Our Mandate

Policy

• Establishing and administering the policies that govern assessment practices in Saskatchewan.
• Maintaining a public document - called an Assessment Manual - that municipalities can use to understand and apply assessment policies and practices.

Periodic Revaluations

• Conducting revaluations on a regular basis to keep property assessments current. (Some of this responsibility also belongs to municipalities and is paid for by municipalities.)

Confirmations, Primary and Secondary Audits

• Balancing and recommending assessment returns for all municipalities in Saskatchewan and recommending same for confirmation by the SAMA Board of Directors.
• This mandate is undertaken with direct accountability to the SAMA Board, independent from the CEO.

Public Awareness

• Providing information to the public so that property owners can better understand their assessments and the assessment system.

Consulting

• Consulting extensively with local governments, advisory committees, liaison groups and the public on assessment issues.

Advising

• Advising the provincial government on changes to provincial policy and legislation regarding assessment.
• Advising municipal governments on assessment practices.

Periodic Revaluation

Provincial law requires municipalities to have their properties revalued every three to four years. This does not involve on-site inspections, but rather is done at SAMA's central office, using formulae and existing property data.

Reinspection

Provincial legislation requires that municipalities have all their properties periodically reinspected on-site. Reinspection ensures that information on file is accurate and includes changes to each property that may have increased or decreased its value.

Maintenance

From time to time, municipalities may request SAMA to reinspect individual properties. This is usually done where municipalities are aware of specific changes that have been made to a property's physical data.

Support of Assessment Appeals

SAMA is automatically required to participate in any ratepayer appeals regarding site valuations. SAMA provides a "support of assessment appeals" - an explanation of how the property valuation was determined. The first level of the appeal process occurs under the auspices of the municipality.