Mayor Bob Maloney is optimistic following this year’s SUMA convention.
The first piece of good news from the province came from Premier Scott Moe talking about a balanced budget, said Maloney. A strong believer in a balanced budget, Maloney is glad to see the province is in a good fiscal position.
“Cities have to do it every year, so when a province can manage it, I think it’s a fiscal high point. When you can’t balance your budget it limits what you are able to do.”
The other thing that the city is happy to see is a four per cent increase in revenue sharing, which means a $10 million increase to the revenue sharing pool. While it will take the provincial budget to know what this means for Yorkton itself, it’s good news for everybody.
“We don’t really see any finality until the budget itself comes out.”
The current concerns for the cities include charging PST on labour for construction.
“When you do major projects – and the city’s outfall project this year is in the millions of dollars – any increases we would see in revenue sharing would be going back to the province in PST on the projects we’re working on. We’ve got a lot going on this year, and so paying the PST on the labour part - we’ve always paid PST on materials but we pay it on labour now – any extra money we get will be paid back on that. I’m hoping the province removes that for us, but there’s no certainty about that.”
Other conversations involved how cities can get involved in green funding from the federal government. While Maloney expects most of the funds will be used by SaskPower projects, for example, he does see potential for a solar project in Yorkton that could be used to help power recreation facilities.
“We’re going to be investigating things like this. Not perhaps jumping into it, but at least take a look to see what the payback is, how much these projects cost. I don’t have a lot of experience with solar, but if that’s the way money is going to be handed out you’re remiss not to take advantage of it.”
The main advantage of attending the conference is the opportunity to talk to other councillors about what is going on in their communities. Communities in Saskatchewan have common problems and needs, and that cities can help each other solve those common problems. He notes that Yorkton’s cannabis file was based on a work done first in Saskatoon, for example, and work done in larger cities can influence how smaller cities like Yorkton work on the same issue.
“I think it’s important that people realize we’re never alone.”
