2022 November

All municipalities, except for cities, are required to have regular council meetings no more than 60 days apart. Cities are not required to have regular meetings within a specified period.

All council meetings are open to the public, not just ratepayers or voters of the municipality. The public has the right to observe council discussions and decisions.

Public Notice

Public notice is not required if the date, time and place for regular meetings is determined by council resolution or council procedures bylaw. If a change is required, council must:

• give notice of the change to any council member not present at the meeting where the resolution was made; and
• provide at least 24 hours’ notice to the public.

If council doesn’t have regularly scheduled meetings, all council members and the public require at least 24 hours’ notice before the meeting.

Meeting Through Electronic Means

City, rural and urban councils may allow council members to attend meetings by electronic means, such as teleconference or video-call platforms. When using this option, council must:

• provide notice to the public;
• ensure the electronic platform allows council members to communicate with each other;
• allow the public to listen to the meeting at a place specified in the notice; and
• have the administrator attend the place specified in the notice.

Northern municipalities may permit council members to attend by electronic means as well. However, the majority of council members must be in attendance at the place specified in the notice.

Quorum

For a council meeting to take place, there must be a quorum of council (at least 50 per cent + 1) and an administrator in attendance. Council members cannot take the minutes in a meeting. There are different rules if conflict of interest (COI) declarations reduces the number of council members present to less than quorum. If there are at least two council members remaining after COI declarations are made, a decision can be made. If all council members or all but one declares a COI, council would be required to pass a resolution to apply to a judge of the court for an order authorizing the council to consider, discuss and vote on that question or matter.

Council Decisions

All council decisions must be made at either a regular or special meeting and must be by bylaw or resolution. Council decisions cannot be made through text or email.

Council may close all or part of the meeting to the public if the matter to be discussed falls within one of the exemptions in Part III of The Local Authority Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act or relates to strategic or long-term planning. If council closes part of the meeting, no decision can be made until the meeting resumes in open session again.

Saskatchewan communities and eligible organizations are reminded they have until noon, Tuesday, November 29 to apply for funding under the last intake in Saskatchewan for the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP).

Applications will be accepted for proposed water, wastewater and other projects, such as infrastructure that can adapt, resist or mitigate natural disasters and climate change.

The full eligibility requirements and the online application process are available at www.saskatchewan.ca/ICIP.

The Ministry of Government Relations will manage these applications. The provincial government will recommend projects to the Government of Canada for final approval.

The role of the Saskatchewan Construction Standards Appeal Board (the Appeal Board) is to hear appeals of building official’s orders, applications for interpretation orders and applications for exemption orders.

Appeal of Building Official’s Order
When an owner disagrees with an order written by a building official, they can appeal pursuant to section 31 of The Construction Codes Act. The Appeal Board may confirm, revoke or vary the order.

Application for Interpretation
Owners, local authorities, building officials and constructors can ask for an interpretation of any construction code requirement for their building project before a building permit is issued. The Appeal Board may grant an order determining how the construction code requirement is to be applied or interpreted with respect to the building listed in their application.

Application for Exemption from Accessibility Standards
Owners can seek an exemption from accessibility standards before a building permit is issued. The Appeal Board may grant an exemption under specific circumstances:

• If the owner demonstrates that compliance would be impractical, inappropriate or cause the owner undue hardship, or
• If the applicant presents a proposal that provides accessibility equal to or better than that required by the standards.

The Appeal Board plays an important role in administering Saskatchewan’s construction codes by providing owners, local authorities, building officials and constructors with an opportunity to appeal and obtain an impartial decision.

For more information about the Appeal Board, contact Building and Technical Standards at 306-787-4113 or btstandards@gov.sk.ca.

Municipalities are required to annually report their compliance with eligibility requirements to receive their Municipal Revenue Sharing (MRS) grant by completing an online Declaration of Eligibility. The unique link and password for the online declaration was emailed to each municipality on November 15, 2022.

If you do not receive the email on November 15, please check your spam or junk folder. If it’s not there either, please email grcompliance@gov.sk.ca requesting the email be re-sent.

To avoid your municipality's MRS grant for the 2023-24 year from being withheld, ensure your municipality submits its declaration, which includes a resolution from council, indicating that your municipality does or does not meet all eligibility requirements.

You will want to ensure that the required resolution of council, confirming the responses in the declaration, is included on the November, December or January council meeting agenda. A sample resolution is in the Declaration of Eligibility Guide.

Eligibility requirements are the following legislated responsibilities:

• Submission of Annual Audited Financial Statement;
• Submission of Waterworks Reporting, if applicable;
• In good standing with Education Property Tax;
• Council Procedure Bylaw has been adopted by council;
• Employee Code of Conduct has been adopted by council; and
• Public Disclosure Statements have been filed and annually updated by council members.

Please see this Infographic for a snapshot view of the declaration process and eligibility requirements.

The deadline for submission of the declaration is January 31, 2023. Please ensure it is submitted by the deadline, even if the municipality does not meet all eligibility requirements.

Is your municipality doing something innovative to improve the community? Are you working with neighbouring municipalities to achieve regional goals?

If you answered yes to either of these questions, you are encouraged to submit a nomination for the 16^th Annual Saskatchewan Municipal Awards, sponsored by Affinity Credit Union.

To submit a nomination or get more information, visit municipalawards.ca. Nominations must be submitted by 4 p.m. on November 25, 2022.

Did you know that between August 2021 and August 2022 Saskatchewan led the nation with 54.7 per cent merchandise export growth? In August 2022 alone, Saskatchewan exports valued $4.51 billion. Revenues like these contribute to the current and future growth of this great province, be it in new economic opportunities for our citizens, in their continued access to quality healthcare, education, and advancing infrastructure, and beyond.

These exports are possible because of the hardworking people in communities across this province and are supported by our established trade agreements. In entering these agreements, we have committed to procurement obligations that open markets for Saskatchewan businesses. In turn, we commit that government entities will report on goods, services, and construction procurements undertaken that exceed the stated thresholds.

Municipalities are reminded to submit their procurement reports online by Friday, December 2 through the online Trade Agreement Procurement Reporting Survey distributed to your inboxes on October 14. Should you have any questions, please contact the Ministry of Trade and Export Development at tradeprocurementreporting@gov.sk.ca.

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 ETR is the total municipal property tax levy for a property class divided by the taxable assessment for that property class. The impact of 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. The ETR limit is the property class with highest ETR divided by the property tax with the lowest ETR.

The ministry hosted a live webinar “Learn How to Calculate the Effective Tax Rate” on Wednesday, September 7, 2022. You can now also access a recorded webinar about how to calculate the effective tax rate at https://register.gotowebinar.com/recording/65852377243252492.

If you have questions after watching the webinar, please contact the ministry at 306-787-2653 or property.tax@gov.sk.ca.