YORKTON - The annual SUMA convention came and went with a good turnout of delegates but not a lot of headline catching news.
That is not surprising when you realize the issues facing urban municipalities, locally, provincially, and frankly nationally, have not really changed in years.
At best the issues shuffle a bit, some gaining added concern at times – for example policing has certainly jumped up the list in the last year as municipalities were handed a huge bill for back pay most had not budgeted for. There was an expectation RCMP costs would rise, but since the contract was negotiated by the federal government and the RCMP municipalities which pay a major portion of the costs locally were not in the loop to see the huge back settlement coming.
While that is a federal dispute for municipalities it is an example of an issue that has gained significance, although policing to maintain safe communities is always of major interest to residents so in turn the elected officials.
Crime concerns do dovetail with discussions at SUMA regarding issues of mental health, addictions and homelessness, which all factor in to the rather complex interconnected bundle of factors which contribute to crime, which in many cases is a social issue as much as a safety one.
Part of the answer would be affordable – frankly free – housing for the homeless since many will forever struggle to hold jobs. In Yorkton it’s great we now have a temporary shelter, but how do the people using that service transition to an affordable, permanent home?
More money to deal with mental illness and addictions is part of the solution too.
But the big question that is always hanging over a discussion of increasing programming is who pays?
That is actually the biggest question that seems to come out of SUMA each year, who should pay for all the thing municipalities ultimately need.
Locally the city is looking at redoing York Road – a single strip of asphalt crossing Yorkton’s north end. The cost after tenders were revealed Monday at just shy of $27 million, and even with a modest $4 million from the province the project will eat into Yorkton budgets for years to come limiting what other projects might be taken on.
And therein lies the problem, Yorkton and its sisters cities are almost all sitting atop kilometres of old water pipes, and sewer lines topped with decades old pavement which is bordered by decades old sidewalks. There is a provincial infrastructure in Saskatchewan cities which will take billions to update and it is doubtful even a backroom numbers person in Regina has an idea where that money might come from.
So SUMA lobbies for a slightly bigger transfer pot, or a break on municipal construction PST, but it would be a thimble full of dollars to throw into an ocean of need, and even those humble requests mean the province would have to trim funding somewhere else. Dollars are not elastic to be stretched, and they are finite.
So the issues remain for municipalities – largely the need for more dollars – with no answer to their need being obvious.
