Many residents of Hanover will soon find themselves in a different ward. That is because the municipality is again in a position where it needs to realign its ward boundaries.

Hanover Reeve Stan Toews says the Municipal Act states that the population of each ward in a municipality should be within 10 per cent of each other. Hanover last realigned its wards in 2013 and due to the growth being experienced in their urban centres, it is time to make changes again.

New ward boundary map being considered by Hanover.The RM of Hanover uses a six ward system with one Councillor representing each ward. Toews says the biggest change they are planning is for Ward 2, which includes Mitchell, to shrink in size. Toews notes that is one of their largest population centres in the municipality and they will have to distribute more of those residents to Ward 1 (New Bothwell area) and Ward 4 (southeastern portion of the municipality consisting of locations like Sarto, Pansy and Friedensfeld).

It is expected that Hanover will approve the new ward boundary map in the coming weeks.

According to Toews, Hanover has used a six ward system for as long as he can remember.

"Six wards works," says Toews, noting not all municipalities in southern Manitoba use the same system.

One of the ideas be considered in the future is for Hanover to move to a three ward system. Toews says likely in that scenario Hanover would still have six councillors but instead of one councillor per ward, there would be two councillors per ward.

Some municipalities in southern Manitoba use an at-large system. With this system, there would only be one ward.

"People would just have representation from wherever the people decide to run," he explains. "But in that scenario, they could all come from one area of the municipality as well."

Toews says another problem with the at-large system is that there is a big difference in demographics from one area of the municipality to the next, which is why he says it makes more sense to rather split them into multiple wards.