Ruhland says RM of Rocanville got lots done in 2025
January 12, 2026, 5:00 pm
Nicole Taylor, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
RM of Rocanville Reeve Melissa Ruhland said 2025 has been a good year for the RM of Rocanville and the RM wants to continue doing what works best in 2026. Following are her thoughts on the year:
What were some of the main projects the RM of Rocanville worked on or got done this past year?
The RM has been fairly ambitious with road building recently. With this year’s construction included, we completed just under 12 miles of road construction in three years. This year we built a key mile north of Rocanville that connects Highway 8 and 8A, as well as a couple other smaller projects.
Our admin staff also worked incredibly hard to develop our website, which also went live this year. There is a lot of useful info on there, including the current RM map, tax information, and meeting minutes that go back to 1910 when the RM was founded.
What were some of the big challenges in 2025?
Probably the biggest challenge for the RM this year was ending up with some employees on leave. Like many employers in the area, it can be especially challenging to find seasonal and short-term employees. We were fortunate to find some fantastic employees from the area and it truly saved our year!
What were you most proud of?
I am very proud of how well our council works together. We don’t agree on every decision, but we are good at compromising on topics where there are differing opinions. I’m also incredibly proud of each and every one of our employees—we have some of the best people around working for us.
What are some of the most common things you hear from your ratepayers?
Our ratepayers are very grateful for the high level of service they receive in our RM. Because of our dedicated employees who work long hours in the winter, our roads are pushed quickly after a snow; we are also one of the few RMs who don’t charge ratepayers for cleaning their lanes. We subsidize dust control and gravel to our ratepayers.
I believe our ratepayers also appreciate the RM’s community involvement; we contributed $300,000 to the pool project and purchased the waterslide for the pool.
What do you want to work on in 2026?
We will continue to do the things that are working well for us—custom mowing in the fall, mulching, culvert replacement, road construction and maintenance. We also plan to get our civic addressing signs up next year.
What do you find most challenging about being a reeve?
I would say the most challenging thing about being a reeve is that you can’t solve every issue and it’s impossible to make every ratepayer happy. You want to do everything you can for each ratepayer, but it must be weighed against what is in the best interest of the whole municipality.
What do you find most rewarding about being a reeve?
Being on council or being reeve was never a life goal for me, but I do feel like I have found my calling. I am truly honoured to be representing everyone who lives in the RM of Rocanville. Seeing the difference I can make in my community is very rewarding.
What are the long-term goals of the RM?
In terms of long-term goals, road maintenance and building will always be a priority for a municipality. Retaining employees is another goal because it directly affects how the RM functions on a day-to-day basis. The RM has accomplished a lot of big projects in the past 10 years between bridge building, road construction, and supporting community projects like the pool and the Moosomin airport; it will be a priority for us going forward to make sure we balance capital projects with putting extra money into savings for costly disasters like the flood of 2014.
What do you personally want to see accomplished by the next municipal election?
A personal goal of mine would be to work on defining a five-year plan for future road projects and equipment purchases. We do plan our purchases and projects already, but I think there is more work to be done on really creating that roadmap to guide our decision making for budgets and setting the mill rate.
