Winkler city council is participating in the province's Municipal Enforcement Support Program, and will absolutely enforce standing public health orders, but it does not want any of the money generated from those tickets, and has unanimously agreed to waive all the proceeds from those fines.

In a November 5th announcement, The Manitoba government indicated it will reimburse municipalities for the equivalent value of any tickets written by municipal bylaw enforcement staff.

The program gives municipal bylaw officers the power to hand out fines to people and businesses who break public health orders. It's all part of the province's effort to control the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the province.

"I understand the reasons why the tickets have to be issued for those who don't want to comply," said Mayor Martin Harrder. "We just don't want to have a direct relation to our community from the proceeds of those tickets."

Fines for violating rules on public gatherings have risen to $1,296, while businesses that violate the rules could be fined $5,000. 

"We have been blessed with thousands of people who have come here from other countries for the sake of freedom, and this smacks of the oligarchs in Ukraine where they take advantage of people and use these kinds of funds locally," explained Harder. "We just didn't want people to think that we are going to get rich off of these tickets. There already were accusations that communities were going to do this, and we just said we're not one of them."

Harder agrees tickets should be issued to people who violate the province's health regulations, but doesn't want his community to have any connection to the money generated by those tickets.

"I realize it's a strange thing for a municipality to say, but we're trying to get the community to come alongside, so that we can fight the pandemic together. We're not here for a money grab."

Harder says the province is aware of city council's decision and will abide by it.