2022 August

Eligible applicants are advised of the September 15, 2022, deadline to apply for landfill decommissioning funding.

The intake opened on September 18, 2020, for detailed applications for projects to decommission historical, non-engineered landfills, under the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP).

To apply and for more information, visit: www.saskatchewan.ca/icip.

You may have wondered, “What is the difference between public notice, a public hearing, and a public meeting?”

Public Notice

All Saskatchewan municipalities are required to have a public notice policy established by bylaw. A public notice bylaw must identify:

• The matters that require public notice according to the appropriate municipal act (The Cities Act, The Municipalities Act or The Northern Municipalities Act, 2010);
• The minimum number of days’ notice that is required;
• How public notice will be provided; and
• Any other prescribed matters.

Legislation requires public notice be provided before any consideration on certain matters, which includes (but is not limited to):

• Closing a street;
• Borrowing money;
• Council remuneration; and
• Amending or passing a council procedures bylaw.

Once public notice is given, the public may then choose to attend that meeting to observe the council’s debate and decision, or they may request to be a delegate at the meeting to speak on the matter. Council also has the option to provide a forum at the meeting to allow the public to speak to the matter.

Public Hearing

A public hearing is a procedure, not a meeting, that provides an opportunity for the public to provide comments on a specific matter before council.

When required to conduct a public hearing, council establishes the date, time, place, and length of time for the hearing to be held. Public notice is always necessary for a public hearing. Specific notice may also need to be given to certain parties that may be directly affected by the subject matter. Typically, when required to conduct a hearing, the public is provided an option to submit comments in writing before the set hearing date. The requirement to conduct a public hearing is most common when it comes to matters under The Planning and Development Act, 2007 such as discretionary use permits.

Public Meeting

A public meeting can be called at the discretion of council or when petitioned by the voters of the municipality. While council meetings, special meetings and committee meetings are open to the public to attend and observe, a public meeting is an opportunity for the municipality to engage with its citizens to provide more information, gather opinions and answer any questions on the matter(s) at hand.

New Solid Waste Management and Recycling Information Available Online

Did you know that Saskatchewan produces the second highest amount of solid waste per capita in Canada?

The Ministry of Environment has updated the web page for solid waste management facilities in Saskatchewan. The page features a more convenient layout for those looking for information on landfills, transfer stations, composting facilities and industrial waste works facilities. You can also find useful information about recycling programs in Saskatchewan, which play a key role as we all work towards reducing the amount of waste we send to landfill.

You can see the new page by visiting Saskatchewan Waste Management.

New Guidance for Landfill Owners

The Ministry of Environment has new guidance for municipalities and municipal landfill operators. The Inert (Construction & Demolition) Landfill Design and Operational Guidance lists the information required by Environment to complete the approval process for designing and operating an inert waste landfill.

If you have any questions or feedback for the updated web page or the new inert landfill guidance document, please contact:

Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment
Telephone: 1-800-567-4224 (toll-free in North America)
Email: Centre.Inquiry@gov.sk.ca

The deadline for submitting your 2022 mill rate return has passed. The Municipalities Regulations, The Cities Regulations and The Northern Municipalities Regulations require municipalities to submit the mill rate return by August 15 each year.

The mill rate return Excel spreadsheet and instruction sheet were emailed to municipalities and are also available for download on our Mill Rate Returns page. Municipalities must submit the mill rate return on the Excel template provided to comply with the legislative requirements.

Should you have any questions, please email millrate@gov.sk.ca. You may also contact the Financial Management Unit at 306-787-8859 or 306-787-2655 for any clarifications.

Municipalities are required to submit their 2021 waterworks financial overview to the ministry by September 1, 2022. Failure to do so may affect eligibility to access funding under the Municipal Revenue Sharing program.

Please submit this information using the questionnaire link provided to you by email.

If you have any questions, please contact the Financial Management Unit by email waterworks@gov.sk.ca or by calling 306-787-8859 or 306-787-2655.

The Ministry of Government Relations is preparing regulatory amendments that will set an effective tax rate (ETR) limit of 7:1 for the 2023 property taxation year. This will replace the current mill rate factor limit.

The effective tax rate is the total municipal property tax levy for a property class divided by the taxable assessment for that property class. All tax tools, such as mill rate factors, base tax and minimum tax, are included when calculating the total municipal property tax levy for each property class.

Tuesday, August 30, 2022, is the deadline to register for the ministry’s upcoming live webinar on this topic:

Learn How to Calculate the Effective Tax Rate
Wednesday, September 7, 2022
11 a.m. to noon
Register now

The Municipal Property Tax Tools and Other Taxes page has additional information about the effective tax rate limit. The 2022 Municipal Tax Policy Guide has also been updated to reflect this change.

If you have questions after reviewing the materials, please reach out to the ministry at 306-787-2653 or property.tax@gov.sk.ca.

The Targeted Sector Support (TSS) Initiative supports municipalities partnering to strengthen their core municipal responsibilities through projects focused on good governance, capacity building and regional co-operation. Funding is provided through cost-shared grants, covering up to 75 per cent of eligible project costs.

The next intake for funding under this program will run from September 1 to November 15, 2022. More information on the application process will be available to municipalities once the application window is open.

Each year, the TSS Initiative receives $1.5 million from the Municipal Revenue Sharing program. Funding is administered by the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) on behalf of the TSS Steering Committee.

The Steering Committee consists of representatives from SUMA, the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, the Saskatchewan Association of Northern Communities and the Ministry of Government Relations.

Under section 49.1 of The Municipalities Act, rural municipalities (RMs) are required to have a policy in place for the review of division boundaries by January 1, 2023. This section came into force at the beginning of 2021, giving RMs two years to develop their policies.

In many cases, RM division boundaries have not changed, yet their populations may have changed considerably over time. Legislation does not prescribe how or when a review is done, and it does not require division boundaries be changed after a review – only that the results of the review be made public.

The legislation sets out what a policy should contain but does not prescribe a one-size-fits-all model or template. An RM’s policy should reflect its own unique characteristics and circumstances.

Here is an outline of what a division review policy should include:

• Who will do the review
  This could be a council committee, administration, a committee of residents, a consultant or other third party;
• When and how often reviews are to be done
  This could be after each election, after a census, every five to 10 years (cities and urbans with wards must review once every three election periods);
• What to consider
  Determine what to consider in reviewing boundaries, population or voter numbers that may allow for division populations to be unequal such as seasonal populations, number of properties, geographic and natural features, hamlets, Hutterian or other communities of interest;
• Timelines
  Confirm the time frame to complete a review and report to council – for example six months; and
• Other considerations
  Any other matters council considers important such as public notice, consultation, or meetings.

Additional Resources

As an administrator, you may wish to visit the following Saskatchewan municipal websites which have already conducted their division or ward review policies:

• RM of Browning
• RM of Edenwold
• RM of Invergordon
• City of Regina
• City of Saskatoon

Other sites across Canada that posted a municipal ward or division review policy or information online include:

• Lac la Biche County, Alberta
• Town of Grimsby, Ontario
• Town of Whitby, Ontario
• Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville, Ontario
• Province of Nova Scotia

You may also wish to visit the Division Boundary Changes within a Rural Municipality or the online sample bylaws page on the Government of Saskatchewan website. The Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner’s site also has a useful example of how to organize and draft a municipal operational policy.