The Rural Municipality of Ste Anne is taking issue with the province.

According to Reeve Paul Saindon, the RM has been paying into a quarry rehabilitation program that was shut down without notification.

“Whenever a pit is depleted, there are certain funds that are taken per square metre of material that is put aside to send to the province specifically for rehabilitation,” explains Saindon, “and now that the time has come that we had a few pits depleted, we come to find out that the program is non-existent.”

The reeve says the province opened up a two-week window in which municipalities could apply again but failed to provide notifications.

“It almost seems like they’re hiding the fact that this system is either collapsed or mishandled and we’re the ones putting money towards it without any of the benefits.”

Saindon goes on to say the service “seemed to have been offered only to huge private contractors that had pits that needed rehabilitation, not everybody who is paying for it”.

Council is now asking the Associations of Manitoba Municipalities about lobbying the province to reopen the program.

“What is happening to the funds they’re collecting and still collecting,” asks the reeve.

“We’re not looking to rehabilitate it ourselves,” says Saindon about their pit, “but if we have to, there should have been given the chance to collect our own money on this way before it was depleted because that money has been sent.”