After a year of growth and changes, not only to the town of Niverville but to Town Council as well, the Mayor and his team, along with Town of Niverville staff met last weekend to plan what the next year would hold for the town.  

Eric King, CAO writes in a notice to town residents earlier this week, that “All aspects of the municipal realm were discussed and by the end of the weekend, a preliminary budget was presented to Council.”  

King reports that there were some key items coming out of the planning session and the preliminary budget for the Town in the coming year including a request for a new Water Tanker for the Niverville Fire & Emergency Service. The need to send out a request for a proposal to undertake the complete overhaul of the road, sewer, sidewalks and drainage along 4th Avenue South between 1st and 3rd Streets South. Then there was the modernization and accessibility improvements needed for the lobby and washrooms of the Centennial Arena. The group also discussed the competition of the RCMP detachment in Niverville, with anticipation of new members being positioned.  

King also notes that the Town staff and council also worked on some strategic objectives that will be coming up in the next five years including:  having the expanded Water Treatment Plant come online in 2023, the anticipated need for additional space for the Fire Department and Operations, development of a dedicated library program and additional daycare space and the completion of the Wastewater Treatment Plant.  

King also refers to the success of Niverville Health Care Services Inc. which the town has seen grow in the number of new doctors that have joined the team in the past year. They are looking forward to more announcements of doctors being hired next year. In addition, they are looking forward to soon being able to provide same-day/ next-day care to more members of the community.  

Mayor Myron Dyck says, when it comes to the Planning Session, it should be noted that what was discussed was a plan and not a promise. Dyck clarifies that there are many items on the list that could be deemed more important to some than to others.  

“This is just the way it is right now, and so all are all are important. This is kind of how we have a timeline planned. As to what will be done just by based on the plans that are already further along than others. And then you know how the money works, in order to complete the projects. So yeah, that's why we wouldn't want to raise one or diminish anyone. They are all important, but this is how we see it will be most beneficial for the residents of Niverville.” 

Dyck continues, “One of the most important things right now is probably our wastewater treatment plant, but it takes five years to build it, it'd be nice to build it tomorrow, but it takes five years to build, but that doesn't mean it's not important because it's only gonna be brought online in five years, it's just that the engineering, planning, construction all need to be done. That’s why it just takes five years.” 

Dyck notes there’s nothing right now, that they anticipate major grant funding for. “What we have will keep us busy for the next while. But again, if the province or federal government decides that they're going to make grants available for “project X” and what does the town have that's “shovel ready” and you're like well, if we want to take advantage of this now, maybe we can move stuff around because of that opportunity. So I mean, some of the things we would wait for would be sewer or water.”  

He says they will always try and lessen the cost, they don’t want to be overly burdensome on the budget or the residents of the town, especially if the job was done without grant money. 

“So those are some of the things that all get considered. If the need is important and do we have the money to match it, and if we spend the money because there's no money to match it, what do we sacrifice, because we're spending the money here. So, that’s why the plan has been presented.” 

Dyck gives an example of using budgeted funds in a non-budgeted manner. “So, the current system in the old arena is a Freon system and it is no longer considered environmentally friendly, and so legislation has said, that by 2030 all arena’s need to have that removed. So, we are eight years out and the clock is ticking on needing to deal with that, which would need to be dealt with if the compressor blows tomorrow. We wouldn't be able to find another Freon unit to put in it, we'd have to change immediately in order to use the Centennial Arena. And, in today's dollars, that's a $1.8 million expense that we haven’t budgeted. So, we're hoping to not have to do it. But these are some of the decisions we get to make.”  

Both the Mayor and the CAO encourage Niverville residents, that if they have any questions, to please contact them at their website or to call them with their concerns.