Municipal officials from the region passed two resolutions Wednesday at the Central District meeting for the Association of Manitoba Municipalities. Both resolutions were presented by the City of Morden.

The first was approved unanimously and calls on AMM to lobby the province to enact an environmental levy on the sale of mattresses.

Martin Harder, Central District director, explained this would allow manufacturers and retailers to charge a recycling free on the products when they are sold. In turn, municipalities would be able to divert the mattresses from their landfills and be compensated for the cost of recycling them.

Harder said mattresses are an "absolute pain" to deal with in the garbage dump.

"If you put them in the garbage dump and you run over them with a compactor, and as we know mattresses have a lot of springs, and they end up wrapping around equipment and doing a lot of damage."

According to Harder, 715 mattresses were removed from the SWAMP landfill alone and recycled at a cost of $17,704 or about $25 per mattress. "We need to be reimbursed for some of this stuff," he said.

The second resolution asks the province to streamline the planning process for local subdivisions and better enable municipal governments to coordinate external services with municipal services. It was also passed unanimously.

"Everybody who does subdivisions, if you're in a growing community, knows the hassle that subdivisions cause," explained Harder.

He noted hold-ups often include regulatory requirements and wait times for hook-up approvals from services like Manitoba Hydro and BellMTS

"These things shouldn't need to go from desk-to-desk-to-desk, they should really go to all desks at the same time and have a timely response."

A third resolution was also brought up at the gathering on Wednesday, however it was defeated.

The R.M. of MacDonald had hopes of getting AMM to lobby the Manitoba government to ensure that patients waiting for treatment remain in healthcare facilities closet to their place of residence regardless of which RHA they reside in.

While he admitted this is a common issue across the province, Harder said this resolution required more in-depth discussion before it was sent up the chain.

Overall, Harder said the day went well but noted he was disappointed that Municipal Relations Minister Jeff Wharton had to cancel his appearance due to a provincial by-election being called. He added however, some government representatives were on hand to offer details on the federal/provincial infrastructure program that had already been announced.

"It was kind of setting the target again for our municipal goals. We need to submit our top five projects that we would like to accomplish over the next five years."

Officials also heard from their municipal insurance provider. In fact, Harder said municipalities were told they can look forward to a rebate.