Resolutions

WHEREAS, with authority granted by The Municipalities Act, municipalities in Saskatchewan have enacted bylaws concerning nuisance properties, zoning, and other bylaws within their communities. These bylaws have been put in place to maintain community standards and to make our communities safe and comfortable places to live; and

WHEREAS, these bylaws are difficult to enforce when payment of fines associated are voluntary and ratepayers who commit bylaw infractions need more motivation to take corrective action; and

WHEREAS small urban municipalities do not have the same monetary and administrative resources as larger urban municipalities to effectively collect fines issued for bylaw infractions, which includes spending general municipal funds for legal fees and making applications to the court, as outlined in Section 370 of The Municipalities Act; and the dollar amount of certain fines for bylaw infractions would be used up to pay for legal fees, defeating the purpose of fine issuance; and

WHEREAS in some cases attempts to enforce bylaws are met with legal actions. Enforcement via the courts is expensive. Councils, seeing the potential problems and expenses, become reluctant to enforce bylaws or avoid using bylaws all together to avoid the possibility of financial loss. Legal costs can wreak havoc on the limited budget of a small community. With little effort or expense, a resident can place his or her community in jeopardy; and

WHEREAS municipalities need a wider range of power and autonomy to enforce bylaws within their communities;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT SUMA advocate the Provincial Government to provide greater local autonomy for municipalities when enforcing bylaws and in performing governance and management duties/functions.