Rural municipalities in Saskatchewan won’t share the cost of a lawsuit launched by four districts that want their former federal pastures back.
The four municipalities — Dundurn, Heart’s Hill, Mount Hope and Reno — asked the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities to pay legal costs, and to reimburse all the municipalities that contributed money to help them.
But delegates at last week’s annual convention voted to defeat that request by a margin of 54 percent to 46 percent.
Fred Baran, from the RM of Dundurn, said 17 municipalities initially contributed to a fund to seek legal advice on how to regain ownership of the pastures. He said it cost Dundurn alone $25,000 to get a legal opinion.
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Four RMs have now taken legal action because they don’t think SARM has done enough to help them. They have brought the issue before the last several conventions and in 2014 passed a resolution calling on SARM to launch a class action lawsuit if the matter wasn’t addressed.
Baran said they are frustrated.
“They arranged meetings, but never took a stance on it,” he said of the SARM board in an interview. “We tried to talk with government and we had proposals but they were refused. The ministry wouldn’t respond.”
SARM president Ray Orb said the board a year ago emailed its members and outlined the amount of work the file would require and the complexity of the case. The board concluded it would not involve SARM’s legal department because of the time commitment.
“Currently, our legal staff are now defending over 50 claims dealing with liability, along with assisting various RMs with other legal fees,” Orb told delegates.
He said the board looked at the cost of a class action and using outside legal counsel. He said all 296 RMs would have to split the cost.
“We indicated on more than one occasion that we are not prepared to pursue it on behalf of RMs, not knowing what the costs would be at the expense of the remainder of the RMs, unless we are actually directed to do so,” he said.
The lands in question were turned over to establish community pastures and restore grazing land after the devastating drought of the 1930s.
The federal government in 2012 decided to end its community pasture program and returned the land to the province. Saskatchewan decided to either lease or sell the 62 pastures it would get over a period of five years.
That decision has been controversial. Conservation organizations have argued that habitat and species at risk might not be protected without federal oversight.
They say the lands are public and shouldn’t be sold.
Baran said the RMs would place public reserve status on the lands to keep future councils from selling them.
“The whole purpose of the municipalities wanting the land back is to ensure that it will actually stay as a community pasture in the municipality,” he said.
He has quoted from Dec. 12, 1939 minutes of the province’s Land Utilization Board which state that lands would be returned if they are no longer being used for a specific purpose.
The government has repeatedly said it can’t find any evidence of legal agreements.
There are seven pastures in the four RMs involved in the claim, which was filed in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench.
karen.briere@producer.com
