Premier pledges to rework revenue sharing and grants-in-lieu

Premier Scott Moe told municipal leaders in Regina on Monday that he planned to revamp the province's revenue sharing formula and grants-in-lieu.

Moe made his inaugural address to the delegates at the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) convention.

On revenue sharing, Moe said it will be about $241 million; that is about $16 million less than last year.

Moe said he wants to develop a new formula that is "fair and provides predictability."

"We are not able to move forward with the current revenue-sharing formula."

Last year's budget was a contentious one for many groups in the province, including a number of municipalities.

The province nixed grants-in-lieu, which were doled out to municipalities by SaskPower and SaskEnergy. On top of other revenue-sharing losses, some communities were facing 40-plus per cent losses in funding from the government, or millions of dollars' worth.

The government later walked back the grants-in-lieu reduction for nine communities; however, Regina and Saskatoon were not part of the reversal.

"In this budget we will have details on grants-in-lieu, which I know is a concern many of you in this room. We need a permanent solution to grants-in-lieu," said Moe.

"Right now 109 of 300 municipalities benefit from this program and we're looking to make it a fairer program."

Municipalities 'cut to the bone,' SUMA says

Regina, Saskatoon and other municipalities were forced to revise their budgets after the province made its cuts last year.

Regina Mayor Michael Fougere said he takes Moe at his word when he said he wants an open consultation with municipalities.

"The biggest point here is collaboration and negotiating and that did not happen in the last budget. The premier is saying and said several times before today and in his speech he wants collaboration and that's good news for everyone," Fougere said.

Gordon Barnhart,the president of SUMA, said all of the urban municipalities have been "cut to the bone" over the last year.

He said he is "encouraged" there will be discussion and consultation before budget decisions are made.

Barnhart said he hopes the province includes the items that were added to the PST as part of the one per cent that municipalities receive.

He said SUMA is scheduled to meet with Finance Minister Donna Harpauer in 10 days.

NDP interim leader Nicole Sarauer spoke at the convention and raised concerns about the cuts municipalities faced. 

'Tight budget' to be delivered on April 10

"This [budget] is about two weeks later than normal, but I think it's reasonable given the change in leadership in our government," Moe said.

"This will be another tight budget. We need to control our spending if we are going to balance the books in our province in the next two years."

During his campaign, Moe promised to balance the budget by 2019.

"We are not going to put off balancing our budget to some undetermined distant point in the future," Moe said.