the fact that we have certified administrators in our system.”
Brigden’s comments were met by applause.
Hillson seemed surprised by resistance to the move. He said it was an attempt to get the provincial government out of matters that could be left to local people.
“We’re saying that we’re empowering your council to make this decision,” said Hillson, a Liberal in Saskatchewan’s NDP-Liberal coalition government.
“That is the power I am giving to the councils to make that judgment of what they need.”
Rural councilors said they did not want the standards relaxed because the job of administrator is too important.
Dixon said standards were relaxed during the 1930s, when RMs “hired anyone they wanted” to save money. As a result some RMs had to be placed in trusteeship and governed by the provincial government until they recovered financially.
SARM president Sinclair Harrison said water quality officers have to be certified, so why not administrators?
“When it comes to professional people, who are looking after our money, we believe there should be uniform regulations, in legislation, that regulates who can and cannot be an administrator,” said Harrison.
Hillson said rural people have nothing to worry about if they trust their local council.
“If you trust your RM councils, your RM councils clearly will have the right to say ‘we will not have anyone who is not certified.’
Mike Badham, president of the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association, said his organization does not have a policy on whether municipalities should set their own certification standards for hiring administrators.
But he said SUMA has been pressing the provincial government to allow municipalities to exercise more control within their jurisdictions.
Though SUMA has not talked directly to the government about administrator standards, it has promoted the idea of leaving local government decisions with local government.
“To us, municipal government renewal is about streamlining legislation rather than having it prescriptive,” said Badham.
“We, as urban municipalities, are talking about less regulation, fewer irritants.”
Urban municipalities with less than 100 citizens and cities are not required to hire certified administrators.
