Manitoba cities raise ‘collective voice’ on important issues

Health care, wildfires and bail reform were key topics of discussion during the Association of Manitoba Municipalities Cities Caucus meeting on Wednesday.

“It’s good to see how we can help one another … and try to work in as good of faith as we can with the provincial and federal governments to make things better for all of us,” Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett said after the meeting. “With that collective voice, we have a bit more weight.”

Delegates from Manitoba’s 10 cities met at Steinbach’s Southeast Event Centre, and each had a chance to raise issues and priorities in the cities they represent.

Fawcett said many cities are experiencing similar issues, and it’s “quite healthy” to join together and collectively get behind shared ideas.

He said he brought the group’s attention to health care and how the province can move forward in retaining more doctors in rural Manitoba.

“There’s nobody that has a surplus of them,” Fawcett said.

The province previously announced it was adding 10 new seats to train doctors at Brandon University, doubling the size of its medical training program. The program is a partnership between BU and the University of Manitoba’s Max Rady College of Medicine’s satellite program.

Fawcett said this is a positive development, but the next step is figuring out how to keep the new doctors in rural Manitoba.

“Can we work with the government? Can we work with the U of M to see if we can have return-to-service agreements at some point, so that it means these people are being trained in Brandon for … staying in rural and northern Manitoba?” Fawcett said.

“That’s something that I think we want to be able to collectively get behind.”

He said Brandon could speak to the province, but having a collective voice would be stronger.

There was also discussion at the meeting about wildfires and how the province and cities can be better prepared in the future.

Fawcett said representatives from Flin Flon and Thompson were thankful for the way Manitoba approached the wildfires this season — the worst in at least 30 years.

Delegates talked about the importance of having emergency plans in place and the best communication methods to ensure the public has accurate and reliable information.

Bail reform was also top of mind for the delegates.

Fawcett said he, Portage la Prairie Mayor Sharilyn Knox and Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham have been involved in ongoing discussions with the provincial and federal justice ministers and continue to urge Ottawa to implement stronger bail reform.

Knox, who is also the cities caucus chair, said people expect that meaningful actions are taken to address repeat offenders.

“Public safety is a fundamental concern for all municipalities,” she said in an AMM press release sent out after the meeting. “These (bail) reforms are necessary to hold offenders accountable and to improve community safety in every corner of Manitoba.”

AMM president Kathy Valentino said the association has been taking a lead in pushing for bail reform at the federal level and has no plans to stop.

“The repeat offenders … who are committing crime in our communities — we want that to stop and we want safer streets,” Valentino said. “It’s a top priority that we hear about, not just with the AMM Cities Caucus, but it’s something we hear about across the province.”

Valentino echoed Fawcett’s comments, saying if all the cities advocate to the provincial and federal governments, it holds more weight.

“It’s a great table to be at,” she said. “There’s strength in numbers.”

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