Resolution 5-03A

WHEREAS, Section 324 (1) of The Rural Municipalities Act, 1989 is very specific as to the type of changes that can be made to a municipality's assessment roll after it has been advertised; and

WHEREAS, this section does not make provision for the correction of errors found in the assessment roll at a later date; and

WHEREAS, currently, SAMA will refuse to confirm any assessment roll that contains errors, should they become aware of them;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that SARM approach the Province to amend The Rural Municipalities Act, 1989 in such a manner so as to permit the correction of errors in the assessment roll should they become apparent after the roll has been advertised.

Response from the Honourable Ron Osika, Minister of Government Relations:

Section 314(2) of The Rural Municipality Act, 1989 provides authority for the administrator to correct obvious errors in the roll at any time and requires that the correction be noted in the minutes of the next meeting of council. This authority is equivalent to that found in Section 268 of The Urban Municipality Act, 1984, Section 220 of The Northern Municipalities Act and Section 178 of The Cities Act.

Insofar as corrections to errors may be made at any time, government has no plans to make any changes to these provisions of the Act.