By KEVIN BERGER, Local Journalism Initiative
City of Martensville councillors passed first reading during their May 19 meeting on a new bylaw that contains all of the charges that the municipality imposes in order to recover costs associated with expanding, altering or upgrading infrastructure to accommodate land development, as well as the city’s planning, engineering and legal services.
As noted in an administration report, Bylaw 7-2026 consolidates development levies and servicing agreement fees for subdivisions into a single framework, collectively referred to as “Development Charges.”
City Manager Tanya Garost noted the terms “levies” and “charges” are used interchangeably throughout provincial legislation, but most provinces call them development charges, so that would be more consistent for those developers that operate outside of Saskatchewan.
Previously, Bylaw No. 14-2013 addressed only development levies associated with site intensification while offsite development levies for subdivision proposals were established through council resolutions.
Putting all of these levies and fees into a single bylaw helps improve consistency and transparency, as well as better aligning with The Planning and Development Act, 2007.
Council previously reviewed and provided input on the proposed development charges that would be applied to future development proposals in December 2025 and April 2026.
“All of those changes have been combined and put into the development charges bylaw,” said Garost.
The proposed bylaw was then brought to the May 12 committee of the whole meeting, where council was asked to weigh in on a change proposed by developers: extending the timeframe for payment of development charges.
Under the proposed bylaw, development charges would have be to be paid upon the sale of a lot or two years following subdivision approval, whichever comes first.
However, developers pointed out that the City of Warman allows up to 10 years for development levies to be paid, on the condition that a certain percentage has to be paid each year and a notice goes on the title.
“Now, I don’t know what the financial situation is for Warman or how they collect their funds, but I will say that 10 years is a long time for us to wait for our development funds, especially if we have to front any of the infrastructure required under our development charges. But we could consider a longer period of time,” Garost said.
Council agreed that the bylaw should be revised to allow developers up to five years to pay their owed development charges, provided they make minimum annual payments equal to one-fifth of those charges.
As well, the date for increases to levies and charges in the bylaw was changed to February 1 annually.
With first reading now passed, the bylaw will now be publicly advertised and a public hearing will be held at the June 16 council meeting. Depending on what happens at that meeting, second and third readings may also be passed.