By KEVIN BERGER, Local Journalism Initiative
Though it remains only a distant possibility at this point, RM of Corman Park councillors received a presentation during their May 26 meeting on the process of forming a Municipal District (MD) and the advantages and disadvantages of doing so.
Chief Administrative Officer Kerry Hilts, who delivered the presentation, said a Municipal District is established through the combination of at least one rural and one urban municipality, though multiple municipalities can be involved.
Though MDs maintain broad bylaw-making authority, they are governed primarily by Section 51.1 of The Municipalities Act and require a Ministerial order.
Hilts indicated the process of forming an MD first entails conducting a study to look at the state of each municipality’s finances, infrastructure and other factors.
To explain why such a study is important, Hilts used the example of one municipality needing a $30 million water treatment plant; the study could largely map out what type of grants would be available for the MD to complete said plant.
“There’s a lot of opportunities here because the Government of Saskatchewan really wants (Municipal Districts) to be established,” noted Hilts.
Once that study is done and the individual councils determine they are interested in proceeding, they then negotiate a restructuring agreement that lays out council composition and other aspects of the new MD. For instance, representation on council could occur through wards, divisions or at-large elections.
Public consultation is also an important part of the process of establishing an MD, though Hilts did specify that, like conducting a referendum, the decision of whether to proceed still rests with the individual councils.
Ultimately, the partnering municipalities would submit a joint application to the province, which also has the opportunity to suggest revisions to the proposal.
Once a Ministerial Order to create the MD is given, a transition and implementation period begins. Hilts noted this transition period has no set length, and could take several years depending on the complexity of this union.
Assets and liabilities would transfer to the new MD, and some government allocations like the Municipal Revenue-Sharing Grant would be combined.
In addition to potentially accessing new grants and reducing administration costs, the MD would also be able to impose special levies and would even have the ability to create taxation sub-classes for things like non-productive farmland.
Hilts noted the ability to create taxation subclasses was probably “one of the most beneficial areas of a municipal district.”
The formation of an MD could also support harmonized planning and regional asset management, allow for more co-ordinated land use, improve staff attraction and retention, increase the respective municipalities’ purchasing power, offer a stronger regional voice and make the area generally more attractive for investment.
The potential disadvantages include a loss of local identity and autonomy, challenges in managing urban and rural service expectations, high upfront implementation and transition costs and possible public resistance to restructuring.
Division 1 Councillor John Germs highlighted the conflict between the priorities of urban and rural residents as a major hurdle, noting that people in urban areas want pavement and treated water systems.
In response, Division 7 Councillor Calvin Vaandrager pointed out that these kind of divisions already exist in the RM, as the residents in the southern portion of Corman Park have different needs and expectations than the people in his own area.
Division 2 Councillor John Saleski suggested the RM was not ready for the formation of a Municipal District if there was an unwillingness among councillors to let other areas receive services that their own division would not get.
He used the example of one councillor saying they would not allow another division to receive more grass-mowing if their own division did not receive the same.
“With that kind of attitude around this table, there’s no way we’re ready for a Municipal District. No way at all,” he said.
He later added that he believed this process had to be managed top-down by the province, though they would not pursue it due to political reasons.
Division 6 Councillor Steven Balzer said he would rather have the RM as the manager of this potential MD instead of yielding that responsibility to another municipality.
That said, he acknowledged what Vaandrager said about different divisions in the RM being quite different from each other, adding that an MD would give them a lot more tools to manage this diversity.
There was a brief discussion at the end about posting Hilts’ presentation to the RM’s website and even conducting a survey amongst residents to determine their interest, though most of council agreed that doing so was too soon.