Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities
Registration:
10
of
13
(2023-02-22
to
2023-07-28)
Grant, Contribution or Other Financial Benefit
- Rural Healthcare & Recruitment - funding for increase recruitment and retention of healthcare workers in remote rural areas of Saskatchewan
Grant, Contribution or Other Financial Benefit, Policies or Program
- Infrastructure funding programs for municipalities with regard to the need for continued and increased levels of spending.
Legislative Proposal, Bill or Resolution
- Saskatchewan Act – Section 24 of the Saskatchewan Act regarding the tax exemption to the Canadian Pacific Railway Company
- Species at Risk Act (SARA), mitigating the effects of SARA for landowners, municipalities.
- Trade Agreements, including CUSMA and the effect it has on Canadian agricultural producers.
Legislative Proposal, Bill or Resolution, Policies or Program
- Carbon tax, impact of carbon tax on Saskatchewan's agricultural producers and municipalities.
Policies or Program
- Agriculture: Business Risk Management Program suite under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, in particular requesting changes that will enhance support for producers under the programs.
- Aquatic Invasive Species - Requesting federal government lead the fight to prevent AIS throughout Canada and Saskatchewan's waters.
- Bill C-234 is calling for changes to the "Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act"
- Broadband - Requesting government investment to enhance service in rural Saskatchewan.
- Broadband – continue the investments in rural broadband and meet the CRTC’s targets of download speeds of 50 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload speeds of at least 10 Mbps
- Budget asks – SARM seeks to find ways to expand the rural workforce, explore ideas that foster innovation, be a catalyst for economic investments, and provide rural municipalities with the much-needed tools to ensure that Saskatchewan can continue to support Canada’s economic growth and development
- Canadian Agricultural Partnership - Ensuring CAP serves to maintain and increase competitiveness in the Canadian Agricultural sector.
- Carbon pricing – Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment is working on finalizing a provincial offset program & SARM has been working with the province to create an Offset program and make it meaningful for agricultural producers and one that is equivalent to a federal program
- Chronic Wasting Disease - policies to prevent the spread of CWD
- Control of Richardson Ground Squirrels with regard to research and control measures.
- Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements (DFAA) with respect to increasing the compensation for use of municipally owned equipment.
- Emergency response fund; establishment of an emergency response fund that will give departments the resources they need to continue providing essential services without risk of non-payment.
- Energy Infrastructure - advancing the notion that pipelines are a safer mode of transportation than rail.
- Federal support for municipalities and agricultural producers in Saskatchewan in relation to the Economic Response Plan.
- Fertilizer reduction – focus on an absolute emissions reduction, rather than an intensity-based target, is misplaced and will likely cause severe economic harm & more emissions can be reduced through increased uptake of the 4R Nutrient Stewardship program while improving the competitiveness and profit of farmers
- Food Security – Provide farm operations with the eligibility to apply for the 1A grant funding; incentivize employment and employee retention programs in rural areas of the country to aid in stabilizing labour supply; provide employment training opportunities to be held well in advance of busy times in the Ag industry; and ask that the federal government evaluate its process and the requirements for newcomers to get proper permits to enter the Canadian workforce. Focus on efficiency and reduce barriers so employers can access readily available employees
- International trade with respect to agricultural products.
- Municipal access to Can-Sask job grant
- Port of Vancouver grain loading issues, Railway/supply chain concerns especially around being able to move the crop from 2022 harvest to ports
- Promotion of effective and efficient grain transportation and monitoring of transportation.
- Providing comments on the need for improvements to the Temporary Foreign Workers TFW) program.
- RCMP presence in rural Saskatchewan. Preventing rural crime.
- RCMP – given the economic increase/market adjustments in the collective agreement, pay increases total more than 23 per cent over the six years, retroactive to 2017 & SARM is calling on the federal government to fully absorb all retroactive pay increases that the federal government negotiated
- Water treatment systems, alternative water treatment technologies continue to be explored ad where feasible, applicable regulations and guidelines be updated to allow for the most efficient use of those technologies.
- Western drought - Business risk management tools will have to be maintained and possibly enhanced if drought conditions continue next year
Policies or Program, Regulation
- Transportation policy and regulation with regard to grain and grain products, and the products of agriculture generally.