For the town of Niverville, being included in the Winnipeg Metro Region (WMR) will come with its challenges and rewards.
The WMR, formerly called the Winnipeg Capital Region and the Manitoba Capital Region contains the city of Winnipeg as well as 17 surrounding rural municipalities, cities, and towns. Niverville is included in that count, along with Selkirk, Stonewall, Oakbank, and Lorette among others.
Niverville Mayor, Myron Dyck says though Niverville has been a part of the Winnipeg Capital Region for a number of years, this new legislation will require that each Mayor or Reeve of those municipalities serves as a director on the WMR board.
Dyck says that this new board will convene at the beginning of May.
In the meantime, he says there have been various ongoing transition meetings in the last few weeks with the official changeover happening next week.
“April 26 in the afternoon will be the last meeting as the current board, after which the new WMR board meeting will be scheduled.” He notes that according to legislation, “the province will have reps on it, they'll have appointed a chairperson and so yeah, it's moving forward.”
When it comes to how this union will affect Niverville, Dyck notes,
“For example, the newly formed Winnipeg Metro will have target goals on the different areas of their legislation like density targets. For our development plan, we have so-and-so many doors per acre, and with the WMR that number is doubled, but that’s not just for Niverville, but for a lot of other municipals.”
When it comes to preserving agricultural land Dyck says, that too is the goal of WMR, as it is with Niverville.
“They want to save the Ag-land and not parcel it up into 2, 5, 10, 20-acre parcels, but rather, that you have your settlement centers and what goes on there, as opposed to residential carving-up, they're hoping to save Ag land. So, that will also benefit Niverville.”
Dyck continues, “Then of course, water and drainage and things, and what that means to Niverville are that the WMR board is going to make sure that the water traverses properly in and around all the municipalities.”
He says with the new WMR board, the focus will be more regional-focused, which Dyck says as a Niverville Town Council they are already doing.
“For example, the new Wastewater Treatment Plant which will serve Niverville, Hanover, Tache, and Ritchot shows how we are working together with various municipalities, and we understand how it's necessary to be in a regional capacity. Being part of the WMR in this capacity just raises that bar once more, where Niverville is now part of 17 municipalities, together with the city of Winnipeg, and asks the question, how do we now all work together.”
Another advantage for Niverville residents would be in the decision-making process which benefits not only Winnipeg residents but all 17 municipalities would be included. Dyck gives another example of buying power as a WMR.
“Because (as the WMR) we're a pretty significant population base and so we now form a larger buying group. And then there’s land use. We're all sensitive to land use and being part of the WMR is just another way of ensuring that through legislation, we are doing all we can to ensure that we're not just having sprawl.”
The mayor notes being a part of the WMR will not be without its challenges. For example, “It's a lot of time commitment. It's a lot of brain power commitment, but it's necessary and it's about doing our part to push, not just our region, but to push the province forward.”
Dyck notes there will also be a financial challenge for the town, as all municipalities will be required to submit a fee based on their population.
“The estimate would be that Niverville's fees would be $7,100. This is a concern I would share along with other municipalities because the WMR is largely modeled after the Edmonton Capital Region and looking at their budgets it is a lot more than $7,100 per municipality. In the case of Edmonton, it's $150,000 to $250,000 per municipality. That would take a little bit of doing for me and even our Council to wrap our heads around the cost-benefit for something like that. However, this is what the legislation is and we will do our best to work with it.”
Overall, Dyck notes there will need to be adjustments made for all municipalities involved, but he is hopeful this is best for Niverville, its residents, and the future of the growing town.