SUMA name change creates confusion for rural counterpart

The Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) announced Tuesday that it will be changing its name to the Municipalities of Saskatchewan (MOS).

In a release, president Gordon Barnhart said the new name “encompasses all of our communities – our cities, towns, villages, resort villages, and northern municipalities – and demonstrates the true breadth and strength of Saskatchewan’s hometowns.”

The announcement caught a lot of people off guard, including Ray Orb. He’s the president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM).

“I’ll be honest with you, it is a little bit confusing. When you see MOS, it almost looks like there are no other municipalities in this province. Well, I can tell you that there is. We have 296 rural municipalities that are members of SARM,” said Orb.

“SARM lobbies for a lot of different things. We have a diverse membership, we have municipalities that are involved in the forestry industry, involved in agriculture, oil and gas, mining, potash and all those things so we don’t always lobby for the same things. It would have been good if (MOS officials) came to us about this first.”

Orb says if MOS officials had come to SARM with their idea, he could have raised the concerns with them in person. But despite that, he says the name change isn’t officially set in stone yet.

“People have to realize that (for) the change in name for an organization like SUMA, there needs to be legislation brought forward,” he said.

“So it’s not just simply saying, ‘We’re changing our name.’ You can put it on all your letterheads but you still have to have legislative approval and (MOS officials) haven’t done that yet, so I think they need to think about that.”