Municipal Compliance

Under the federal Canada Community-Building Fund (CCBF), municipalities are required to fulfil several requirements as outlined in their Municipal Funding Agreement. Failure to comply with these requirements can and has resulted in a municipality's payment being withheld until compliant. This page provides details on the Municipal Compliance Strategy and a brief description of the requirements municipalities must fulfil to ensure payments are not put on hold.

Strategy

The oversight committee for the CCBF implemented the strategy to ensure municipalities comply with the significant terms and conditions in their agreement. The committee includes representatives from the federal and provincial governments, the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association, the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities and New North.

The intention of the strategy is to:

• ensure fair treatment of all municipalities;
• ensure an appropriate level of accountability;
• ensure municipalities have sufficient time to understand terms and conditions; and
• mitigate any unnecessary risk to the CCBF.

Each municipality is required to enter into an Agreement with the province, including any amendments, by the date prescribed in the transmittal letter to receive their CCBF funding allocation. Under the Agreement, municipalities are required to fulfil several significant terms and conditions, including:

The ministry has implemented a two-step process where funds are first placed on hold and, after four consecutive payments have been held for non-compliance with any terms and conditions, the municipality will forfeit withheld allocations and may be required to repay some funds.

The following measures will be taken to manage this process to ensure municipalities have sufficient time to understand and become compliant with the terms and conditions:

• Failure to meet any one of these terms and conditions by the required deadline will result in a municipality's Canada Community-Building Fund payment being placed on hold.
• The municipality will receive a letter from the ministry stating that the payment has been placed on hold and outlining the terms and conditions of non-compliance.
• Failure to address the non-compliance issue(s) after a payment is put on hold will put the municipality in default under the agreement. A municipality's funds will remain on hold until all terms and conditions have been met.
• If a municipality remains in default under the Agreement at the time of the second consecutive Canada Community-Building Fund payment, the ministry will issue a letter to the municipality outlining the terms and conditions of non-compliance.
• Once three consecutive scheduled Canada Community-Building Fund (CCBF) payments have been held, the ministry will issue a letter outlining the terms and conditions of non-compliance and informing them that there will be forfeiture of withheld funds and may be a request for funds to be repaid if the requirement is not met.
• When a municipality has been in non-compliance for four consecutive scheduled CCBF payments, the municipality will forfeit the previously withheld payments, and the province may request repayment of any or all previously transferred CCBF funds.
• If the municipality submits the required information and returns to full compliance they will continue to benefit from their participation in the program.

Significant Terms and Conditions

1. Submission of Infrastructure Investment Plan – In order for projects to be approved, municipalities must submit an Infrastructure Investment Plan (IIP) with details of the project and the amount of CCBF funding that will be used for each project. Municipalities must submit at least one IIP:
   • by October 31, 2025, that utilizes some or all of its allocations from 2024-25 to 2028-29.
   • by October 31, 2030, that utilizes some or all of its allocations from 2029-30 to 2033-34.
     
     
2. Have an approved Infrastructure Investment Plan in place – In order for an IIP to be approved, program staff may request additional information from the municipality to support their IIP submission. If this additional information is not submitted, the IIP cannot be approved and will be considered incomplete. Municipalities must have at least one IIP approved under the CCBF:
   • by March 31, 2026, that utilizes some or all of its allocations from 2024-25 to 2028-29.
   • by March 31, 2031, that utilizes some or all of its allocations from 2029-20 to 2033-34.
     
     
3. Unspent funds – A municipality must spend:
   • its Unspent Funds and the estimated five-year allocation from 2024-25 to 2028-29, and any interest earned by December 31, 2030; and
   • its estimated five-year allocation from 2029-30 to 2033-34, by December 31, 2034.
     
     
4. Municipal Annual Expenditure Report – Municipalities with active projects are required to submit a Municipal Annual Expenditure Report (MAER) each calendar year. The MAER is a form that requires municipalities to provide information on interest earned, approved project expenditures, project status, and estimated completion date. MAERs are due March 31 of every year.
   
   
5. Capital Plan – Municipalities considered a City or with a population greater than 5,000 are required to prepare a five-year Capital Plan approved by the Council. The plans must be submitted annually to the ministry by March 31 each year. Reports are due as follows:
   
   

   Five-Year Capital Plans for	Municipal Population Based On	Due
   2025 to 2029	2021 Statistics Canada Census	March 31, 2025
   2026 to 2030	2021 Statistics Canada Census	March 31, 2026
   2027 to 2031	2021 Statistics Canada Census	March 31, 2027
   2028 to 2032	2021 Statistics Canada Census	March 31, 2028
   2029 to 2033	2021 Statistics Canada Census	March 31, 2029
   2030 to 2034	2026 Statistics Canada Census	March 31, 2030
   2031 to 2035	2026 Statistics Canada Census	March 31, 2031
   2032 to 2036	2026 Statistics Canada Census	March 31, 2032
   2033 to 2037	2026 Statistics Canada Census	March 31, 2033
   2034 to 2038	2026 Statistics Canada Census	March 31, 2034

6. Outcomes Report – Municipalities are required to provide outcomes information to the ministry to assist the province in submitting provincial outcomes reports to the federal government. The intent of the report is to provide information respecting project outcomes achieved through the use of CCBF funding. The ministry identifies completed projects through the submission of the MAER and sends those municipalities outcomes report on an annual basis to be filled out for each completed eligible project.
   
   
7. Asset Management Reporting – Municipalities are required to make progress towards developing and/or implementing an Asset Management Plan. Municipalities are required to submit by specified due dates various reports, including surveys, as needed by the Ministry to ensure they make progress and continue to work towards achieving the asset management goals as approved by the Oversight Committee Co-chairs. Also, municipal annual financial statements must comply with PSAB 3150-Tangible Capital Assets.
   
   
8. Financial Statements – Under The Municipalities Act, The Northern Municipalities Act, 2010 and The Cities Act, municipalities are required to submit financial statements. All municipalities, except cities, must submit financial statements by July 1 each year for the previous calendar year. Cities must submit by September 1. 
   
   
9. Housing-Related Reporting – Municipalities with 2021 census populations of 30,000 and greater have additional mandatory housing-related reporting requirements as outlined in Schedule G of the MFA, which include:
   • The completion of the Housing Needs Assessment (HNA) according to the federal government requirements. The federal HNA template has been published and is live on the Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada website. Municipalities may also request a template pre-populated with publicly available data by reaching out to the federal government by emailing hna.secretariat-secretariat.ebml@infc.gc.ca.
   • Municipalities must publish the HNA on their website and send the link to the Ministry by March 31, 2025, and update their HNA every five years.
   • If infrastructure-related housing gaps are identified in the HNA, the municipality is required to invest CCBF funding in projects that would improve housing outcomes.
   • Project-level data and outcomes reporting related to housing.