SUMA rebrands itself as Municipalities of Saskatchewan

It’s taking some getting used to, but Gordon Barnhart is trying to answer his phone with a new greeting.

“Gordon Barnhart, president of Municipalities of Saskatchewan,” he said when reached on Tuesday.

“I already made one mistake,” he added.

The former president of the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) is now the president of Municipalities of Saskatchewan, a rebranded organization representing cities, towns and villages.

Barnhart said the board made the decision, announced for the first time Tuesday, partly because the old name was confusing.

While the Saskatchewan government considers any incorporated municipality “urban” so long as it isn’t one of 296 rural municipalities, that doesn’t make much sense for a village of a few dozen people.

Barnhart stressed that the new name does not signal a major change in focus away from representing larger communities like Regina and Saskatoon.

“It’s still the same members and it’s basically the same modus operandi in terms of who we are and what we’re doing, but it’s a more clear communication,” he said.

Neither is the rebranding exercise a step toward absorbing the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM), which, as the name implies, also includes municipalities of Saskatchewan.

“We’re not cutting into SARM,” said Barnhart. “It’s not an intention to try to take them over.” In fact, Barnhart said a motion calling for a merger between the two associations was defeated on the floor of then-suma’s annual convention in Regina on Monday.

“I think it was quite a strong decision to say no,” he said.