Rural residents who heard from and spoke to members of local, provincial, and federal governments are now heading back to their home communities as the 2025 Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) convention and trade show has ended.
To no one’s surprise, tariff talk was top of mind for most of the attendees.
“The tariffs and the trade issue was really big at the SARM convention,” said Laurel Fentin, executive director of SARM. “Which we knew was going to be, it’s changing every hour it seems, according to what’s going on in the news.”
With all the potential change in such a short period of time, it’s making things difficult to predict, Feltin says. But she is confident that members will stay on the same page.
“I think we agreed that we need to be calm-headed and do our best to work together to get through this,” she said.
Another topic Feltin heard from attendees about was healthcare.
She says residents are concerned about the increasing cost and decreasing access to healthcare, and that change is needed.
“People aren’t getting the care that they need in a timely manner,” said Fentin. “It’s costing everybody a lot of money, and so, how do we make it better? that’s the real question. And I do think bringing everyone together to talk about it is the first step, but we need to do more.”
With the convention and trade show drawing to a close, SARM will get to work on the list of 18 resolutions presented and voted on Wednesday. SARM will lobby the provincial or federal governments on behalf of their rural municipalities.
SARM president Bill Huber says discussions with the province will likely begin after the budget is tabled next week.
“Government’s got the budget on the 19th, so until their staff gets some of that stuff done, if there is asks to the government, it usually takes at least a month,” he said. “Sometimes two months to get a reply back, but we always do get the reply.”
At the federal level, SARM will reach out to appropriate ministries this month in advance of its regularly scheduled trip to Ottawa in October.
SARM representatives are known in Ottawa as the “brown jackets” for their colour coded clothing.
“It’s perfect timing,” said Fentin. “In March we send the letters, and with the change of government, or election happening here federally, we’re going to see what’s going to happen. It’s going to take them a while to respond to us, so It’ll be good timing when we go in October.”
Huber says it was productive to have discussions with both the provincial government and official opposition, as he says “good opposition makes good government.”
