WHEREAS when oil and gas development occurs on property not within the administrative jurisdiction of a municipality but uses the municipal road network; and

WHEREAS it can be very difficult to reach a road use compensation agreement between the company and the affected municipality; and

WHEREAS even when such an agreement is in place and not honored by the company there is no effective way to enforce such agreements or stop the company from using the roads; and

WHEREAS submitting an application to the Saskatchewan Municipal Board is the only action available to municipalities;

BE IT RESOLVED that SARM work with their legal department to develop amendments to provincial legislation to address the current challenges with road maintenance agreements and to lobby the Province of Saskatchewan to amend the required legislation.

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 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. The Ministry is currently seeking more RMs to participate in a study to develop actual cost information so that the maximum road maintenance agreement rates can be reconsidered.

The committee did recommend a new agreement template and addition of a dispute resolution process. The dispute resolution process was added to The Municipalities Act in the spring 2010 session of the Legislature. This process can be used to resolve issues and challenges between parties at the Saskatchewan Municipal Board.

The Ministry is willing to consider other possible amendments that SARM may wish to advance to improve enforcement for road maintenance agreements.