The President for the Association of Manitoba Municipalities looks forward to some encouraging discussions with the province's mayors, reeves and CAOs over the next few days.
    
Speaking at day one of the Municipal Officials Seminar in Brandon, Chris Goertzen said a lot of questions remain surrounding the impending legalization of marijuana.

"The biggest question on all municipalities' minds, whether it (marijuana) is going to be sold in a retail establishment or not in their community, is the covering of the costs they're going to incur when it comes to policing, when it comes to training and when it comes to enforcement of bylaws."

He added AMM wants to make sure the provincial government will share the resulting excise tax with municipalities in order to help cover these costs.

"We've asked them specifically for 33 per cent, and we expect a good partnership with the provincial government to deal with these challenges ahead."

Goertzen also expects some discussion to take place regarding a new infrastructure cost-sharing plan under Phase 2 of the Building Canada Fund. He said all three levels of government continue to have dialogue on the subject.

"We've been asking for a share of 40:40:20 split - where the federal government brings forty per cent to the table, the provincial government brings forty per cent to the table and municipalities would bring twenty (per cent). We recognize clearly that municipalities have over fifty per cent of the public infrastructure and yet only take in eight cents of every tax dollar."

Goertzen said the proposed 40:40:20 cost-sharing agreement would be a fairer approach to fixing Manitoba's infrastructure deficit.

"This is the ask that we've had with the provincial government, we've made our case time and time again and we continue to do that, and we look forward to a positive outcome."

Meantime, AMM is marking 20 years of operation this year having established a strong, unified voice among Manitoba's municipalities. Goertzen noted that this singular voice has become quite effective in advocating with the provincial government.