POP No. 6-07A
Road Construction, Maintenance, and Improvements Allocations

WHEREAS, provincial government funding for road construction and maintenance has been totally inadequate for decades and this has been identified as a major problem by the Area Transportation Planning Committees, the Action Committee on the Rural Economy, the Clearing the Path Committee and every Rural Municipality in the province; and

WHEREAS, Saskatchewan residents pay over $330 million in road fuel tax and $135 million in vehicle registration fees which is a total of $465 million annually; and

WHEREAS, the provincial government has committed to allocating the fuel tax revenue to road building, and to spend $5 billion on transportation investments over the next 10 years, for which they are to be commended, but no commitment has been made to allocate registration fees to road building; and

WHEREAS, SGI introduced changes to the vehicle registration system for farm class vehicles in 2005 stating it was necessary “to address the damage heavy vehicles cause on Saskatchewan highways”; and

WHEREAS, there will be a provincial election in the upcoming months;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, SARM and every rural municipality in the province resolve to get a written commitment from every candidate in the next provincial election that at least $500 million annually be allocated to road construction, maintenance and improvements.