Giving division leaders a chance for one on one question periods and a chance to share information.

That's why the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities travels across Saskatchewan each year and holds round table discussions with the RM's.

SARM was in Moose Jaw Tuesday holding one of their regional division meetings at Mosaic Place.

Ray Orb, president of SARM, said even though each division has the choice of what the topics will be, they tend to be similar around the province.

President of SARM Ray Orb fielded questions during the Bear Pit.
"It's similar to most of the other divisions. RCMP, rural crime is a big issue, carbon tax is a big issue. As well as water security, the drainage issues in rural Saskatchewan. So that's why they are here to listen to the topics that they've picked themselves."

Round table discussions were held covering each priority, giving a much more intimate and candid conversation opportunity to the members.
"The goal is to allow each RM, there's about 50, a more closer look at networking with their neighbours. But also giving more of a one on one. These round table discussions, they really appreciate that, not only our members, but the presenters do too to get information from our members as well. It's a good way of doing regional networking and good information sharing."

"We do learn a lot as well as SARM travelling around. We do really enjoy getting out into the different regions of the province, and kind of getting into more specific issues. It's a good value for us as well. Sometimes we get questions that we don't know, and need to research and get back to them as well. It's always a learning experience. We actually use this to build relationships with people on specific topics. And sometimes these meetings result in resolutions that come to SARM as well."

Mark Fisher, assistant commissioner commanding officer for the RCMP, gave a presentation on rural crime.RCMP also had a presence at the gathering, as Assistant Commissioner Commanding Officer for the RCMP Mark Fisher gave a presentation on rural crime.
"Property crime is a big issue, drives a lot of the crime stats, but it varies in certain areas of the province. The volume of it as we go. We are making progress though. Our persons crimes across the province are down from 2017/2018 about 7%. And property crime is down about 1% over that period of time."

The other message that they focused on was around traffic and traffic enforcement.
Fisher said "our fatalities last year were the lowest we’ve seen them in over 60 years in this province, which is a great success. Combined traffic services units and our traffic enforcement units across the province increased the number of vehicle stops they did last year significantly, as well as the number of tickets. And then the end result we see what we’re hoping for in the decrease in the number of fatalities. That trend is continuing this year, so again very positive news on that front for safety within all of our communities and that transcends across the province.

The divisional meeting ended with what they call a Bear Pit, where members are given the opportunity to ask the SARM executives pointed questions about the activities of SARM on the policy front and what they've been lobbying for.

They traveled to Swift Current yesterday to hold another meeting that day, and will be in Kelvington to wrap up the tour this week.