Municipalities lobby for water services board increase

Manitoba municipalities are answering the call made by the Manitoba Municipal Administrators Association (MMAA), to ask the province to increase funding for the Manitoba Water Services Board (MWSB).

Steinbach council reviewed the request made by the MMAA at their Oct. 7 meeting, expressing their support for multiplying the current funding by four.

The MMAA explained that the annual budget for the MWSB is $24 million. Because the projects they support are paid for with 50 percent local money, that means they can support projects adding up to $48 million annually.

But that’s not early enough.

“As of 2025, MWSB received 346 individual project applications from 103 municipalities and water cooperatives (excluding the City of Winnipeg),” the MMAA said in their request to rural councils. “The total estimated cost of all projects applications is $1.35 billion. Based upon its current annual capital budget of $24 million, MWSB is oversubscribed by a factor of 56 times.”

They add that many rural municipalities also rely on MWSB’s technical and financial staffing resources to act on their behalf.

They asked councils to support their request to increase the $24 million annual budget to $100 million.

Steinbach council voted unanimously to support the resolution with Coun. Michael Zwaagstra making the motion.

He said this identifies very clearly that as municipalities continue to grow, more funds are needed for infrastructure that can include sewer projects and lift stations.

“We know this all too well in the City of Steinbach,” he said. “We have benefitted from this fund in the past and we’re certainly going to be making applications for support from this fund in the future and as one of the fastest growing cities in the province of Manitoba it’s certainly in our best interest to advocate that the province have more money in total available for the Manitoba Water Services Board to give these grants.”

Zwaagstra said this doesn’t just benefit Steinbach.

“This is an opportunity for us to work together with other municipalities, with the Manitoba Municipal Administrators Association,” he said. “It’s in the best interest of the province of Manitoba that we continue to grow.”

Coun. Susan Penner agreed, saying they’ve noticed how costs have risen and are currently planning their own $130 million sewage treatment facility.

“It is not feasible for municipalities and smaller cities to be able to afford that magnitude of project,” she said. “And these projects need to be done because if you can’t get them done your growth really will stop. You cannot build what you cannot service.”

Coun. Jac Siemens said the resolution means a lot, considering it came from municipal administrators.

“They’re the ones who are in between council who are desperately wanting to get things done, and the province who keeps rejecting, so I think this is very important as well,” he said.

Mayor Earl Funk said all municipalities need to unite behind this resolution.

“I don’t think that the province can afford to have the communities that are growing the rate that Steinbach is growing, to stop growing,” he said. “The cost of that would be much larger than increasing the funding to projects like this.”

“I hope that through this the province sees the actual need that is there,” he said.