R.M.s face unique challenges in changing province

With the provincial government scrambling to find ways to fill the $1 billion deficit, bigger appears to be better when it comes to finding efficiencies.

This month alone, the province of Saskatchewan has announced plans to both consolidate the 12 existing health regions into a single administrative body, and a review of the current makeup of school boards with some mergers expected.

One area of provincial responsibility that has escaped talks of a merger, is the number of Rural Municipalities.

In Saskatchewan, there are 296 R.M.s and according to the 2011 census from Statistics Canada, these R.M.s are home to fewer than 175,000 residents, with the collective rural population in the province decreasing every year.

Janet Black is the municipal administrator for the R.M. of Hillsdale and executive director of the Rural Municipal Administrators’ Association of Saskatchewan. She said R.M.s, both big and small, face unique challenges.

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“I think the biggest thing is probably the different jobs that come at you, every municipality is slightly different,” Black explained.

Industry in an R.M. can range from purely agricultural, to oil, natural gas and potash extraction. This broad spectrum can challenge the experience and budgets of the administrators and councillors who oversee R.M.s.

“All of a sudden,” Black said, “there’s a steep learning curve in how to deal with [new resource development] and ensure that your ratepayers get a fair shake.” 

Without large population bases to draw tax revenue from, one way R.M.s can create efficiencies is by coordinating with neighbouring municipalities.

Ray Orb, reeve of the R.M. of Cupar and president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM), said this coordination can lead to creative solutions for often complex problems, such as the sharing of Fire Hall services and even municipal administrations.

“They could do things together, for instance, they could develop common bylaws,” Orb said. “They could develop common zoning bylaws, things like that, to actually attract businesses.”

When asked if a combination of declining populations and the current economic problems facing the province has generated any discussion at SARM about the merging of some smaller R.M.s, Orb was non-committal. He explained existing provincial legislation allows for amalgamation and that SARM has different legal and administrative resources available to any RMs looking to do so. But, he went on to say SARM opposes any form of forced amalgamation from the provincial level.

“That’s our position,” Orb said. “We want to get the cooperation. If there isn’t cooperation there now with some of the municipalities, we want to know why that isn’t happening. We’d like to see the problems and I think in a lot of cases we can help.”

Shane O’Neill is paNOW’s city hall reporter and weekend anchor on 900 CKBI. He can be reached at shane.oneill@panow.com or tweet him @stroneill.