2023 June

It's time for the province's urban municipalities to decide if they want to take part in the Municipal Surcharge Program, administered by SaskEnergy.

Introduced in the 2018-19 Provincial Budget, the Municipal Surcharge Program directs SaskEnergy under The SaskEnergy Act to collect five per cent of natural gas sales from residents and businesses in participating municipalities and remit all funds collected to the municipality. SaskEnergy does not receive any profit from these payments.

Using the funds received through the Municipal Surcharge Program and the communication to residents of their use is at the discretion of and is the responsibility of each participating municipality.

In 2018, municipalities were allowed to opt-in or out of the Municipal Surcharge. If your municipality has since changed its position on the Municipal Surcharge and would like to either opt-in or out, please send a certified copy of a council resolution noting the decision to SaskEnergy no later than September 1, 2023. If a municipality takes no action, its opt-in/out status will remain unchanged from its 2018 declaration.

Changes in status require a regulatory amendment. There are a limited number of opportunities to make changes. Once the window closes for 2023, the next opportunity for municipalities to opt-in or out of the Municipal Surcharge Program is expected in the fall of 2029.

For further details, please read these FAQs. For specific questions on the collection and remittance of the surcharge and/or to submit your council resolution, please contact SaskEnergy’s Nicole Rich at NRich@saskenergy.com or 306-535-8802.

The Construction Codes Act provides building officials with significant powers for plan review, field inspection of construction projects and order writing. It also includes the ability to:

• enter land or a building at any reasonable hour;
• be accompanied by a person having special or expert knowledge on any matter to which the Act or the regulations relate;
• order the production of a register, certificate, plan or other documents relating to a building project;
• inspect and take samples of any material, equipment or appliance being used in a building project;
• issue an order to comply;
• direct the local authority to register an interest in title;
• exercise any other prescribed power or action; and
• apply to a court judge for a restraining order when prevented from doing these items.

These actions can only be exercised by a building official by provision of the CC Act, within their licence classification described below and appointment by the local authority.

Building Official Class 1
Complete plan reviews and inspections for residential buildings that contain one or two dwelling units, including those in which either or both contain a secondary suite.

Building Official Class 2
Complete plan reviews and inspections for buildings within the scope of Part 9 of the National Building Code and constructed in accordance with the requirements of the National Energy Code for Buildings.

Building Official Class 3
Complete plan reviews and inspections for buildings within the scope of the Construction Codes.

Building officials working outside their licence classification are subject to disciplinary action by the Chief Codes Administrator.

Please contact Building and Technical Standards at btstandards@gov.sk.ca or 306-787-4113 if you have any questions.

Did you know your municipal government’s fire insurance grading system data is likely out of date? It’s time to learn more about the Fire Underwriters System and use their simple municipal portal to update your data.

One of the insurance industry’s most important tools in the battle against the peril of fire is the Canadian fire insurance grading system. This system includes the Public Fire Protection Classification (PFPC) program and the Dwelling Protection Grading System from the Fire Underwriters Survey (FUS).

FUS was created in 1883 and is intended to help municipal governments with best practices related to the fire protection provided to communities. The FUS team works with municipal officials to ensure that the fire insurance grades provide municipal governments and the insurance industry with clarity on fire protection.

FUS data from Saskatchewan is very out of date. The vast majority of municipal governments in the province have data that is either non-existent or at least five years old. This means many properties may be paying incorrect premiums, either too high or too low, for the risk they face.

The Insurance Brokers Association of Saskatchewan (IBAS) is working together with FUS to support Saskatchewan municipal governments in updating your FUS data. The FUS online portal is simple, and inputting data from scratch will likely take most municipal governments two hours or less. Then regular updates to that data – say every two years – will likely take 30 minutes or less for most municipal governments.

This summer, IBAS will host three webinars to introduce FUS to Saskatchewan’s municipal governments, walk through the online portal and enter your data. These webinars will be held via Zoom from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. on:

• Thursday, July 13;
• Thursday, August 10; and
• Thursday, August 17.

To register, please visit: https://www.ibas.ca/cgi/page.cgi/_evtcal.html?evt=2465. If you would like to request more information about the FUS, please reach out to mark.cooper@ibas.ca.

The MLDP is a series of modules developed exclusively for elected and appointed municipal leaders in Saskatchewan. The MLDP program is designed to strengthen local government leadership and would benefit mayors, reeves, councillors and municipal staff. Modules include:

1. Community and Land Use Planning
2. Municipal Economic Development Fundamentals
3. Strategic and Financial Planning for Municipalities
4. Human Resources in the Municipal Workplace
5. Strategic Communications for Municipalities
6. Municipal Leaders’ Roles and Responsibilities

Register to take the Community and Land Use Planning module. This online module covers a variety of topics including:

• the roles and responsibilities of council, administration and the public;
• the creation, adoption, and amendment process for Official Community Plans and Zoning Bylaws;
• the subdivision process; servicing agreements;
• the development permit process;
• the development appeal board process;
• enforcing bylaws;
• the building permit process; and
• regional planning.

Modules 2 through 5 are scheduled for this fall with dates to be determined.

Visit mldp.ca to learn more about the MLDP program and modules.

Your 2022 financial statements are due to the Ministry of Government Relations by July 1, 2023 (September 1, 2023, if a city).

If your municipality anticipates it will need more time to submit its 2022 financial statement, your council may pass an extension of time bylaw for financial statements. That bylaw:

• Must be passed within 30 days after the time fixed according to provincial legislation expired – no later than July 31, 2023 (October 1, 2023, if a city).
• It may extend the time specified by provincial legislation by no more than 90 days – no later than September 29, 2023 (November 30, 2023, if a city).

A certified copy of the bylaw, the reason for submitting a late financial statement, and the expected date the financial statement will be submitted to the ministry, should be emailed to financialstatements@gov.sk.ca. That email address can also be used to ask for more information.

The submission of financial statements to the ministry is required by provincial legislation and used as a qualifying factor for funding, including the Municipal Revenue Sharing and the Canada Community-Building Fund programs.

Municipalities and their auditors are reminded to prepare for new accounting standards introduced by the Public Sector Accounting Board that will impact reporting for the year ending December 31, 2023.

The new standards cover financial instruments (PS 3450), foreign currency translation (PS 2601), portfolio investments (PS 3041), asset retirement obligations (PS 3280), and financial statement presentation (PS 1201). These changes are more complex than previous updates and may require additional time and consideration from municipalities and their auditors.

The change expected to affect municipalities the most is PS 3280 asset retirement obligations (AROs).

An ARO refers to all legal obligations associated with permanent removal of a tangible capital asset from service. Municipalities must recognize an ARO when there is a legal obligation to incur retirement costs, a past transaction or event giving rise to the obligation has occurred, future economic benefits are expected to be given up, and a reasonable estimate of the amount can be made. Accrued landfill costs will now be considered under this standard.

Municipalities should engage their auditors and operational stakeholders early to ensure plenty of time to work through these new standards. It may be helpful to create a list of all tangible capital assets owned, leased, or controlled by the municipality, investigate which assets have AROs, decide on the assets that have AROs, and work with auditors to confirm the estimates.

The Ministry of Government Relations will also post updated Municipal Audit Guidelines, the Municipal Accounting Manual, and the 2023 Financial Statement Template, along with a guide encompassing these changes on saskatchewan.ca in the near future.