REGINA — Rural leaders from across Saskatchewan are gathering in Regina for the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities' (SARM) annual convention. From health care to rural roads to funding concerns, leaders and representatives from the province’s rural municipalities will be dealing with a number of topics impacting rural areas during their convention March 10 to 12 at REAL District in Regina.
According to the agenda posted on the SARM website, the convention will begin the morning of March 10 with dialogue sessions with provincial cabinet ministers, including one hosted by Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill and Rural and Remote Health Minister Lori Carr. That session will be particularly timely following the release Monday of the government’s Patients First health-care plan aimed at improving access to care in the province.
Tuesday afternoon events will include official opening ceremonies followed by speeches from Mayor Chad Bachynski, Secretary of State Buckley Belanger and Minister of Government Relations Eric Schmalz.
Wednesday’s session will include a morning address from Premier Scott Moe. It is anticipated Moe could provide hints about what to expect in the provincial budget on March 18, as well as municipal revenue sharing — the latter being a hallmark of past premiers’ addresses to recent SARM or SUMA conventions.
Moe’s address will be followed by the always-popular bear pit session with the provincial cabinet, where rural leaders will be able to pose questions directly to ministers.
The afternoon will include remarks from several speakers including Opposition Leader Carla Beck, as well as the resolution session. The convention will wrap up Thursday morning, March 12.
SARM President Bill Huber will provide his address to delegates March 10 in the afternoon. Last week, Huber spoke to reporters about what to expect at the convention and whether it might produce major announcements.
“Well, we know we're going to hear a lot of good things, and there won't be a whole lot of announcements at this convention because it's just days before the budget's going to be announced on the 18th of March,” Huber said.
“We're hopeful that there's increases in certain funding models, and we look forward to working with the government and different ministries as the year goes on, especially with highways and agriculture and those ministries that are so important to our members and our association.”
As for what he expects their funding priorities to be, Huber pointed to several areas.
“Well, infrastructure is huge, agriculture is huge, health care, policing, things like that. So there's a list of things that we lobby for continuously, and there's never enough money to go around.”
Huber also indicated he hopes to get more support from the federal government for various rural priorities.
“We lobby the federal government, too, for a lot of funding, and Western Canada has been neglected in the last 10 years, and we're hopeful now that there's new programs in place that can help sustain some of the things that we need so critically here.”
Power rate hikes a concern going into convention
One hot issue for SARM over the past several weeks has been SaskPower rate increases. SARM recently submitted comments to the Rate Review Panel voicing concern about the proposed 3.9 per cent rate increases for 2026 and 2027.
According to that submission, SARM pointed to the impact on farmers and rural communities, which rely heavily on electricity for pumping, grain handling, ventilation, irrigation and shop work.
“Well, it's certainly going to affect us,” Huber said to reporters last week.
“Every RM has a shop, they've got a heated shop, they've got power in those shops, they've got gas. It's going to affect, you know, agriculture producers themselves for all the shops that they've got heated… It's an increase that we're not really looking forward to accepting, but we have no choice. We need power, and I really appreciate the work that SaskPower does for the upgrades that are long overdue, you know, but we're hoping that, you know, they can keep it at a minimum, and the improvements that they make are beneficial to our members and the industry.”
Huber also spoke about the disproportionate impact of rate hikes on agriculture producers, as outlined in their submission to the Rate Review Panel. He pointed to both the need for power and cost pressures.
“We need to keep our costs down somehow, and there's more power being demanded every day, and, you know, we're using more, and we're hopeful that prices can remain more stable and our inflation doesn't go up dramatically in agriculture and mining and forestry.”
As for potential alternatives, Huber said they are “hopeful” after several meetings over the years with SaskPower officials on small nuclear reactors.
“We're hopeful that those things, you know, become realistic in the years ahead,” Huber said. “It's something that they can't build within days or months. It's years, but hopefully in 10 years we can see some major changes in our power sources and utilize some of the resources we have in this province.”
