Bill 48 is becoming a concern for the Association of Manitoba Municipalities.

President Ralph Groening says the group of municipal leaders have three major points of contention to the bill.

“We’re concerned about the development of planning districts,” says Groening.

“It is initially Bill 48 that proposes to set up a metro region planning district, and maybe that would work, but there’s also room in the bill for mandated regional planning districts to be set up by the government," he explains.  "We’re asking that any planning district if any of the groups want to work together, that they would be allowed to do that.”

Secondly, Groening says the AMM thinks the bill’s broad appeal mechanism would create delays and added costs.

“The third concern is something with the time frames which aren’t mandated, that will be mandated in the bill,” says Groening who estimates they have had at least ten meetings with the province on the subject.

According to Groening, the reasons proposed by the province to pass the bill are lost revenues in economic growth, however, he does not see this occurring in southern Manitoba.

“We see development happening in most municipalities in southern and southeast Manitoba, and here are the examples: Steinbach, there is no issue with loss of economic growth there. We’re having trouble with Manitoba Hydro keeping up with the development. Winkler, Stanley, Morden has all the development it can handle.”

Groening goes on to include Altona, Neepawa, and his own municipality in Morris before conceding that perhaps the metro region would benefit from Bill 48.

“Maybe that’s where the bill should have started and where the answers should have been identified,” offers Groening, “with some of the challenges in the metro region and some of the growth happening in Centreport, but in the rest of Manitoba, gosh, we’re doing just fine, thank you.”

The bill, which has been given first reading in legislature, will be open for discussion again at their next meeting in early October. Still, Groening admits the AMM’s growing discontent with the government.

“What has frustrated us is the unwillingness to acknowledge and accept some of the concerns that we have presented, and we’ve presented them over and over again,” says Groening.

“We want to work with the government. We appreciate the government and we want to work with them.