Various taxation issues top city council's concerns going into the 95th annual convention of the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA), which starts on Monday.

A total of 35 resolutions will be voted upon at the SUMA convention, along with speeches and meetings with various cabinet ministers throughout the three-day session. Weyburn council does not have any resolutions of their own on the agenda.

Mayor Don Schlosser is a director on the SUMA board, and represents SUMA on the province's Scrap Tire Corporation and the used oil and filter recycling corporation.

Among the resolutions supported by city council is one calling for equity between urban and non-farm residential dwellings, so that they would be assessed the same way, and one asking that the tax factor on agricultural land be removed and replaced with a reduction in the assessment of this land.

With the latter resolution, the provincial government currently has an 83 per cent school tax factor on farmland, but the assessment of that land is not similarly reduced, causing problems in funding for school boards.

One resolution calls for implementing an income approach when assessing the value of commercial properties, rather than the current method of appraisal. Council supports this concept, said city commissioner Bob Smith, but with a caveat.

Council would like to see a study carried out to determine what impact this method would have, and how the income would be calculated, ie., whether net or gross income figures would be used.

Other resolutions considered as "motherhood" issues were fully supported by council, such as a resolution calling for the establishment of a five-year cost-shared capital funding program, where all three levels of government share the costs, and maintaining grants-in-lieu from SaskPower and SaskEnergy after electrical power utilities have been deregulated. In the current situation, the utilities give a five per cent grant to cities based on energy consumption, but the fear is that when full deregulation comes in those grants-in-lieu will disappear.

The perennial issue of Daylight Savings Time will return once more to SUMA's convention, this time with a resolution to try out Summer Time for a two-year trial period. Council has differing views on this issue, as Deputy Mayor Marlene Nedelcov indicated the feelings are roughly split.

Council opposed some resolutions, such as one from a village calling for the ability to recover the cost of collecting taxes for school boards, and another asking that business licence fees be added to the tax rolls in the event of uncollected fees. Smith said the latter resolution wouldn't work in those instances where a business owner is only leasing a property from the owner to carry out a business.

The city also opposes a resolution to charge a fee for firefighting services within a municipality.

"Council opposes this as firefighting services are covered off through taxation. Everybody has the same access to the service in the city," said Smith.

Council also opposes a resolution asking that councillors' terms be changed from the current three-year period to staggered two-year terms, to enable all council members to serve four-year terms. Council feels the current system works well, said Smith, although this may be more of an issue in smaller centres where it may be harder to find enough people to fill all vacancies on councils and boards.

City council approved a schedule of infrastructure improvements totalling $606,000 at their meeting on Monday night, and will now wait for a response from property owners to see if all of the projects will go ahead.

The projects include a watermain replacement, some new paving and numerous pavement recapping projects. Council approved a new uniform rate for each of these works, and if no opposition is voiced by the affected property owners, the projects will proceed this year.

The watermain replacement is on Ninth Street between Souris and Coteau Avenues at an estimated cost of $70,000.

New pavement, providing an 150-millimetre asphalt base, will take place on 10th, 11th and 12th Streets between Railway Avenue and East Avenue. The total estimated cost of this paving is $228,700.

Street recapping is scheduled for the following locations: Douglas Road from King Street to Windsor Street; Bannerman Street in front of Elgin Mall; McLelland Street from Douglas Road to Fifth Avenue; 13th Street from Douglas Road to just past Duncan Drive; Brimacombe Drive from 13th Street to Douglas Road; 17th Street from Coteau Avenue to Eaglesham Avenue; Coteau Avenue from 16th Street to Harvey Bay; Seventh and Eighth Streets between Railway Avenue and Souris Avenue; Third Street from Railway Avenue south to Highway 39; and Second and Third Avenues South between Government Road and Third Street. The total estimated cost of these projects is $307,300.

Of the total cost of $606,000, the city will pay $192,564, with the balance to be paid by property owners. Of this balance, 40 per cent will be by prepayments, and 60 per cent is proposed to financed by the municipality and amortized over four or eight years. Projects may be petitioned out by property owners, if a majority of property owners in the affected area sign the petition.

Weyburn 2020, the long-term strategic planning organization of which the city is a member, will continue to exist, and will be reviewing its plans and objectives for planning as it moves into the future, said Coun. Ray Hamm.

He told council the group has been discussing for a long time whether it should continue to operate or become a part of the Southeast Regional Economic Development Authority (SEREDA), as some people felt there may be some duplication with that body.

"It was felt Weyburn 2020 is more community development than economic development, and that it has a broader mandate than SEREDA. It was felt 2020 could continue to exist, to promote its strategic plan, which will be modified sector by sector," said Hamm.

Members felt its strategic plan, developed five years ago, is definitely in need of upgrading, but is so extensive the process will need to take place over a period of time. Also, meetings will now be held on a quarterly basis rather than monthly.

If this proposal is approved by Weyburn 2020's various partners, this is how the group will now proceed, said Hamm.

Weyburn 2020 also discussed some of the outstanding issues that exist between the city and RM of Weyburn. The group is suggesting small groups from each municipality meet to discuss policies and practices, and then take those discussions to the larger bodies. This proposal has also gone to the RM council for their approval.

Council set its tentative mill rate for the coming year, with no increase proposed for city taxes this year.

There will be some adjustments as the city has now eliminated the business tax; there will be a one per cent shift onto residential tax bills, with the balance of the shift going to commercial and industrial properties.

Commissioner Smith said the mill rates were tentatively set to enable tax bills to go out, and allow people to make early payments of their taxes and take advantage of the discounts given. The tax bills were printed up this week on green-coloured paper on their new computer system, and were sent whether the taxes were paid via financial institutions or not.

There were some problems in getting the new program up and running, so some payments may not be noted on the notices which went out to the mail on Tuesday morning, said Smith.

Council approved making an application to the provincial infrastructure grant program, and will submit the public library building addition as its project this year.

The province asked municipalities to make application before the end of February, at the same per capita rates as last year, although final figures for the program won't be known until the provincial budget is handed down.

Council was told the city won't know until budget what level of funding will be available, but were asked to make their submissions in advance.

Council also approved buying a new transfer switch for the emergency generator at the police station, after the old one failed following a power outage in December.

The emergency generator came on during the outage, but didn't switch off when the power came back on. To repair the old switch would cost around $2,500 plus installation, leaving outdated parts. It was decided to install a completely new switch with digital equipment, similar to the generator used at the fire hall. The total cost is just under $4,500 plus taxes.