Rural communities in Sask. have been experiencing a lack of education for municipal government officials who are elected. 

SARM is calling for more government resources to develop the skills and knowledge of officials and councillors. 

President of SARM, Ray Orb, acknowledges the diverse municipalities and feels that there should be more development and education available for RM leaders.

"We've done a lot of surveying," Orb said. "We found that a fairly common theme is that some of the rural elected officials feel that they do need some extra training.

"We have a municipal leadership development program that's been in place for a number of years, but we feel we need to go a little further," commented Orb.
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With the provincial budget coming up, SARM feels it is a good time to present these issues in the hopes of receiving funding.

"We know there are budget constraints, but also it's a good time to start talking about these things if there is more the province can do we would appreciate it," Orb said. 

The exact amount of funding needed to satisfy these projects is unclear but plans are in the works. 

"It would be a benefit not only to RM's but definitely to the province as well," Orb said. 

Additionally, SARM hopes to overcome the challenge of connection between rural municipalities as they have been lobbying for the province to create an online portal.

"This would be something that would be put on a website and RM's could put all of their financial statements, their bylaws, council procedure bylaws, all those things that are really important to the general public,

"and that way the media can actually go onto that site as well and you'd be able to see how RM's are being accountable," said Orb.