By KEVIN BERGER, Local Journalism Initiative
RM of Corman Park councillors voted during their February 24 meeting to approve a draft Fire Services Fee Policy that will eventually allow for an annual $128 flat fee to be levied on each unique owner of a residential or agricultural property.
As noted in a report presented by Director of Finance Cal Hamm, council was presented with a range of options for a new firefighting service fee during the December 9 administration committee meeting.
Currently, property-owners within Corman Park are required to carry a minimum of $30,000 in fire service protection through their insurance, which costs each property-owner about $300 annually.
Corman Park has fire protection agreements with Saskatoon, Martensville, Warman, Dalmeny and Osler, who in turn bill the RM for whatever firefighting costs are incurred when their departments have to respond to a fire at an agricultural or residential property. The RM then passes those costs on to those property-owners.
The flat fee is intended to replace the previous requirement for property-owners to carry insurance, as well as reduce the financial burden relating to the inevitable billing disputes that arise when the RM tries to recover firefighting costs.
At the December 9 meeting, the administration committee opted to recommend to council that a flat fee per unique property owner be imposed. After council adopted this recommendation, administration was directed to bring back an updated fire services bylaw in the first quarter of 2026.
Administration’s recommendation was to approve the draft policy, which establishes the rationale for imposing a fire services fee and specifies who will pay it.
As for the amount of said fee, Hamm indicated in his report that administration had modelled a number of scenarios involving different flat fees for approximately 4,700 unique properties in the RM.
With that in mind, administration was proposing to eventually establish a $128 flat service fee, which would lead to a total recovery of $600,000 annually for the RM.
Hamm noted that in 2025, the RM’s total firefighting costs were about $415,000. The reason for collecting $600,000 is to build up the RM’s fire reserve to cover one full year of firefighting costs with no other revenue coming in.
Hamm clarified commercial and industrial properties will continue under the existing model, where fire response costs are invoiced per incident based on the actual services provided
There is no maximum charge per incident under this approach. However, he noted that since 2021, there has been no firefighting costs on a commercial property that have exceeded a $30,000 cap.
There are also limited situations where additional costs may still apply to residential or agricultural properties, such as nuisance calls, false alarms, unregistered controlled burns, intentional acts, bylaw contraventions, or negligence, with no maximum cap on those charges.
Division 4 Councillor David Greenwood asked whether a residential developer that owns, say, 30 lots on one parcel would be treated as a unique property-owner. Hamm assured that would be the case, noting this fee would be based on client codes.
“That was council’s wish as part of this: to move away from doing this on a per property basis to being a unique property-owner,” he said.
A news release sent out by the RM of Corman Park on Monday, March 9 indicates that in situations where multiple ownership structures exist on one property, Corman Park’s Finance Department will apply consistent administrative rules to ensure that only one fee is charged per owner.
Division 5 Councillor Arthur Pruim, who put forward the motion to approve the policy, commented that the policy seemed to be laid out quite well, but they could revisit the matter later on if needed.
“It is a policy, so it can be reviewed quite readily and easily as it needs to be reviewed when necessary,” Pruim said.
Hamm indicated the intent is to levy this fee in July along with the annual tax notices. It will then be retroactive to January 1, 2026.
Division 8 Councillor Wendy Trask argued in favour of making the fee come into effect on January 1, 2027, noting that some ratepayers don’t actually pay their taxes until the very end of the year.
She added that some ratepayers might complain about having to carry insurance for this year when this fee is being made retroactive.
Division 6 Councillor Steven Balzer said those residents could go back to their insurance provider and ask about a discount on that rider.
He added that some insurance companies are making moves to have this rider separated out and added into other groupings, so some property-owners may not see any savings even with this flat fee being introduced.
“I wish I could say that we could sell this to all the ratepayers that they will see a discount,” he said. “I could not say that to anyone truthfully.”
Reeve Joe Hargrave likewise suggested that there was no perfect way to get this done, as making it retroactive or holding it off until the end of the year was bound to inconvenience someone depending on when their insurance bills are due.
Ultimately, council passed a motion making the fee retroactive to January 1, 2026.