A community’s most important decision

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Published on Friday, May 18, 2018

By Ken Waddell

Neepawa Banner & Press

As 2018 is a municipal election year, councillor and mayoral candidates are coming out with their election intentions. Neepawa’s mayor, Adrian de Groot, says he intends to run again.

David  Single, mayor of Westlake-Gladstone, says he isn’t. The highest profile person to back away so far is Steinbach mayor Chris Goertzen. He’s also president of the Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) and he has been mayor of Steinbach for three terms.

Huge changes are coming in many communities. Some have grown by large numbers, some are growing slightly. Unfortunately, the population has dropped in some areas. It is a trend that has been ongoing for many years.

Local councils are the most important level of government. Neither the provincial government nor the federal level brings as much influence to the local community as do the town or municipal councils. Everything from recreation to roads, water and sewer, is very directly affected by local councils. With that in mind, it is up to the local councils to make things happen. Often, that is not the case, but some communities have done a better job than others. Rivers, or Riverdale municipality as it is now known, has built a new rec centre and a new water treatment plant in recent years. They have expanded their local police force as well. It’s been an expensive touch for Riverdale taxpayers, but the community is better poised for growth that has come along and will come in the future. Riverdale has recognized their strengths and one strength is that is they are not Brandon. They are close to Brandon, people can commute either way with ease and Rivers being a nice place to live has proven attractive to many people.

Neepawa has grown a lot but was caught off guard and has not been able to capitalize on all the potential. Housing is the biggest problem it faces. The other missing component is decisive decision making. Neepawa council has been known for decades for its ability to delay action. Those delays have cost a lot of lost opportunity and millions of dollars. 

In fairness, Neepawa never expected the levels of growth brought by the expansion of the HyLife Foods plant but they have not adjusted quickly enough to the opportunities that have come along.

Being the third fastest growing community in Manitoba is a tough act to maintain. Without developing those other opportunities, Neepawa will never hold that number three position going forward.

Many communities don’t see a lot of turn over in council and mayor seats. Far too large a percentage of seats go uncontested. There was no election for council in Neepawa four years ago. Notoriously  low paying positions that are rewarded with high levels of criticism, council seats aren’t in big demand.

Maybe our problem is us. Maybe we should pay councillors, mayors and reeves more and expect a bit more from them. Maybe we should hold them in higher esteem. Rural Manitoba has a huge potential, but it is not being realized. South-western Manitoba, will soon have very few full-service communities. The trend is the same all over Manitoba except perhaps for Steinbach, Winkler and Morden. There isn’t a whole lot of growth in other places and yet Winnipeg and Brandon keep growing. Not sure that getting a bigger Brandon and Winnipeg at the expense of many smaller communities is the best way to go.

Communities hold their future in their own hands to quite an extent and an election year is the time to seize those opportunities. Every community can grow, but not  every community will grow. It’s up to the locals to make it happen. Nobody else is going to do it for us.