Your Executive Council and committees have been busy this year with a diverse set of issues. The following is a summary of the work your Executive Council has addressed during the last year.

I was invited by The Ministry of Municipal Affairs (MMA) to attend a meeting regarding the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT).  Specifically, the focus was on Chapter 7, Labour Mobility and the amendment to the Ninth protocol. In late 2008, the Premiers of all the provinces signed an agreement to remove additional barriers regarding the mobility of professionals wanting to migrate from province to province. Since the SAAA is now a professional organization, our input was required. We responded by letter in early February 2009, citing no occupational exceptions, but noted that our current certification and licencing legislation may be further complicated if certain legislative amendments were proposed to the Assessment Appraisers Act.

During the meeting, there was an invitation by MMA to provide them with suggested amendments to the AAA and the Assessment Management Agency Act (AMA, Act).  The SAAA responded to this invitation by mid-February with a list of suggestions.  In a response by MMA in mid-April to our recommended solutions to the certification and licencing issues, was an acknowledgement to meet in the near future to resolve these issues in time for the fall 2010 legislative sessions.

 In our continued interaction with MMA, the SAAA is dealing with the following additional issues that required our response or the SAAA was required to advise MMA of potential legislative amendments.

1. The proposed amendments to the discipline section that would affect all professional Acts regarding “former” members.

2. The proposed amendments to Section 18(1) of the AAA, which your Executive Council could not support.

3.  Licencing requests for two members of the SAAA who are not actively engaged in mass appraisal assessment in Saskatchewan.

Your Executive Council has requested to meet with MMA on several occasions to discuss and resolve these outstanding issues around certification and licencing in advance of 2010 and we met in October with the intent of resolving the outstanding issues in an amiable and professional manner.

I received an invitation by MMA to make a presentation on August 27^th about the SAAA to a delegation from the South African Country of Namibia.  Mr. Protasius Thomas of the Namibia Ministry of Lands and Resettlement was very interested in the presentation and was pleased about the degree of professionalism of our association.

The RPA-10 course rewrite is well into its final stages and is anticipated to be complete by the end of 2009.  I want to thank all the chapter authors for their contributions. A special thank you goes out to Rob Schultze from the City of Regina and Past- President for all his hard work and efforts in the formatting, editing and rewriting of some of the material.  This is no small endeavour! The new and revised course material will bring the course up-to-date with all the new legislation, valuation methodologies and technologies.

As your President, I am essentially an ambassador of the association and its members.  That responsibility is representing the SAAA at various conferences and workshops of our sister and affiliate organizations.

I was pleased to attend the 49^th annual Alberta Assessors Association conference from April 29^th to May 1^st in Edmonton.  The theme “Pride…Reward…Opportunity or PRO” featured Philip Jones of Calgary as the keynote speaker. His topic “How to Fit a Heart Attack into Your Busy Schedule” was enlightening and a light-hearted look at managing stress. Of particular interest was the session on Mortgage Fraud. The presenter, Ron Lawson, of the Real Estate Council of Alberta, was a presenter at our workshop.

I also attended the 53^rd Annual Association of Assessing Officers of Manitoba Conference in Gimli, Manitoba from May 21^st to 22^nd. The theme, “Changing Values….Sustainable Assessments for the Future”, featured an opening discussion from the City Assessor of Winnipeg, Nelson Carpa and the Provincial Municipal Assessor, Mark Boreskie on the move to a two year revaluation cycle in Manitoba.  Nelson Carpa was also a presenter at our Workshop.

Mike Ligtermoet, the SAAA Treasurer and Registrar attended the 53^rd Annual Institute of Municipal Assessor’s (IMA) conference in Muskoka, Ontario (2- hour drive north of Toronto) from May 31^st to June 2^nd.  This is the same location as the G8 Summit in 2010. Mike reports that it snowed the first day of the conference. Of particular interest at the conference were sessions on current economic issues and the impact on values; assessment volatility - is the cure worse than the disease and “Rule Book or Your Conscience?”

I also attended the 75^th Anniversary of the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO) Conference from Sept. 12^th to 16^th in Louisville, Kentucky. Thirteen countries and approximately 1000 delegates from as far away as Korea, Ireland and South Africa were in attendance. The conference featured Doon Wilkins (Canmore, Alberta) as keynote speaker. His theme “Building Resilience through Changing Times” was filled with humour and personal antidotes for inspiring resilience in the workplace to reduce the daily stress we all face.

Many of the sessions dealt with the issues of foreclosure sales in a declining market (something that is totally opposite of what is currently experienced in SK); technical presentations included two presentations on “geostatistics” and a separate presentation on the history of air photography to its current high tech application using pictometry and change detection analysis. Another session discussed the challenge of handling 400,000 appeals in a county of 1.2 million parcels (no, that’s not a typo) using the internet as an innovative approach to address the problem.

In 1990, the Virginia Association of Assessing Officers challenged other states or provinces to increase the number of designees in their respective jurisdictions and, ultimately to increase professionalism in the assessing field. The state or province with the most members receiving an IAAO Professional Designation since the previous Annual Conference is awarded the Virginia Cup. Last year Saskatchewan won the award.  Saskatchewan finished 2^nd in the Virginia Cup competition this year with 6 RES designations.  Florida won the award with 19 designations, but with only 6 RES designations.  We would have tied for 1^st place if the comparison was made on the basis of the valuation designations (RES or CAE). And, we were the only Canadian province in the competition and continue to hold the highest rate of IAAO designations in the Country at 12.29%. It was a pleasure representing the SAAA and talking about our experiences as an association and our current move to market value.

In closing, I would like to extend a very special thank you to all members of Council for their contributions and effort, and to all the members of the various working committees for their efforts during 2009. 

Best Regards,

Darwin Kanius, AAAS, MAAS, CAE

President

Presidents Report on Labour Mobility.pdf