2024 September

The Ministry of Government Relations will have a revised edition of the Council Member’s Handbook available for download in November 2024. This guide is an excellent resource for administrators to include in an orientation package for new and returning council members.

The guide includes:

• What to expect during the term of office
• Council code of ethics
• Information on roles as councillor/mayor/reeve
• Information on the roles of council
• Information on the roles of administration
• Conflict of interest
• Information about various aspects of running the municipality
• Tips on making their term of office successful

To help new municipal council members represent their community's residents, please encourage them to visit the Information for New Municipal Council Members webpage. Municipal staff are encouraged to visit the Municipal Administrator Resources page for information to help them meet their legislative and operational duties.

Municipalities should be aware of new accounting standards, some that were implemented in the 2023 reporting year and some effective for municipalities for the 2024 reporting year. These updates to the standards are more complex than previous updates and may require additional time and consideration from municipalities and their auditors.

To reflect these changes, the Ministry of Government Relations recently updated:

• Financial Statements Template (Excel document)
• Municipal Accounting Manual (MAM)
• Municipal Audit Guidelines (MAG)

The updates were made after the ministry worked with experts in the field. The updates also reflect a series of recommendations made by a working group led by Chartered Professional Accountants Saskatchewan.

To help municipalities and their auditors understand these updates, please read this information sheet and guide regarding the accounting standards effective in 2024. All other files are also available on our Financial page.

Next Steps

The ministry emailed the 2024 Financial Statements Template, MAM and MAG to municipalities and their auditors this month, along with the information sheet and the guide mentioned above.

Municipalities are legislatively required to submit a copy of the audited financial statements, auditor’s report and management letter to financialstatements@gov.sk.ca on or before July 1, 2025, except for cities, whose submission due date is on or before September 1, 2025.

Municipalities must also submit a management letter for any controlled corporation.

For questions regarding the completion or submission of municipal financial statements, please email financialstatements@gov.sk.ca

The Saskatchewan Guide to Barrier-Free Design was recently updated.

This guide is intended to provide advice to owners, building occupants, local authorities, designers, building officials and other stakeholders regarding the various requirements for the barrier-free design of buildings in Saskatchewan.

The revised guide reflects provisions found in the 2020 Edition of National Building Code of Canada and Canadian Standards Association (CSA) B651-18. It was developed through collaboration between officials of the Ministry of Government Relations, the Ministry of Social Services and the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission (SHRC).

Download this guide free of charge by visiting the Publications Centre.

For more information, contact Building and Technical Standards at 306-787-4113 or btstandards@gov.sk.ca.

The Governments of Canada and Saskatchewan signed a renewal of the 10-year agreement for the Canada Community-Building Fund (CCBF), effective April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2034. The CCBF will provide predictable, long-term and stable funding to communities across the province.

What’s New

Although there are many similarities to the previous agreements, the CCBF renewal is the first federal infrastructure agreement to tie access to federal infrastructure funding to actions by provinces, territories and municipalities to increase housing supply and affordability.

Other significant changes to the CCBF program include:

• The introduction of a minimum of $2,000 in funding to small municipalities which are estimated to receive less than $2,000 based on their population count.
• Municipalities with 2021 census populations of 30,000 or greater will have additional mandatory housing-related reporting requirements.
• Changes to the Municipal Compliance Strategy.

Visit estimated municipal funding amounts and Municipal Compliance Strategy for further information.

How Municipalities Can Participate

On August 26, 2024, your municipality received a Municipal Funding Agreement (MFA). This agreement will allow municipalities to participate in the CCBF program for the next ten years.

To confirm participation, submit your municipality’s signed MFA to ccbfprogram@gov.sk.ca no later than November 1, 2024. Signed MFAs submitted after this deadline will also be considered, but the transfer of the first payment for the 2024-25 fiscal year to compliant municipalities may be delayed to early 2025.

The CCBF program delivery team will contact your municipality if there are any outstanding compliance criteria for timely resolution.

For More Information

The CCBF program delivery team looks forward to working with municipalities to help build and revitalize public municipal infrastructure projects! Any questions or inquiries relating to the new agreements or any other program inquiries should be directed to ccbfprogram@gov.sk.ca or 306-787-8912.

Is your municipality doing something innovative to better the community? Are you collaborating with neighbouring municipalities to achieve regional goals?

Nominations are now open for the 18th Annual Saskatchewan Municipal Awards, sponsored by Affinity Credit Union.

Please submit your nominations by November 26, 2024.