Sask. mayors and brothers facing similar yet contrasting revenue challenges

WATCH: The province made a significant increase to its budget for municipal revenue sharing this year, Sask. communities are hoping for more reliable support.

Brothers Bill and Mark Powalinsky are the mayors of two Saskatchewan communities separated by just 65 kilometres, but the challenges they face are drastically different.

Bill is the mayor of Prince Albert, one of the Saskatchewan’s largest cities, while Mark is the mayor of Kinistino, a town of roughly 700 people.

“We’re trying to balance our social development and economic development, and of course, supporting the police force,” Bill said of his city council’s top priorities.

“The rink needs a lot of work,” Mark said. “Our infrastructure is aging and we’ve finished some big projects.”

Managing tight budgets is a theme at this year’s Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) annual convention at TCU Place. Smaller communities are looking to the provincial and federal governments for more support.

Linked to the economic performance of the province, the revenue sharing program shares funds with the municipalities. As part of the 2025-2026 provincial budget tabled on March 19, revenue sharing was upped to $361.8 million this year, an increase of $21.6 million, or 6.3 per cent, from the 2024-25 budget.

However, that record investment from the province still falls short of expectations for some leaders.

“It could always be more,” Mark said.

“If it was increased, [that] would be a real benefit to the city,” Bill added.

Municipalities are calling for a permanent infrastructure program that shares costs between all three government branches. With the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program now fully allocated, in addition to recent inflation and tariff pressures, municipalities are finding it difficult to manage costly infrastructure projects with few taxpayers to draw revenue from.

“We believe that the best infrastructure programs are the one where three levels of government work together,” Eric Schmaltz, the Minister of Government Relations, said to delegates during his address Tuesday.

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The president of SUMA, Randy Goulden, agrees, but work needs to happen soon to avoid communities from implementing large tax hikes to pay for these projects.

“There’s nothing else coming out and it is essential that we get some funding and we’re not asking for everything. We want to be a partner.,” Goulden said. "

Bill says Prince Albert’s share of the municipal revenue sharing will equate to roughly $9 million, while Kinistino will get significantly less for a fund it greatly depends on.

“Saskatchewan’s been resilient, and we’re counting on that going forward,” Mark said.

“We’ll just have to wait this out.”