The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities was in Ottawa between April 1st and 4th.

The goal, said President of SARM Ray Orb, was to meet with as many key ministers or chiefs of staff as possible, dealing with the issues that they have, most of which are currently at the senate, and to gather info on the future.
They generally schedule a few of trips each year, but this trip was planned specifically to deal with some specific issues. "With the election coming up," Orb said, "we thought its most likely our last chance to go before the federal election, so that's why we went."

Orb said one of the main reasons was to meet with the Federal Ag Minister Bibeau, "to specifically talk about the Canadian trade issue with China. We actually met her in Saskatoon about a week ago, and asked then if we could have a meeting with her. We had about an hour and 15 minutes with the minister, and we had a good discussion about canola."

A big pressing issue they have is with bill C69, the Environmental Assessment Act. "Our concern is with pipelines, and pipeline approvals. And we have some concerns the way the bill has been written", said Orb.
The other part of that bill is the Navigation Protection Act. "The Conservatives actually changed that, they made some amendments in 2012. And when the liberal government took over in 2015, they said they wanted to make some changes. They are proposing some changes, and we actually gave them some ideas about some of the things we'd like to see in that bill instead."

The Fisheries Act, or more specifically, concerns about drainage regarding farmers and ranchers, was also on their list. Meeting with Fisheries Minister Johnathon Wilkinson, they wanted clarification and possibly some exemptions for farmers where there are no fish in streams. As well, talking about some of the definitions, said Orb, "Fish bearing, what does it actually mean. We've asked for a place to sit on an advisory committee, and so we offered if there is an advisory committee, as we've been promised, in Saskatchewan, that SARM would have a representative on that committee."

Bill Blair was their next meeting. The minister in charge of border security, and organized crime reduction. Specifically they spoke about bill C 71, or the gun control bill. "We reiterated our concerns about the gun registry. As well as protecting the rights of law biding gun owners, including farmers and hunters. We've got some clarification on that bill and where it's headed."

They also met with the conservative caucus from Saskatchewan, to get their feelings on where some of these bills and the legislation is heading, and what's going on in Ottawa.

The Grain Transportation Modernization Act, Bill C 49, rounded off their trip. A legislation that was just enacted this current crop year, they are still trying to monitor that. "There are some regulations that are being brought forward now, things like reciprocal penalties, insurance, that the carriers have to be carrying it themselves, to make sure that they are covered," Orb added.

Speaking of their future plans, as early as summer, Orb said "we may go back. Minister Blair asked us to go back. He wanted to talk specifically about rural crime and how SARM could help or work with the federal government. I mentioned to him that we are working well with the RCMP in Saskatchewan. We kind of revitalized rural crime watch again. We have a lot of RM's that have their own rural crime watch association now. And also working with the RCMP and their new crime information network. The Everbridge Network, an app that can be downloaded."