A few municipal councils in Western Manitoba are looking to trim the number of people around the council table.

 

Amalgamation in 2014 created councils that combined two or even three councils to form the new civic body. In many cases there can be 10 people sitting around the council table and some groups feel that is too many.

 

“We have trouble making decisions sometimes because there are so many opinions and a smaller working group would be more productive” said Deloraine-Winchester Reeve Gord Weidenhamer.

 

That council has nine elected officials and Weidenhamer says they would like that lowered in time for the next election in the fall of 2018. “It would make it a more manageable group not to mention it would save the ratepayers some money.”

 

The council hasn't decided whether to look at an open ward system or set the number of councilors for the rural and urban areas. “We've talked about lowering it to 3 per area or maybe even less but that hasn't been decided.”