It looks like this could be going to court as the Prairie South School Division attempts to avoid being billed for cast iron water work in Moose Jaw as part of the Local Improvement Program.

Maintaining the argument that they don't pay taxes and they aren't included in the legislation that sets out the Local Improvement Plan, supporters of the Prairie South School Division, Holy Trinity Catholic School Division and Cornerstone Christian School were at City Council Monday night calling for exemption to the cast iron water main program.

The groups say it will cost them too much money, taking away from cash earmarked for education, something Prairie South Board Vice Chair Tim McLeod called fundamentally wrong considering Prairie South covers 23 communities and 22 of them don't care about the water in Moose Jaw.

"It's not that we're opposing the application, all we're simply asking is that you acknowledge is that we're exempt because under the legislation we are." asserted McLeod at the regular meeting of City Council."We're not asking you to decide that we're exempt.  We're telling you we're exempt."

"The legislation says so and we just ask that you acknowledge it so that this doesn't become a fight down the road two years from now and we don't land ourselves in a bunch of costly litigation."

On multiple occasions, McLeod was checked on his claims that the legislation does not include the schools.  At one point, the Vice Chair even said "there is no specific authority in the Local Improvement Act that grants you (the city) the ability to levy schools."

Mayor Deb Higgins called him on his interpretation and read directly from the manual that guides cities on the legislation. "Page 21 talks about exemptions for taxation for local improvements and it clearly says on the charts 'Not Exempt', municipal properties, school divisions, hospitals, special care homes and churches."

City Clerk Solicitor Myron Gulka-Tiechko also respectfully questioned the way the schools were interpreting the legislation saying they two sides clearly had a difference of opinion.

"Municipal government manuals specifically reference the fact the schools and churches are not exempt and further in section 31 of the legislation, the Local Improvements Act, it specifically mandates that councils, by bylaw, shall assess on every benefited lot liable."

And it looks like the city is right. Despite what McLeod claims is a clear case of schools being exempt, the province is telling our newsroom that schools are actually included. We asked the government for clarification as soon as the issue came to light and this week, they issued this statement.

"The province’s Local Improvements Act allows for local improvement charges to school divisions, as their facilities benefit from the water and sewer system like other properties"

Also, that "The Government of Saskatchewan currently has no authority under The Local Improvements Act to give any kind of exemption to school divisions."

So for now at least, it appears the schools will be part of the program and will need to start planning to pay their share for cast iron or, as McLeod stated during his presentation, take the matter to court.