Infrastructure and the municipal operating grant (MOG) were major topics at the recent meeting of the mayors’ caucus.
Mayor Deb Higgins presented the caucus report to council at Monday’s meeting. The caucus met in Regina on Dec. 4 and 5. Council voted to receive and file the report.
“(The MOG) is the form that revenue-sharing from the provincial government takes. The formula for the distribution of the municipal operating grant, which is one point on PST, is given back to municipalities across the province,” said Higgins. “This year there was to be a review of the formula that’s used for the distribution of that fund.”
She said the government relations minister Jim Reiter ended the administrative review process that was in place. She added he gave direction to the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) and Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) to come to an agreement on the distribution.
“What the city mayors have endorsed is a principle of moving towards a per capita distribution of the funds because cities right across the province are in a very tight situation where we have infrastructure demands,” said Higgins. “(It’s) not only new infrastructure for our growing population, but also the responsibility to rebuild and replace aging infrastructure that is common right across the province and right across Canada.”
For more information, see an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.
