On January 30^th, 2025, during a roundtable meeting held in the Rural Municipality of La Broquerie, municipal elected officials expressed their priorities for their bilingual rural municipality to the Honorable Glen Simard, Minister of Municipal and Northern Relations and Minister responsible for Francophone Affairs. The event mainly focused on the importance of strengthening the municipal-provincial partnership to support our collective growth and promote harmonious and coordinated development.

This meeting provided member municipalities with a unique opportunity to engage directly with a provincial representative, highlighting the fundamental role of bilingual municipalities in Manitoba’s economic development.

Representatives from each bilingual municipality were invited to share their specific realities, challenges, and priorities, fostering a constructive and targeted exchange.

This roundtable discussion also allowed Minister Glen Simard to reaffirm his unwavering commitment to Manitoba’s bilingual municipalities by reiterating his support for their development and prosperity.

Here are some priorities shared by the municipalities:

• Infrastructure remains a shared priority. Whether it is about new developments to address affordable housing shortages, renovating aging community and recreational facilities, or constructing new schools.
• Improving wastewater treatment systems. Large-scale projects are being discussed to modernize these systems and increase the development potential of our municipalities. The implementation of new, modern, and innovative systems is essential to address current challenges and anticipate future needs.
• Land use planning was also at the heart of the discussions. Some municipalities are concerned that they may not be attractive due to factors such as lack of rural connectivity, difficulty accessing flexible funding that understands rural realities, or administrative burdens that can slow down the progress of certain projects.
• Health services are also an ongoing issue in rural areas. The Ste. Anne Hospital is seeking regional designation to operate at full capacity and serve residents of several surrounding rural municipalities, thereby easing the healthcare system.
• Gradual deployment of the Municipal Maturity Model (3M). The 15 bilingual rural municipalities have formally committed to the development, sustainability, and vitality of their Francophone and bilingual communities through the adoption of the 3M and the support of the Manitoba government.

Many of these priorities were outlined in the Notice on the 16 Strategic Priorities of Manitoba’s Bilingual Municipal Leadership. To advance several projects, municipalities are showing creativity in their regional approach, always prioritizing collaboration with other Manitoba municipalities. For example, in the wastewater treatment system, the bilingual rural municipalities of Ritchot, Taché, La Broquerie, and De Salaberry have joined the Red-Seine-Rat (RSR) Wastewater Cooperative.

Aware of this desire for collaboration, Minister Simard, himself from Saint-Lazare in the Rural Municipality of Ellice-Archie—a member municipality—, reiterated his full and complete support for Manitoba’s bilingual rural municipalities. He assured that issues falling under other departments’ jurisdictions would be brought to the attention of his colleagues to enhance government accountability towards Manitoba’s Francophone and bilingual communities.

As a natural partner, the Manitoba government demonstrated attentive listening to the expressed priorities. It confirmed its willingness to implement as many projects as possible, while reminding of the need to reconcile these ambitions with the province’s fiscal realities.

We are going through a unique period, marked by challenges that match the opportunities it offers. Together, let’s seize these opportunities to strengthen and make our Francophone and bilingual communities prosper. Municipalities directly and concretely contribute to the quality of life and growth of our Francophone and bilingual communities. By strategically investing in Manitoba’s bilingual municipalities, we are directly contributing to the development of our Official Language Minority Communities (OLMCs).

Predictable, sustainable, and flexible financial support is essential to meet our members’ needs. That is why the AMBM is eager to explore how the new municipal funding model could generate a targeted and measurable impact in serving the Francophone and bilingual communities we serve.

Investing in our municipalities means ensuring concrete and effective results. When supporting its municipalities, Manitoba invests in strong, dynamic, and connected local administrations. We are ready to collaborate to immediately improve services by leveraging our ability to act quickly and effectively on priority issues.

The AMBM reiterates the importance of a strong municipal-provincial partnership and is fully committed to working with the Manitoba government to develop long-term, mutually beneficial solutions that will strengthen and support intergovernmental collaboration. Together, let’s continue to build attractive, prosperous, and resilient Francophone and bilingual communities that make our province proud and contribute to its influence across Canada and beyond.

The AMBM is the voice of bilingual municipal leadership in the province of Manitoba. It represents 16 municipal governments committed to offering services in both official languages to their citizens. Together, these municipalities represent the majority of Manitoba’s population. Manitoba’s bilingual municipal leadership is also leads the AMBM Group, a consortium of three organizations with complementary mandates: the AMBM, the Economic Development Council of Manitoba Bilingual Municipalities (Conseil de développement économique des municipalités bilingues du Manitoba, or CDEM) and Eco-West Canada (EWC), which specializes in the green economy. Complementing each other, these three organizations actively contribute to the development, vitality and sustainability of the province’s Official Language Minority Communities (OLMCs) and the province as a whole.

Information: Office of the Chief Executive Officer (O-CEO), 204-289-4077, bcdd-oceo@ambm.ca.