Information collected regarding the potential to convert the Organized Hamlet of Day’s Beach to a Resort Village
Prepared by Colleen Brennan, Cate Soffer & Terry Lamon August 19, 2018
Why is a Resort Village being proposed?
To increase Day’s Beach property owners’ control over:
- Development;
- Taxes;
- Access to the beach and area directly in front of your cabin/home; and
- Lakeview Avenue and streets leading to the beach.
Definition of a Resort Village
In Saskatchewan a Resort Village is an urban municipality that is governed by the Municipalities Act. It is the smallest urban municipality in the province. As it is a municipality a Resort Village is responsible for it’s own governance and has to elect 3 representatives to be it’s legal representatives
Difference between a Resort Village and an Organized Hamlet
An Organized Hamlet is an area within a rural municipality that has been declared to be an Organized Hamlet by the Minister of Government Relations and as such has no legal powers. An Organized Hamlet has an Advisory Board, comprised of 3 members, who are responsible to work with the RM to ensure the needs of the OH’s residents are met.
Responsibilities of a Resort Village
As an urban municipality we will need to:
- Establish a municipal office
- Elect a Mayor and two Councilors
- Hire an qualified administrator (likely contract/part time)
- Hire an accountant (likely contract/part time)
- Adopt and enforce Bylaws, including Zoning Bylaws – service agreement
- Complete a Community Plan
- Provide Protective Services (ie fire, policing) – Likely continue current arrangements – by changing contractual parties – service agreement
- Provide waste management – enter into contracts to continue to have access to the dump, transfer site and sewage lagoon – service agreement
- Establish procedures to receive applications and subsequently issue permits for building, lot development
- Become a member of SUMA, Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association, and various other municipal associations
Setting the municipal tax rate – Organized Hamlet vs. Resort Village
The Advisory Board of an OH is able to recommend a tax rate to collect the municipal taxes. The tax collected is shared between the OH and the rural municipality that it is in. The rural municipality can keep between 25% and 75% of the tax.
In the case of Day’s Beach the tax collected is split 60% OH of Day’s Beach and 40% RM of Meota. The 40% that the RM of Meota receives is used to cover the administrative costs of the RM of Meota; such as a portion of the costs of the office, the certified administrator, the accountant and creating and enforcing the bylaws. The 60% that is kept by the OH of Day’s Beach is used to pay for direct expenses incurred by the Hamlet. Examples of the expenses are the water system maintenance and testing, road maintenance supplies and the cost of the streetlights. In 2017 the OH of Day’s Beach had a surplus of approximately $30,000.
As a Resort Village we would set our own taxes and receive 100% of them and we would be responsible to negotiate our contracts and pay for the services we require.
How do you become a Resort Village (RV)
A RV is created by a Ministerial declaration after an application is made to the provincial government.
For an application to be made there are a few size related criteria that must be met. The criteria are:
- a minimum assessed value for all the properties in the RV of $35M – we are currently just below this threshold at $34M
- a minimum number of 300 residents (seasonal and full time) – Stats Canada has us at 35 for 2016
- a minimum number of 150 buildings
It should be noted that there are some resort village in Saskatchewan that are smaller than the current minimums and that is due to the fact they were created many years ago.
- Currently the OH of Day’s Beach does not meet any of the criteria – In order to meet the size requirement we may have to join up with another Organized Hamlet and together become one Resort Village.
Once we have met the size requirement we have to determine the boundaries of the new Resort Village. Currently the Organized Hamlet of Day’s Beach includes the row of lakeside cottages and Lakeview Avenue. It is expected that the RV of Day’s Beach would be larger than the OH of Day’s Beach due to the requirement that an RV have a growth plan. As the current area within the OH of Day’s Beach doesn’t have any room for growth it will have to expand. The additional land that is required will have to be annexed from the RM of Meota. If the annexation is not mutually agreed it will require mediation and may require the OH of Day’s Beach to compensate the RM of Meota for the lost land.
Alternatives to becoming a Resort Village
- Continue to operate as we have in the past
- To become more active in governing of our OH through
- Establish a clear and commonly understood goal for the Advisory Board
- Minimal development – we can’t stop it but we want it such that drainage and approaches are minimized, safely marked.
- Notification of activity in and adjacent to the OH
- Regular review of our expenses
- Document the services that the municipality has agreed to provide and request bi-annual updates – one mid year and at the annual meeting.
- Attending Council meetings
- Reading minutes
- Communicating important issues to the members of the OH of Day’s Beach
- Understanding what is happening in the RM
Potential Issues to consider
- If we decide to proceed with the information gathering and negotiations required to meet the criteria to incorporate as a Resort Village
- need to determine who will do this and if they have the authority to negotiate binding terms to contracts
- We will need to ensure that we have at least 3 people who are willing to run for office. They will need to be the following:
- At least 18 years of age
- A Canadian citizen
- A landowner in the municipality
- A resident of the Province of Saskatchewan
- We will need to prepare a detailed budget to ensure we understand the additional revenue and expenses we will have to manage.
- As a RV we would receive 100% of the taxes collected and if we join with another OH our tax base would increase resulting in both an increase in tax revenue and an increase in expenses.