Brandon Sun - PRINT EDITION
“We have balanced budgets, no debt, and we know things aren’t balanced in Winnipeg. But let’s go get after the RMs, that I think are doing a pretty good job.”
— RM of Woodworth Reeve Denis Carter
The provincial NDP government seems determined to pick a fight with rural municipal leaders over this issue of amalgamation.
In the latest salvo, Local Government Minister Ron Lemieux recently informed reeves and councillors that, like it or not, the province intends to create legislation that forces municipalities above a population threshold of 1,000 people to merge with smaller municipalities.
In a March 13 letter, Lemieux said the new legislation “will require municipalities under 1,000 population and municipalities over 1,000 population (who are the logical amalgamation partner for a municipality with less than 1,000 population) to develop an amalgamation plan.”
He also told municipalities that the legislation will provide the province “with the authority to expedite mergers.”
Predictably, this overtly heavy-handed approach by the local government minister did not go over well with rural municipal leaders, one of whom ramped up the ongoing battle of wills and words.
As the Sun reported on Friday, Carter said his council is 100 per cent opposed to forced amalgamations and went on to question the leadership of a provincial government that is willing to change laws in order to get its way.
The RM of Woodworth is one of 35 municipal governments across the province that signed a letter of complaint to the province saying the amalgamation plan is ill-conceived and rushed.
We have to agree with the municipalities on this one — for a provincial government that has completely mishandled their own finances and needlessly spent its way further into debt, claiming that municipal councils would save administrative costs through amalgamation and could therefore “invest the savings into better services” is not only hypocritical, but shows a complete lack of understanding of the realities that rural Manitobans face.
But then, the NDP have nothing to lose as the party’s voter base is concentrated in Winnipeg.
And with that point in mind, why then should the provincial NDP care whether rural municipalities are able to access gas taxes, or provide services to their residents? Why this sudden, all-fired urge to force amalgamations? What good does it do the NDP to pick a fight with rural municipalities?
As we’ve noted before on this page, forced amalgamations mean fewer rural politicians, and therefore, fewer rural representatives criticizing the provincial government. In our opinion, it would also serve to weaken the Association of Manitoba Municipalities lobby group, which has been taking the NDP to task over everything from the burden of collecting school taxes to delays in infrastructure repairs.
Forced amalgamations would do little to improve services for such things as fire and rescue and road maintenance, and in fact may make matters worse for some communities.
But if the province really believed that amalgamations were the way to go for rural municipalities, it stands to reason that Greg Selinger’s government could have handled the situation with a lot more nuance and incentive.
This combative approach was uncalled for, and in the end, will only force municipalities into a corner. And when folks are backed into a corner, they tend to stand and fight.
And to prove that point, we give the final word to Carter: “We’re not doing a darn thing.”
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition March 16, 2013
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“We have balanced budgets, no debt, and we know things aren’t balanced in Winnipeg. But let’s go get after the RMs, that I think are doing a pretty good job.”
— RM of Woodworth Reeve Denis Carter
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“We have balanced budgets, no debt, and we know things aren’t balanced in Winnipeg. But let’s go get after the RMs, that I think are doing a pretty good job.”
— RM of Woodworth Reeve Denis Carter
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