Morris municipal officials say discussions about provincial drain responsibility is a good idea.

As part of the 2018 Manitoba provincial budget, the government announced they will provide $33.6 million to rehabilitate and reconstruct provincial dams, flood protection infrastructure and agricultural drains.

"Manitoba Infrastructure (MI) are looking at doing a lot of consultations with municipalities," said Town of Morris Mayor Gavin van der Linde. "There are some areas where we share some services or we do things for each other, so for instance in our community snow cleaning on Main Street, we will assist MI personnel doing theirs and they will reciprocate."

"In the big picture the province has gotten little big behind on some of their work," said van der Linde, referring specifically to drain maintenance.

Right now the discussions involve how the province can better work with municipalities.

"In cases where it might make sense for them to pay the municipality to do it, or to trade off with the municipality where we've got some duplicated services," van der Linde said.

He added every municipality has a unique arrangement with MI.

"They will be having those discussions and seeing where the best bang for their buck can be had, whether the municipality can assist the province in doing some of their work."

Overall, van der Linde said the consultation will allow two levels of government to come together and look for the best value.

RM of Morris reeve Ralph Groening agrees this review is necessary.

"We're really encouraged that the budget included some significant dollars for the maintenance of agricultural and provincial drains," said Groening.

He hopes to see results in one area drain in particular.

"The Krohnsgart drain has been under review and has been proposed for an upgrade, and so we are hopeful that this new money... will result in the completion of the Krohnsgart drain construction."

Groening notes the drainage steering committee is continuing to work on provincial drain regulations to create a simpler process when working with municipalities.