The City of North Battleford is once again gearing up for participation at this year's Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association convention later this month in Saskatoon.
The convention, Jan. 30 to Feb. 2 at TCU Place, will draw representatives from municipalities from across the province, meeting to gain information and debate resolutions on a wide range of topics.
In preparation for that convention, North Battleford council unanimously passed a resolution Monday night supporting, in principle, a proposal to amend the SUMA bylaws to effectively recognize the chair of the Saskatchewan City Mayor's Caucus as SUMA's vice-president of cities, and as the formal sector representative of cities on the SUMA executive committee.
The proposal is 小蓝视频 pushed by municipalities to formalize the status of the City Mayor's Caucus, to allow for a forum in which the cities could discuss issues of common concern and present a strong unified voice to the provincial government.
The plan would create the CMC within the legislative framework of SUMA, with a number of changes coming over a 16-month timeframe.
Councillor Don Buglas said he was particularly happy with this proposal. "It's a long time coming, it's something that needs to be formally recognized," he said, saying greater emphasis needed to be placed on the larger urban centres.
In addition to passing the resolution on the CMC issue, North Battleford council also received the package of 25 resolutions that will be up for adoption at the convention. The resolutions cover a wide range of issues affecting municipalities and municipal governments, in particular focusing on their relationship with the provincial government.
Councillor Ron Crush noted many of the resolutions coming up have a common theme with respect to "environmental regulations" and other changes.
"I certainly support the position of the resolutions in that regard," he said of the resolutions regarding compliance, endorsing the idea of more support from the province for some of the costs borne by the municipalities.
Among the resolutions up for debate at SUMA include a call for provincial funding for environmental regulations, for appeal disputes between municipalities and the Ministry of Environment, and on issues such as hazardous waste and recycling, among others.
Two of the resolutions are 小蓝视频 proposed by the Northwest region. One proposed by Kindersley is for the establishment of classes and sub-classes of property in the Municipalities Act.
The rationale for the proposal is to allow councils to be able to establish classes and subclasses of property for the purposes of establishing tax rates. That would allow cities to establish tax rates for specific properties - in particular vacant industrial and commercial properties that have been decommissioned by oil and chemical companies -- possibly providing some incentive to return those lands to productivity.
A second resolution 小蓝视频 pushed by the Northwest is a proposal that SUMA work with the government to create a consultation protocol "to better define our existing working relationship, and outline the protocol for consultation on issues of mutual interest."
Some other resolutions include a proposal 小蓝视频 pushed by the 小蓝视频east to provide incentives to create additional rental units in Saskatchewan. A Moose Jay-backed resolution calls for a "made in Saskatchewan" infrastructure program, as well as the removal of the health care capital levy and for recruitment of medical technicians.
Kindersley is also backing a resolution calling for the Provincial Highways Designation Regulations to be changed so municipalities with "city" status are responsible for highway connectors within the municipality - not communities of 1,000 population or more as is currently the case under the regulations.
