SUMA president Gordon Barnhart speaking to delegates at a meeting in Prince Albert last month. (Michael Joel-Hansen/paNOW Staff)

By Michael Joel-Hansen

Municipal Thoughts

Local government representatives make thoughts known about federal campaign

Oct 10, 2019 | 5:36 PM

With the federal election campaign well underway some of Saskatchewan’s municipal leaders are making their opinions known.

Ray Orb president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM), which lobbies on behalf of the province’s rural municipalities said the campaign is not discussing an important issue.

“Let’s face it, during this election campaign we haven’t heard a lot about agriculture, in fact, I listened to some of the debates and I may have heard agriculture mentioned once, so that alone is a concern to us,” he said.

Specifically, Orb said trade is an issue which is a big concern to many RMs and in particular the current dispute with China involving canola. Besides China, the SARM president said the issue of peas and lentils with India and barley with Saudi Arabia are problems that are in need of addressing. Orb said they would like to see who ever forms government do a better job of promoting trade and dealing with trade issues.

“Those are all trade issues that are affecting farmers bottom line,” he said.

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Another issue SARM also feels is important is access to broadband internet in rural areas. Orb said the Liberal Party’s platform talks about providing the service to more people and making money available, but Orb said it lacks specifics. He added some big service providers are saying they want more money to deliver access.

“People in the rural areas are already paying high rates,” he said.

On the issue of climate change, Orb said his organization would like to see the next government offer something in the form of an incentive that recognizes what producers do to take carbon out of the atmosphere.

“Grain farmers are sequestering carbon from the atmosphere,” he said.

Meanwhile Gordon Barnhart, president of the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA), lobbies on behalf of the province’s cities, town and villages said his organization wants to see a change in the relationship with the federal government.

“I equate it to, you know the family gatherings where you have a table with adults and then the kids table, we feel in so many ways that municipalities are at the kids table,” he said.

Overall Barnhart said the ideal situation would be where municipalities are treated in a similar manner as the provinces. The SUMA president said a seat at the table would better allow for better planning of infrastructure and allow for better consultation.

“We provide 60 per cent of the infrastructure programming for the province, so we think it’s rather important we be part of that planning,” he said.

Along with the change in relationship, Barnhart said he would like to see the next federal government continue to double the amount of money municipalities got from the federal gas tax, recently the federal government committed to do that for just one year. SUMA also wants to see Saskatchewan municipalities get a share of the cannabis excise tax, like in other parts of the country. The organization wants to see the joint emergency preparedness program, which helps provide emergency service workers with equipment reintroduced.

Overall Barnhart said SUMA doesn’t feel they’re hearing a lot about issues that are important to them. He added other important issues like natural resources are absent from the national debate, but he said this will not deter his group.

“We’ll keep trying and we’ll keep putting our message forward,” he said.

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MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @mjhskcdn