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Manitoba’s small communities push back against force amalgamation plans

Port Union

The hollowing out of many of Canada's small towns, especially on the Prairies, is forcing some difficult choices.

Once vibrant communities have seen their populations shrink as people migrate to large cities in search of jobs and better services. Towns that once had their own banks, post offices, fire departments and commercial sectors have become shells. Their tax bases have shrunk accordingly.

Manitoba has taken a drastic step of ordering all municipalities with populations of less than 1,000 to amalgamate with larger communities before next year's municipal elections.

Amalgamation has a long tradition in Canada as a way of consolidating the tax base and eliminating costly duplication of services such as police, fire, water, sewer and garbage collection. It's not uncontroversial, as some communities see their identities fade away and residents complain of services being eroded.

The Manitoba government said its policy covers almost half the province's 196 municipalities, the Winnipeg Free Press reported.

The province passed the controversial legislation to reduce the cost of local government and take advantage of infrastructure funding soon to become available under the federal Building Canada Fund.

But the strategy has created a backlash among several communities uninterested in being absorbed by their neighbours.

[ Related: In Manitoba, growth comes from merging small communities into larger ones ]

The Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) announced Wednesday it's taking legal action on behalf of five municipalities to challenge implementation of the Municipal Amalgamations Act following a resolution passed at its convention last month.

“This was not an easy or a swift decision,” said association president Doug Dobrowolski in a news release. “The AMM has spent the past year lobbying not against amalgamation, but against the forced nature of this legislation. Municipalities deserve better.”

Dobrowolski stressed the association is not challenging the legislation itself, just the pace and manner of its implementation.

“We believe this challenge is about fairness for our members,” he said.

In a background sheet on the challenge, the association questioned the fairness and transparency of the process for the affected municipalities and their residence. It also claimed the province didn't follow the act's own prescribed decision-making process in the planned amalgamation of 32 communities.

"In summary, the AMM and the named municipalities are asking for, fundamentally, one thing: procedural fairness in accordance with the Amalgamations Act," the associations said in its release. "The Act itself cannot be challenged; however we believe it has been and/or has the potential to be unfairly enforced.

"Should this challenge be successful, those municipalities proceeding with voluntary amalgamations would be unaffected. However, all 87 municipalities affected by the Amalgamations Act would be positively impacted as they would have assurance the Act would be fairly applied.

[ Related: Interlake villagers protest against amalgamation ]

Dobrowolski said the government is trying to push through details of the mergers over the wishes of residents, in some cases even picking which partner the community will be married to, The Canadian Press reported.

He pointed to letters Municipal Government Minister Stan Struthers' office sent to 32 towns a month before the Dec. 1 deadline for them to submit their merger plans.

“He’s already named who they’re going to amalgamate with, in some cases. He’s named what the municipality is going to be and where the location of the municipal office is going to be,” Mr. Dobrowolski told CP.

The amalgamation strategy, first announced in the fall of 2012, has support from many communities that have complied with the Dec. 1 deadline to submit their plans. But a few dozen have held out and received extensions to Feb. 1, CP said.

Struthers said letters went to the holdouts last month suggesting merger plans for them.

“We put out a letter that said, ‘Here’s a plan. If you’re going to do nothing and just float by another deadline, this is what will happen as of Feb. 1,’ ” Struthers said. “That gives a lot of time for municipalities to make sure that they submit to me a plan that is different.”

[ Related: Growing cities continue to be the biggest threat to Canada's towns ]

Critics within the AMM and the Opposition Progressive Conservatives want the process slowed down. Rather than having them in place in time for next October's municipal elections, amalgamations should be voluntary and target the 2018 elections, the Free Press said.

Two Lake Winnipeg cottage communities are already exempted from the legislation, the Free Press noted.

Residents of Victoria Beach and Dunnnottar complained that they still have a healthy cottage tax base despite a low percentage of permanent residents. They and the community of Winnipeg Beach also will be allowed to hold elections in the summer, when most residents are there, instead of October.