Mayors, Reeves and councillors from across Manitoba are gathered in Brandon for the annual convention of the Association of Manitoba Municipalities which continues through to Wednesday. 900 municipal officials will debate 49 resolutions, participate in professional development sessions and discuss various issues.
"Municipalities have limited power when it comes to implementing bylaws or enforcing bylaws and we want to see additional teeth given to municipalities so that we can do that efficiently and keep it out of the hands of the judicial system. It's not very efficient sending those types of things to the courts and we'd rather do it in a more administrative way at the municipal level."
Goertzen says other topics at the convention will include last week's provincial throne speech which hinted at offloading more services onto municipalities.
"AMM is very keen on discussing how services are provided, we have no trouble with that. But what we do want to do is make sure that, if there are services that are exchanged, for example, between municipalities and the provincial government, that there's a coordinated funding that goes with that. We don't want to see any downloading. If there's a change in responsibility, obviously, we'll need to see a change in funding models so that municipalities aren't left holding additional costs without any compensation."
Goertzen also expects the federal government's move to legalize marijuana and the implications for municipalities to be a key topic.
Thu, Apr 25, 8:01 AM
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