The City of Winnipeg has entered into tentative agreements with the rural municipalities (RMs) of Rosser and West St. Paul to expand water and sewer services beyond city limits, sparking debate over Winnipeg’s overall planning strategy.

“This is new ground for all of us,” said Frances Smee, the reeve of Rosser. “(We’re) putting together a really fair agreement that can possibly be used as a template ... for other municipalities around Winnipeg.”

In 2006, council voted to allow the city to negotiate service-sharing agreements with the municipalities of Rosser, MacDonald and East and West St. Paul.

In recent months, the city has pledged to negotiate a water service expansion to benefit the Winnipeg-controlled portion of Centre Port, a stretch of land that crosses over the boundaries of Winnipeg and Rosser.

Although it is unclear who will pay for the expansion, the price of laying down the pipes has been estimated at $54 million.

Smee, who has commissioned law firm D’Arcy & Deacon to help with the negotiations, hopes that an equitable agreement can be made.

“We’re looking to move forward as quickly as possible,” she said, adding that any servicesharing agreement with Winnipeg would be conditional on Rosser receiving some property tax revenue from Centre Port.

The city has also announced the possibility of extending water and sewer pipes to West St. Paul in an agreement that would service 1,200 new homes to be built near the Perimeter Highway.

Brian F. Kelcey, the author of civic policy blog State of the City, believes that service expansion can be beneficial because it gives Winnipeg a voice in regional planning.

“By being a service provider to regional municipalities, you have a legitimate excuse to be at the table for dozens of decisions for which you might otherwise be excluded,” he said.

However, Kelcey added that the way the city is currently negotiating with its neighbours is fundamentally inefficient.

With the establishment of a regional water utility that would function much like Manitoba Hydro, Kelcey would like to see the city determine a fixed price for water services not amenable to continual renegotiation between governments.

“If you start doing these things one at a time without a fixed price and a fixed cost in mind ... imagine how complicated it’s going to be,” he said.

According to Kelcey, the complication would arise when one municipality, like East St. Paul, starts asking for a cheaper rate than what was given to another community, like West St. Paul.

“Suddenly you’ve got a situation where political people ... who aren’t on top of the day-to-day costs of water services, are cutting deals with a variety of customers, ... each of which is going to be open to renegotiation over time,” he said.

Jino Distasio, director of the Institute of Urban Studies at the University of Winnipeg, believes that more planning coordination within Manitoba’s capital region, which includes the municipalities immediately surrounding Winnipeg, is needed.

“My point is toward regional planning as opposed to these kinds of agreements,” he said, adding that a regional planning framework, whereby services and infrastructure are coordinated within the capital region, is increasingly important.

“I think we’ve lost the idea of regional planning in Manitoba and I think there’s lots of potential to work together to manage growth and manage infrastructure and resources better.”

Published in Volume 65, Number 21 of The Uniter (March 3, 2011)