Municipalities association quickly spurns amalgamation remarks

The association representing Saskatchewan’s cities, towns and villages is disavowing its president’s recent statement in favour of municipal amalgamation, which has long been politically sensitive.

In a prepared statement, four Municipalities of Saskatchewan executive members said Gordon Barnhart’s comments, made to the Saskatoon Starphoenix, are “strictly his own and do not represent the opinion.”

“Municipalities of Saskatchewan is not in favour of municipal amalgamation, particularly forced amalgamation,” said the statement, which was authored by Fraser Tolmie, Rodger Hayward, Mike Strachan and Mike O’donnell.

The association said it plans to conduct “a full review of our governance and our media policies in the coming days.”

The statement comes two days after Barnhart suggested towns, villages and rural municipalities that are struggling financially could be consolidated into “municipal districts,” which would save money and make better use of existing resources.

Those comments prompted the association to call a board meeting on Saturday. Shortly before that meeting, one of the its directors, Darren Hill, wrote in a social media post that he was “shocked.”

Barnhart’s comments also blindsided the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM), which was already unhappy with its urban counterpart over its plan to rebrand as Municipalities of Saskatchewan from its previous identity, the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association.

SARM president Ray Orb said Monday while Barnhart’s comments were surprising and exacerbated “some of the bad feelings” between the organizations, he was “pleased” with the response to what he characterized as a governance issue.

“It hasn’t totally alleviated our concerns, but I think it’s gone, to some extent, to try and smooth that over a bit,” Orb said, adding that while SARM has no problem with municipalities working together, it continues to oppose “forced amalgamation.”

Other provinces have consolidated municipalities, but previous suggestions that Saskatchewan amalgamate some of its 774 local governments — many of which rely on small and shrinking tax bases to provide services to residents — have gone nowhere.

Despite having amalgamated health regions to form the new Saskatchewan Health Authority, the governing Saskatchewan Party opposes municipal amalgamation, which is regarded by some as a threat to its rural voting base.

NDP leader Ryan Meili said the issue is “probably not something that we should be diving (into) right now when there’s so much else that’s going on” — a reference to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“But obviously (I’m) always willing to meet with and discuss (with) municipal leaders what they think the best way is to manage the sector for which they’re responsible,” Meili said.

Barnhart declined to comment.