SUMA TACKLES CRYSTAL METH ISSUE

Delegates Want Gov't To Launch Action Plan To Fight Drug Problem

Pressure is mounting on the provincial government to launch an action
plan to stop Saskatchewan's rising crystal methamphetamine problem.

Hundreds of mayors and councillors attending the Saskatchewan Urban
Municipalities Association (SUMA) convention at Centennial Auditorium
backed a resolution Tuesday to spur the province into action.

The resolution, which comes from Prince Albert's city council, calls
on the government to pay for more detox beds and improve education and
enforcement.

"There's been many deaths I know of," said Prince Albert mayor Jim
Stiglitz, adding that a 21-year-old man he knows has suffered two
heart attacks because of the drug.

"In a matter of months, that person in your house doesn't resemble
(their old self). It's a stranger in your house. Crystal death is what
I call it."

The NDP government is expected to unveil its crystal meth strategy
early next week, according to a source with the government.

SUMA delegates backed up the meth resolution with another calling on
senior governments to toughen penalties for drug trafficking and
violent crimes.

A third drug-related resolution asks the province to record multiple
sales of pseudoephedrine products to curb the meth trade.
Pseudoephedrine is a key ingredient in production of the drug and is
found in some cold remedies.

"This is pushing for a proactive solution," said Tony Leeson, a
councillor from Walburg.

SUMA delegates also passed a resolution unanimously calling on the NDP
government to rework its revenue-sharing formula to give
municipalities a predictable, fixed share of provincial revenues.

A day earlier, Premier Lorne Calvert told reporters the government
won't shift from the grants system for the 2005-06 fiscal year and
considers a fixed-percentage system problematic.

"That's nice. Before we even debate it, to say, 'no way,' " Stiglitz said.

"There will be no future if we don't have a municipal revenue-sharing
plan for all of Saskatchewan," Regina mayor Pat Fiacco told delegates.

City of Regina released figures to reporters that peg the province's
current annual revenue-sharing contribution at $44 million, smaller
than the $67-million pool available in 1986.

A new provincial revenue-sharing deal got a vote of support from Sask
Party Leader Brad Wall. In a speech to SUMA delegates, Wall said he
expects the party's membership to endorse at its annual convention
this weekend a revenue-sharing formula that takes into account
government revenues and a municipality's tax base.

"This has made sense to us for a very long time," he said.

In other SUMA resolutions, mayors and councillors supported:

- - Asking the provincial government to pass legislation allowing
overdue parking fines to be added to driver's licence fees. Collection
currently ties up police officers serving summonses and arrest
warrants. SUMA delegates passed a similar resolution four years ago,
but a deal couldn't be worked out with SGI;

- - Asking RCMP F Division to discipline officers who get around the
force's policy of living within detachment areas. Shellbrook mayor
John Young said some officers live in nearby Prince Albert and rent a
small room with a phone in the detachment area to comply with the policy;

- - Lobbying the province and SGI to legislate licensing of all-terrain
vehicles.

The convention wraps up after a question-and-answer session with most
of the NDP cabinet this morning.