ABSTRACT
The core of the Commission's approach to reorganizing and unifying local government in Saskatchewan is its concept of the rural-urban region, a region based on the patterns of association which people have built up to satisfy their day-to-day economic and social needs. The social and economic focus of farm living is becoming centred on the nearby urban community. The Commission's concern with defining rural-urban regions grew out of its appraisal of rural local government in Saskatchewan. The need for joint rural-urban planning has not gone unrecognized. Nearly every expanding urban centre of any size has attempted to set up some kind of machinery in conjunction with the surrounding rural jurisdiction to deal with mutual planning problems. "Leapfrogging" suburban communities create demands for access routes of high standard through non-urban territory, demands which rural jurisdictions are not prepared to meet. In attacking the problems of urban expansion, trading area is natural unit. It includes satellite communities which attract suburban movement.
