The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities held their Mid Term Convention in Regina this week.

Over the two days delegates took part in educational break-out sessions, heard from some keynote speakers, and debated a number of resolutions. 

SARM delegates voted 83 per cent in favor of calling on the Province to review the current process to develop a fair and balanced approach to representation in government.

The resolution focusing on how electoral boundaries in the Province are drawn up was brought forward by the RM of Piapot #110.

Reeve John Wagner noted that every ten years they redraw the boundaries based on population, adding that if the current pattern continues at some point we could see voters in Regina and Saskatoon elect the Provincial Government while rural Saskatchewan will have little input.

"Every 10 years they redraw these boundaries and you can see that the rurals are losing. We're getting less MLAs it's based entirely on population with the exception of the North where their two remain regardless of population. There's lots of other things we can do, we can put a  geographical area component in there, we can do an assessment, all kinds of things."

With the resolution passing SARM's board will now take it to the Province for discussion.

There were also a couple of key resolutions dealing with wildlife. 

Delegates voted in favor of lobbying the province to reinstate the Saskatchewan Coyote Control Program.

It was originally brought in as a pilot program running from 2009 to 2010 and was halted for unknown reasons.

In speaking for the resolution Al Trainor, Reeve of the RM of Edenwold noted the program it was brought in to combat significant increases in livestock losses due to coyotes.

"The increased coyote population around Saskatchewan is still an ongoing issue. The program has not been reinstated despite numerous motions over the years. All RM's in Saskatchewan with high coyote populations would benefit from the provisions of the Saskatchewan coyote control program or alternative measures provided by the province."

The resolution passed with 65 per cent of delegates voting in favor.

One resolution brought forward by a number of RM's focused on the increased deer population and some of the damage they can create.

The resolution called for the province to work with insurance companies to have damage caused to vehicles and farm machinery by deer sheds be insurable with no deductible and for the province to take steps to reduce the deer population.

Roland Carles talked about the fact the deer population is totally out of control.

"These antler sheds are a real problem.  At our place, the guy that goes out spraying first thing in the Spring watches for sheds with the sprayer. We had two giant cardboard boxes filled with antlers that picked up,  plus the ones that got missed that ended up in the tractor tires, and air-seeder tires. "

Delegates passed that resolution with 70  per cent of delegates voting in favor.

Resolutions that passed will now be followed up on by the Board and taken to the appropriate departments.