Niverville’s planning session covers housing, daycare, health, recreation

Niverville council held its planning session for 2026 in late November and council plans to make improvements to the town’s health care, housing, daycare needs, and recreation budget.

The first item discussed was a lower municipal tax increase of 2.5 percent in 2026 from 2025’s four percent.

“Yeah, COLA, or cost of living, is 2.9 (percent). Right. Again, just recognizing where people are at. I will say that we’re able to do this thanks to growth,” said Mayor Myron Dyck.

“So, when people talk about growth, we wouldn’t be able to boost our budget. So, we never account for the growth in a given year. So whatever 2025 has brought us now, we know that we have that obviously for 2026 with assessment….If it wasn’t for growth, that number, we’d either have to do less or that number would have to be higher.”

Council also discussed housing at the planning session. Dyck said developers have been coming to council to discuss micro-suites for apartment blocks for the past 10 years. Micro-suites are apartments that are smaller than a studio apartment. Council has proposals in front of them now for suites that are between 275 square-feet to about 400 square-feet in 18-unit or 32-unit buildings.

“And it is this year that we’re seeing some traction on that, where developers are realizing that just with price points and things, and to give them alternative inventory options, and again, it goes to affordability,” said Dyck.

“So, a lot of these suites, from the plans we’ve seen, would essentially be open space with a framed bathroom.”

Dyck said whereas apartments would normally have two parking stalls, these micro-suites would only be required to have one parking stall per unit. Also, the builds would be in new developments such as the Hillside neighbourhood.

When it comes to recreation, council has decided to put money aside for families who have children who want to participate in sports or recreation but don’t have the funds to do so.

Dyck and CAO Eric King wouldn’t give the amount council has put aside as King is worried that people might take advantage of the fund. But money will be distributed by ROC Eastman, a charitable organization that helps families participate in sport and recreation opportunities.

“Our belief was that we wanted children to have the opportunity. And we just see that children involved in recreation just leads to a good part of their development going forward,” said Dyck.

Council is also looking to build another clinic as Open Health is already full with doctors who want to practice medicine in Niverville, but the need is larger than those doctors can meet. The town is just finishing up the expansion of Open Health, which sees the addition of four exam rooms bringing the total number of rooms to 15. It also has a lab, a small reception area, and a minor procedures room. The expansion added an additional 970 sq. ft. and cost $100,000.

In 2020, the town took over the ownership of the clinic in order to have growth and meet the needs of patients. At the time, it had only about five or six doctors and that number has grown to today’s number of 12 doctors. Currently, the clinic serves 152 patients a day from the municipalities of Hanover, Tache, Ritchot, and De Salaberry.

Coun. Nathan Dueck, president of Niverville Health Care Services Inc., said the location for a second campus will be looked at for future expansion. Dyck said doctors want to practice in Niverville because it is close to Winnipeg.

Dueck said what makes this project unique is that the town is tackling the issue of medical care as a municipal concern rather than a provincial issue.

“Yeah, well, I mean, here’s the point. If to wrap it all up at the end of the day, that I think we are very, very excited moving forward with medical concepts in our community and our partners with Southern Health and the province to move this project forward,” he said.

“And I think we have support with all of our partners to make this project work in our community. And I mean, ideally be a model for other communities in the province.”

Dueck said he is meeting with the CAO of Southern Health this Friday to discuss expansion.

Another concern council is tackling is the issue of daycare. Dyck said there is currently a waitlist of more than 700 children for Growing Minds Daycare. While the issue of daycare is a provincial matter, Dyck said council couldn’t stand by and wait for the province to deal with it.

Dyck said he spoke to the minister of education and early childhood learning and her deputy director asking what the provincial requirements are in order for a daycare to be built.

“We hear from people, developers are saying like, it might start costing us employees. It might start costing us housing sales when people are asking, is there a place for me and my child to be? It’s the same in every community. We’re just asking what role do we have to play? So we’re working on it,” said Dyck.

Dyck and King said they couldn’t give more details about the plan as more information will be given out in the coming weeks.