Resolutions

Therefore be it resolved that SUMA request the Government of Saskatchewan put into legislation a formal process for a voluntary municipal census, to be administered and paid for by municipalities, to be used for provincial programs based on population numbers.

Response: • Currently, section 45 of The Municipalities Act and section 36 of The Cities Act give authority for a municipal census. • However, the Ministry's position would recommend using other census figures for calculating grant payments only if municipalities contracted Statistics Canada to do the census. This would ensure it is done by an independent third party and according to an acceptable methodology. • The notion of using the annual population statistics from the Ministry of Health has been raised by municipalities in the past as a proposed response to this concern. However, Health population statistics are based on the postal code location of an individual's mailing address, which for many people will not be in the same municipality as they reside. • Additionally, if there were individual municipality population count changes outside of the comprehensive Statistics Canada census, there may be grant allocation implications for all other municipalities.