WHEREAS rural municipalities have an obligation to maintain roads servicing Treaty Land Entitlement Reserves and Specific Land Claims; and

WHEREAS under the Treaty Land Entitlement Framework Agreement the Municipal Tax Loss Compensation Fund was established to ensure that rural municipalities would be in a position to continue to maintain these roads despite the loss of tax revenues related to lands which would become an entitlement reserve; and

WHEREAS the fund continues to decrease and appears to be unsustainable without municipalities absorbing significant reductions in monies from the fund.

BE IT RESOLVED that SARM lobby the Federal government to conduct a review of the Rural Municipal Tax Loss Compensation Fund and initiate the necessary steps to ensure the long-term sustainability of the fund without rural municipalities having to absorb the cost of a debt that was owed by all Canadians.