good job Brad

[chuckChuck]

Shockingly I am going to agree with Oneoff. We don't need this many councillors and RMs to do this job. Councillors in many rms get too involved in the day to operations that can be left up to staff.

There is a lot of duplication with so many rms

There is also a problem with the local politics and conflicts of interest that are difficult to deal with in a small community where everybody is related or knows everyone. Larger rms will help deal with this.

Some of the reeves don't know how to run a meeting and don't care to learn. Some won't even provide any decent minutes or information. Many RMs have very poor communication with ratepayers and then are surprised when ratepayers are upset over some decisions.

Lets make local government more professional by going to reasonable sized rms that will provide better service.

[SASKFARMER3]

I agree we need to stream line a lot of things in Saskatchewan. The health districts didn't make sense when they created all those with its own bull shit. one has to be better.

Now RMs hell scrap that whole shit show and go to districts or counties etc. Why does Each RM around have two to three new graders which sit a lot of time. Bunch of useless councillors etc and administrators.

[bgmb]

Amen, As far as i am concerned that was one of the few good things ndp did in MB forced amalgamations except they should have used 10,000 as a minimum number not 1000

[bgmb]

I agree we need to stream line a lot of things in Saskatchewan. The health districts didn't make sense when they created all those with its own bull shit. one has to be better.

Now RMs hell scrap that whole shit show and go to districts or counties etc. Why does Each RM around have two to three new graders which sit a lot of time. Bunch of useless councillors etc and administrators.

exactly it was totally stupid in manitoba 6 "elected" always acclaimed individuals on a little power trip to represent 4-500 ppl in some cases.


I would say rural mb could be governed by maximum 6 r.m.s / counties. I really dont care what they are called.

[bgmb]

graders should be run on shifts 24 h day or look at contracting out road maintenance.

[stonepicker]

Amalgamation isn't always a good thing, in our area when the rm and the town amalgamated it was written in stone the councillors said at the time " there will always be equal representation, 3 rural and 3 town councillors" Well not too many years down the road and council decides that it would be better if the councillors were elected at large, so they changed the bylaw accordingly. Town pop. is about 2-1 to rural. we haven't got a rural councillor that lives in rural any more. We've lost our representation. As far as graders working long hours, not here, at 3:30 in the afternoon they're heading back to town. ( if they are in the country ) everyday. There might be the odd exception this winter. If a municipality gets too big i also feel that you lose the councillors knowledge of some area's. As in the councillor is not familiar with the area at all.

[TSIPP]

[QUOTE=RD414 sex and travel.[/QUOTE]

sounds like another convention in Regina or Saskatoon, all the call girls are booked up for the four day party.

[mbdog]

careful what you wish for when your trashing rural/local government. More often than not, rm's run the tightest ship and closest to voice to ag and ultimately represent capacity to pay vs those who can't/won't say no. Amalgamate for the right reasons. If you think efficiencies are gained...think again. #download

[oneoff]

QUOTEOneoff you are off on this. First of all I am pretty sure no one charges .75 per km. If they do it is taxable, .55 is the max non taxable rate.

Second, I doubt each councillor is charging 16k per year in most RMs. I just joined council this fall and our guys average $6,500,per diem and mileage combined. Our RM is an amalgamation of three RMs that took place in the 60's.
Unquote

Well LEP I'm going to say it again. One of the RM's I pay into did charge 0.75 per Km at least last year. And I'm here tellig everyone first hand that every councillor without exception again voted for setting the mileage rate into the future...even though they were told that Revenue Canada had instructed administrators to issue taxable T4 slips for mileage claims in excess of 0.55 per click. Now driving a motorbike doesn't get done for nothing so nothing stopping billing every trip to town for the mail at 0.75 c as "supervision" mileage. All that information is first hand direct from councillors at the council table.

I never meant to say that every councilor gets $16,000 per year. I know councils that bill for more invite everyone to familiarize themselves with the total cost of an employee (council member). Typically in business the wage is about half of an employees cost of having around. For the special case of council members it is no different, and in some creative cases probably higher.

That list given in the last post can be just the tip of the ice berg. It can include legal representation, opinions, and the whole list of disability; health; drug and prescription plans eyeglass, dental plans, conventions;(including spouses), travel etc. etc and nothing says it has to go under council remuneration for meetings and mileage/supervision.

I don't tend to exagerate; and just don't outright lie; and I never said or meant that every council behaves in this manner. However it is noted that it is seldom that any council member feels a little envious of what some of their peers are pulling in at the public trough. Some have even suggested that if paid even more...they might do a better job.

In my opinion there are too many public troughs that are being abused and those council members are obtaining those benefits at other peoples expense. There need to be long overdue major overhauls.

[Ache4Acres]

Lol when brad retweeted that quote by twitter handle "Liberals suck dik" with the hashtag #shithead...😃

[sawfly1]

i agree with cutting the health regions, health needs a broader view to function
better overall.
on the RMs , they could be cut back too, the number,
has been a while since i looked at our councillors costs
, last i looked they averaged around 3-7 thousand..
maybe it is more now.
never wanted the job myself, so i have no idea if compensation is fair or not.

for the most part , the RMs seem to run good around here,

seems like the councillors for the most part . bring common sense to the table.

i just wonder if you get too big, you end up with engineers , without common sense.
costing ten times as much

[LEP]

Sawfly I agree that getting too big would result in a hired employee calling the shots that likely don't have an appreciation of what it means to drive daily on gravel roads.

Oneoff like I stated before our RM is the size of three small RMs. So 18 by 48 miles with nine councillors and a reeve. I wouldn't say it couldn't be bigger but I really think if got two or three times bigger you would be losing dollars to trying save pennies.