Dauphin’s new city and RM council attended its first Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) convention and city mayor David Bosiak thinks it was a worthwhile endeavour.

Last week’s meeting, he said, provided a needed opportunity for newly-elected officials to network with provincial officials and bureaucrats, as well as other elected representatives new to municipal politics.

“What was most interesting, I’ll be honest, was sitting in and meeting the others in the Cities Caucus. Of that group of 10 of us, six have new mayors. So there’s a fairly significant level, 46 per cent overall this year, of new councillors or mayors, which is one of the highest levels AMM has ever experienced. So there’s a significant turnover of people,” Bosiak said.

Bosiak also found interesting the diversity of election experiences across the province with some municipalities having their entire council acclaimed and others, such as the City of Dauphin which had near record levels of participation, driven by philosophical differences.

“That really struck me, that disparity,” Bosiak said, adding that seemed to drive the overall feel of the convention. “This is my first AMM as an elected person, so I can’t say that this hasn’t happened previously, but there seemed to be a priority from AMM to share information and encourage good behaviour. There was a couple of speakers that were talking about governance and democracy and how to try and maintain good governance and have a democratic process,” Bosiak said. “There was a couple of specific points made about the conflict of interest guidelines that the province has now established that all councillors and elected heads of council have to participate in. So I think that was probably a historic undercurrent of recent disfunctions in some municipalities that is being addressed by AMM. Overall, I think that that’s their message.”

When it came to interactions with the province, Bosiak said there was a good showing of cabinet ministers who were quick to announce new programming, Bosiak said, adding AMM members were more concerned with the seven year freeze on municipal operating grants and the promise of a number of previously announced programs which have yet to be funded by the province, such as the Community Safety and Well-Being Planning Pilot Project on which Dauphin has been waiting.

“There were 29 resolutions at this conference, most passed, and many were about the province loosening the purse strings and helping municipalities,” Bosiak said. “The one thing that I knew before, but it was made crystal clear to me was the federal and provincial governments can run deficits, municipalities can’t. They talk many times about how municipal governments are closest to the people, yet we have very limited abilities to defer expenditures that are imposed upon us or alternate abilities to generate revenues.”

That relates directly to another of the major issues, Bosiak said, which was the debt looming over communities related to the RCMP’s first collective bargaining agreement and the retroactive pay associated with it.

“The real sticky point there for municipalities was we weren’t around the table during the negotiations,” Bosiak said, adding the city’s director of finance, Scott Carr, has indicated the issue is the biggest financial matter facing the community. “If we can get some relief on that retroactive pay amount, our ability to manage is much better. But will be really squeezed if we’re forced to find that retroactive pay and submit it to the RCMP.”

While City representatives did not have an opportunity to meet one-on-one with provincial ministers, Bosiak said meetings with RCMP representatives and provincial bureaucrats, as well as informal conversations with elected officials made him feel as if they are being heard.

All in all, he is pleased with the experience and the fact the entire council, with the exception of councillor Devin Shtykalo was able to attend.

“We did a lot of listening and we met a lot of other council members and leaders from around the province,” Bosiak said. “So I think it was a very worthwhile effort for us.”

Meanwhile, Ernie Sirski, the new reeve of the Rural Municipality of Dauphin, attended his first Association of Manitoba Municipalities meeting, last week as well.

Sirski had no expectations going into the meetings and was hoping to just learn as much as he could.

“I think I know what my role is as a reeve. I think I’ve got that figured out. But it’s more to try and figure out where we sit in the bigger picture of the municipalities of Manitoba and, hopefully, what we can accomplish and how we move this province forward,” he said. “That’s the big one. Because we don’t operate in a vacuum. We operate along with a whole bunch of other people.”

There were some training sessions for newly-elected reeves, mayors and councillors, as well as other information regarding other organizations they have to deal with.

“It was okay. It was alright,” he said.

Sirski was able to re-establish contact with people he has known for years, but hasn’t seen in a long time.

“It’s a really small province that we live in when you add everything up. When I say it’s a small province, I saw people that I’ve known for 30 years, that I haven’t seen for 20,” he said. “And then I met a whole bunch of new people, as well. It was a great opportunity.”

In meetings such as this, Sirski feels, ‘you get out what you put into them,’ so he was out meeting and connecting with people.

“I guess the thing I’m looking forward to is working with staff, whether it’s administration or public works in our rural municipality. I’m hoping that we can move this municipality forward in co-operation and collaboration with other organizations and municipalities in our area to make the Parkland something that people can come visit. That farmers can continue to practice their best practices for farming and to make sure that agriculture remains a strong and vibrant business in this area,” he said.