Rural proposals to respond to global challenges

Southeast municipal leaders joined mayors, reeves and councillors from across Canada at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ (FCM) annual conference and trade show in Ottawa May 29 to June 1.

It was the first since Prime Minister Mark Carney took office. Southeast leaders were in the room as Carney spoke on his three main local priorities: housing, the economy, and safety.

The Prime Minister’s message to start his speech to the more than 1,500 elected local leaders was that the response to global challenges starts at the local level.

Municipal leaders came prepared with their proposed solutions.

La Broquerie’s Deputy Mayor Laurent Tetrault was re-elected to the FCM board. He has been on it since 2016. The Association of Manitoba Bilingual Municipalities (AMBM) has 16 members and is headed by its president, La Broquerie Reeve Ivan Normandeau.

“I thought he did a great job and I thought he passed his message along very well, and I think it was well received by all the representatives he had spoken to,” said Normandeau.

The reeve said Carney’s message about investing in rural municipalities was communicated well.

“We don’t expect funding tomorrow, but the majority of people here were saying let him get his feet wet and then we can go from there,” said Normandeau.

“Obviously investing in infrastructure is one of the biggest things and he know we need infrastructure not just in La Broquerie, in every municipality in the Southeast, every municipality all over the place,” he added.

In his speech at FCM, Carney spoke of the local responsibility to cut development charges to make it easier to build more housing.

“Crucial point, while making municipalities whole through federal investments in water, powerlines and wastewater. These things cost money. We’re not going to give lectures; we’re going to give help and assistance so we can all move forward,” said Carney.

La Broquerie is part of the $235-million Red-Seine-Rat (RSR) Wastewater Cooperative with Niverville, Hanover, De Salaberry (for Otterburne only), Tache, and Ritchot.

“We met with (Provencher Conservative) MP Ted Falk on Thursday, and then we met with Ginette Lavack (Liberal) MP for St Boniface on Thursday also, and we met with a couple of other MPs here in Ottawa. The message is housing equals wastewater,” said Normandeau.

“I had lunch with the City of Steinbach. We’re trying to work together to lobby together to make sure that equals the same message,” he added.

With economic development, the reeve also wore his bilingual hat.

The AMBM gave out its own Prosperity Framework with specific plans in strategic priorities like infrastructure, government services, climate resilience and economic development. The AMBM was also part of the group of Canadian municipalities that put together The Future of Rural Canada report for FCM.

The prime minister talked in the largest of frames during his comments on the economy. Carney said he was looking to national projects across provinces that connected Canada.

“What we look at in trade infrastructure is linking municipalities large and small into ports. That is trade infrastructure, as well as building up ports or building new ports and there will be new ports that are built and energy corridors that are built,” said Carney.

Manitoba passed Bill 47 June 2 just ahead of a meeting between all Premiers, Carney and federal ministers. It is the Fair Trade in Canada (Internal Trade Mutual Recognition) Act, and was passed with Opposition PC support.

La Verendrye MLA and PC critic Critic for Transportation & Infrastructure Konrad Narth said his party started things in the right direction by passing free trade with other Western provinces, and was glad to have negotiated being part of an all-party approach to free trade between all provinces.

“I think everyone’s realizing now that we can’t be dependent on U.S. trade. We’re really gong to need to step up and create capacity in our own country. I welcome it,” said Narth after a long last couple days in the legislature and shortly after Bill 47 was passed.

La Broquerie is a founding member of AMBM, and Normandeau pointed out the majority of the communities are from the Southeast. He believes getting the federal government to look for bilingual worker placements or other opportunities outside of Quebec or New Brunswick can help this corner of the province.

“When you come to FCM you meet a lot of municipalities and sometimes they don’t realize there’s French out of Quebec and New Brunswick; they don’t realize there’s French in Manitoba. By just doing this and meeting this people, they get the message across that we can get some access,” said Normandeau.

This would tie into bilingual government services. The AMBM members in the Southeast have passed motions to offer bilingual services and fly the Franco-Manitoban flag, including La Broquerie, the town and RM of Ste Anne, Tache, De Salaberry, Saint-Pierre-Jolys, and Ritchot.

“If we want people to come to our towns and our municipalities, we need to be able to offer them French services,” said Normandeau.

He also pointed to the French school, French immersion, and German school to expand who can live and work in the Southeast.