Municipalities must merge, Lemieux says
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/06/2013 (4736 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
NOTE to summer communities Victoria Beach, Dunnottar and Winnipeg Beach: Local Government Minister Ron Lemieux does not have a magic wand.
The three small municipalities are lobbying the province to excuse them from a province-wide plan to see municipalities under 1,000 permanent population merge with larger ones to reduce the cost of local government. Bill 33, the legislation to make that happen, would require smaller towns and rural municipalities to submit merger plans to the province by Dec. 1 that would take effect on Jan. 1, 2015.
Victoria Beach, Dunnottar and Winnipeg Beach have said they should be excused from mandated amalgamation because they’re unique and have a healthy tax base of seasonal cottagers and can manage their affairs on their own. Victoria Beach council recently hired lawyer Charles Chappell to get such an exemption.
Lemieux said there is nothing in the legislation that would grant him the power to pick and choose which municipalities should amalgamate.
“There are no exemptions. There are none. Zero. Nada. Squat. Nothing. There’s no magic wand either,” he said.
Instead, Lemieux said hold-out municipalities should stop behaving like insolent children. He said instead of fighting it, small municipalities should talk about the benefits of amalgamation, such as reducing the administrative costs of running a municipality.
“I’m starting to see all over, where people had their heels dug in and they weren’t going to talk to anyone — hell would freeze over first — a lot of movement from a lot of municipalities because they understand that we’re serious,” said Lemieux.
“It is about negotiation and it is about talking to your neighbours about where you want to be in 10 years. Surely, they have more in common than separates them.”
Manitoba has 196 municipalities, 92 of which fail to meet the legal threshold of 1,000 persons.
bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca