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Ministry of Highways Municipal Service Fees

Res #: 15-19M
Number: 15
Year: 2019
Midterm: Yes
Expired: Yes
Responses Received: Yes
Departments: Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure

WHEREAS on April 1, 2019 the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure implemented a municipal service fee for land transactions as follows:

  • Executing an encroachment agreement – $300
  • Issuing a consent to temporarily close a road – $300
  • Issuing a consent to permanently close a road – $650
  • Issuing a title transfer document – $650;

WHEREAS prior to April 1, 2019 these services were provided to rural municipalities at no cost;

WHEREAS these costs now significantly add to the cost of road construction and are impacting how some municipalities will be making decisions in regard to titling of right of ways and road construction;

BE IT RESOLVED that SARM lobby the provincial government to once again have the costs of municipal service fees for land transactions absorbed by the province instead of downloading them to municipalities who are already struggling with infrastructure deficits.

Responses From: The Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure

January 6, 2020

As part of this year’s budget (2019-20), MHI introduced a series of fee changes. These changes included a new fee to recover costs associated with reviewing and completing land transactions for municipalities and private individuals.

We recognize these services are important to the citizens, businesses and municipalities that use them. From MHl’s perspective, however, they are secondary to our core mandate of building, operating and maintaining the provincial highway system. The fees allow MHI to recover some of the costs of providing these services.

MHI reviewed similar fees in other provinces, particularly in Western Canada, to ensure our structure was on par with other jurisdictions. These changes were discussed with SARM at a meeting on February 28, 2019. The provincial government also issued a news release detailing these and other fee changes in the provincial budget.

Greg Ottenbreit – Minister of Highways and Infrastrurcture