WHEREAS road maintenance and construction costs are significantly increasing annually;

WHEREAS the current road maintenance and loss of road life rates contained in The Municipalities Regulations are out of date and were last revisited in 1999, with only modest increases made;

WHEREAS a review of the road maintenance and loss of road life rates was undertaken and a decision was made by the Province of Saskatchewan not to proceed with changes to the rates due to the economic climate; and

WHEREAS the result is that the ever increasing burden of these costs is placed on rural taxpayers;

BE IT RESOLVED that SARM be encouraged to ensure that the inequities between the maximum road maintenance/capital road loss rates permitted by legislation and the actual costs to maintain and replace the roads remain a current issue in SARMs discussions with the Government of Saskatchewan.

Previously Passed Resolutions
Resolution 5-07A:
BE IT RESOLVED that SARM request the Government of Saskatchewan increase maintenance and capital road loss rates to a level that reflects todays current costs.
Resolution 2-08A:
BE IT RESOLVED that SARM demand the Province of Saskatchewan immediately increase the road maintenance and loss of road life agreement rates so that these rates reflect current and future road maintenance and construction costs of rural municipalities.

Response from Honourable Darryl Hickie, Minister of Municipal Affairs: 

• A committee with representation from government, SARM, the Rural Municipal Administrators Association (RMAA) and industry stakeholders conducted a review of road maintenance agreements in 2007-08.
• The committee recommended changes to the road maintenance agreement template. Comments from all stakeholders were incorporated into development of a new template which was posted for use on the Ministry of Municipal Affairs website in 2009.
• The committee also recommended addition of a dispute resolution process. This was added to The Municipalities Act in the spring 2010 session of the Legislature.
• The committee was unable to reach consensus on road maintenance agreement rates. Municipalities did not have the data needed to identify actual road maintenance and restoration costs. A consultant′s recommendation was to undertake a research project to gather actual cost data from municipalities. The Ministry has been working with SARM to initiate this. Upon completion of this study, government should be in a better position to determine whether road maintenance rates should increase. Participation by individual RMs in this project is being sought.