Rhineland shares infrastructure concerns with Borderland MLA

Municipality of Rhineland council members recently met with Borderland MLA, Josh Guenter, to express some of their infrastructure concerns. The MLA was invited to Council’s regular meeting at the end of February.

“We talked a bit about provincial drains and how it important it is that they be maintained,” said Reeve Don Wiebe. “We also talked about the concept of low-level crossings. We had some meetings with the province on that. And we certainly want him also to help with the Pembina Valley Water Co-op and our water shortage.”

Meantime, Guenter says he raised his own concerns about property taxes now that the NDP government has re-instated school divisions’ authority to raise them.

“We’ve recently seen one school division come out with an 18 per cent tax hike. That is very massive and very concerning,” he said. “After our government (the former governing PCs) cut the Education Property Tax by 50 per cent while also funding education to record amounts, it is a little concerning to see school divisions raising taxes to this degree. So, we’ll see if this is a trend we continue to see happen.”

Overall, Wiebe was pleased with the meeting which also focused on how to engage the new NDP government and bend its ear to the needs of the constituency.

“This gives him (Guenter) an opportunity to create dialogue with various departments at the government level and help us support these projects…and he was quite prepared to do that.” 

“Let’s face it. They may well be interested in spending money elsewhere,” added Guenter. “But representing an area of the province here that is growing, that contributes significantly to the economy and contributes significant revenues to provincial coffers, it’s important that we also have their attention here.”