Right in the centre - Cooperation is the key-part two
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- Published on Wednesday, November 9, 2016
By Ken Waddell
Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press
Last week I wrote in general terms about the Neepawa Area Planning District. Whether it be the NAPD or any other multi-municipal discussion, it doesn’t take long until people are talking about costs and how to share them. More likely, it’s a discussion about how to avoid sharing the costs or at least minimizing the cost.
We have a localized problem in many municipal districts, whereby one municipality or town feels they carry the brunt and feel the other carries little or no load.
In the Neepawa area, there are many examples, but to illustrate the problem, there is no example clearer than the Neepawa pool. It’s a fine little rural Manitoba outdoor pool. It operates in the warmest months, when there is enough staff. It’s a great place to swim, to have some fun, to cool off and to visit. The Town of Neepawa totally funds the pool from taxes and swim fees. The Town “loses” a pot load of money every year. The RMs have not contributed to the pool in the past.
The pool has a two-tier swim fee schedule. Town of Neepawa residents pay one fee, out of town users pay a higher fee. It is a constant source of irritation. The Yellowhead Centre also has a two tier fee schedule as well. The Town of Neepawa put $85,000 into the YHC this year. There was a small contribution from the municipalities of Rosedale and North-Cypress Langford.
There is a solution that may only be practical to illustrate the problem. What if the Town of Neepawa withdrew all funding from the pool, the Yellowhead Centre and all other arts and recreational facilities in the Town boundaries? What if the actual users, regardless of where they lived, had to pay the whole shot. The YHC would have to increase it’s fees by $85,000, the pool by maybe $100,000. It gets pretty unwieldy and uncomfortable doesn’t it? The funding of any and all services must be addressed.
I stand by what I have said many times; the Neepawa area municipalities should be amalgamated and much of the antagonism and bickering would eventually go away. It is in the best interests of everyone to have a strong district with strong services. Just look at the great work of the Neepawa and District Medical Clinic. Without that project, the Neepawa area would be just another dot on the map. The municipalities and the Town have come together to first of all buy the medical clinic, then upgrade the clinic, then expand the clinic and now embark on a second expansion. The clinic is not only a backbone of community services, it’s a monument to community cooperation. There’s the key, community cooperation.
There would be risks to an actual amalgamation of municipal areas but there could be huge advantages. If we had one council made up of the most progressive minded councillors from the whole area, we might be able to get a lot more done. There could be cooperative use of machinery and human resources. We would only need one CAO, not three or four. Decisions could be made at “the Council meeting” instead of batting issues back and forth for months and sometimes years. We are finally getting some advancement of the “Rosedale water” issue. It’s only been 20 years and the costs have probably quadrupled.
The area is about to see a $125 million expansion at Hylife– $95 million is scheduled to go into the Neepawa plant for a much needed new cut floor and other facilities. But where is the other $30 million going to go? Some is going to go to hog barns and that gets everyone’s attention. However, at the recent NAPD planning session, it was very well stated by a municipal councillor that there are lots of relatively remote and appropriate spots in the RM of Glenella-Lansdowne or perhaps Rosedale where a hog barn or two or three could go. Will the area seize that opportunity. Maybe, maybe not. It’s there for the asking. Langford probably won’t see hog barns for two simple reasons. One, the east end has the aquifer too close to the surface and the west end, generally speaking, doesn’t have adequate water supplies.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s the pool, other recreation facilities, a new hospital, the expanding medical clinic, or agricultural expansion, we need more advancement. It won’t be done by the Town of Neepawa alone, but it might be done in cooperation with the Town and the RMs or it won’t get done at all. It’s the same everywhere in rural Manitoba
To repeat my conclusion from last week, for Neepawa and for all rural areas, we are “community” and it’s long past time when we should be divided. There has been cooperation in the past and there needs to be a lot more.
