Steinbach Mayor Chris Goertzen and La Broquerie Reeve Lewis Weiss have agreed on a plan to improve communication and collaboration between the two municipalities. Goertzen made the announcement at city council Tuesday night in response to a steinbachonline.com news report earlier in the day where Weiss indicated La Broquerie wanted to scrap the two-mile transition zone along the Steinbach boundary to allow more development there.

Here is part of Goertzen's statement to council.

"Today, we did see some comments coming from La Broquerie that talked about how we interact and the transition zone between our two municipalities. This is something that was put in place a number of years back and this is something, obviously, that is of some concern to them. Hearing that concern, I did speak with the Reeve today, met with him, and talked about how we can continue to have growth in the region and work together more effectively rather than see any division occur between us and another municipality. After a lengthy discussion, we certainly agreed that the model that we've used between us (Steinbach) and Hanover, with a joint action committee, has been appropriate and has worked and that that is something that we can create between our two municipalities. We have a friendly agreement that we will proceed in the next month to create a joint action committee between our two municipalities, looking at zoning, looking at all the different things that we do together and how we can better the entire region. I look forward to working through that and continuing to create an atmosphere of collaboration as well as working together for the common good of all our citizens."

Goertzen notes Steinbach established a joint action committee with the RM of Hanover a number of years ago and it has worked very well to smooth out relations and improve collaboration between the two.

In the earlier story from La Broquerie regarding the transition zone, Weiss said, "Let's say one of our ratepayers wants to build a shop on a residential property within the two-mile (buffer zone), they have to meet with Steinbach council and they vote on it and they have to approve it. As well, they have to meet with us, which doesn't make sense. They don't pay taxes in Steinbach and they don't vote for those guys, so why would those guys decide what happens in our municipality? That's what the lawyer had said, they said that kind of thing went out around 1971."