A controversial recommendation from a committee advising the Saskatchewan government on rural revitalization will not be in the final report in its original form.
Rural development minister Clay Serby said he expects the Action Committee on the Rural Economy’s report within a month and that the recommendation that government services be consolidated in regional centres will be altered. He declined to offer details.
“The committee has always been of the view that once they had an opportunity to test (the draft recommendations) across the province, if there were changes that needed to be made … they would be prepared to do that,” Serby said in an interview. “At the final meeting of the ACRE committee, in review of the recommendations, there has been a decision to make some adjustments particularly in the infrastructure one.”
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Many at the public meetings held last December saw the infrastructure recommendation as forced amalgamation or the death knell for smaller communities.
Serby, who co-chairs ACRE, said that was never the idea.
“The whole notion of consolidation of municipalities is well behind us,” he said. “There’s no interest, or no agenda, within the operations of government to revisit this issue at all.”
Serby said he agreed with the idea that the province look at building infrastructure around strong communities.
“I agree with the principle that we should be looking at regions of the province from the perspective of clusters, because there are a number of regions where a particular regional centre may not be the only thriving community or prosperous community,” he said.
For example, in the northeast, Melfort, Tisdale and Nipawin are all aggressive and actively expanding their economies.
Serby said singling one of these out would be inappropriate and the government has no intention of picking winners and losers.
Meanwhile, Serby said the mandate of ACRE is nearly over but he will continue the committee although not likely in the same form. There are 43 members and that number might drop.
The committee will make 36 new recommendations in its final report Ñ it has already made 185 Ñ and there is still work to do.
“Government should always have an independent group of individuals who can hold government responsible for their actions, who can make recommendations on public policy to government, and ACRE has served the government and Saskatchewan people very, very well,” Serby said.
He said the committee itself is astonished by what it has been able to accomplish over the last four years, given that the members are from various backgrounds, regions and political beliefs.
