On November 21–22, Niverville’s council mustered for a 20-hour planning session in an effort to pinpoint the most important aspects of their next budget. When they emerged, they had narrowed their focus to a few critical priorities they wish to work on in the coming year.
Property Taxes and Recreation Subsidies
Two items directly affecting the 2026 budget include property taxes and recreation subsidies.
In terms of property taxes, council has determined that there will be a 2.5 percent increase next year. This is lower than the recommended 2.9 percent cost of living adjustment and significantly lower than this year’s property tax increase of four percent.
“We’re able to do this thanks to growth,” Mayor Myron Dyck says. “If it wasn’t for growth, we’d either have to do [fewer things] or that number would have to be higher.”
New this year, council plans to provide subsidies for Niverville families who may not otherwise have the means to enrol their kids in recreation programming.
In order to do this, council will partner with ROC Eastman, a local charitable organization whose mandate is to create recreational opportunities for children.
“We wanted to partner with a third party,” Dyck says. “We don’t want staff to [make those decisions]. Also, for privacy, you know. It’s a small town.”
Changing Bylaws to Make Way for Micro-Housing
At least one planning session decision will require changes to the town’s current bylaws, which in turn should lead to improved housing affordability. The conversation revolves around the development of micro-suites in multifamily housing units.
“It’s something that council has been talking to developers about for ten-plus years,” says Dyck. “Would they want to include a smaller sized unit into some of their larger scale projects? It’s this year that we’re seeing some traction on that.”
For the first time, he says, developers have come to council seeking their feedback on the creation of open-concept studio suites in their larger apartment complexes.
As a result, council has decided to eliminate their 600-square-foot minimum bylaw. They await developers to see where the new square footage requests will fall.
“We have proposals before us right now [asking] for as small as 270 square feet, but most are kind of in the 400 range,” says Dyck.
Taking it one step further, council has also decided to reduce their minimum parking stall requirement from two stalls per door to one per door when it comes to micro-suites.
According to Dyck, this development concept is already being embraced by developers and city officials in Winnipeg.
At present, council hopes to keep the micro-suite focus to areas of new construction as opposed to situations of urban infill.
Municipal Control of Daycare and Expanded Healthcare
In 2020, when Niverville Open Health’s future looked grim, Niverville became one of Manitoba’s first municipalities to take over its medical clinic and turn it into a social enterprise.
After this year’s planning sessions, council wants to build on that potential by seeking ways to expand Niverville’s existing healthcare services. At the same time, they’re looking for ways to add more local daycare spots.
Despite a recent addition to the medical clinic, the demand is so high that Open Health still can’t keep up. Patients are frustrated, Dyck says, when the clinic advertises same-day appointments, yet they still can’t get in.
“We have physicians that have interest in coming, so we just want to make sure we have space,” Dyck says. “We’ve been fortunate in that, due to our proximity to Winnipeg, it gives doctors options, even if it’s for a day per week.”
For Councillor Nathan Dueck, liaison on the Niverville Open Health advisory board, it would take too long to wait for the province to fix the healthcare system.
“Healthcare is a massive [concern] and requires a lot of attention,” Dueck says. “We’re taking it on from a municipal standpoint. Instead of being a part of the problem that no one is fixing, we’re going to be a part of the solution by making healthcare better in our community.”
For now, council will actively assist the Niverville Open Health advisory board in seeking more healthcare space. They may find that there’s additional space on the Open Health campus to expand. More likely, though, is the development of a satellite location off-site.
“We are very excited with the medical concept in our community and our partnership with Southern Health and the province to move forward,” says Dueck. “We have the support to make it work and ideally be a model for other communities in the province.”
Daycare availability is also a big issue. A recent report from Growing Minds Childcare in Niverville indicates that they have a waiting list of around 700 children.
“We’re hearing from people like developers who are saying, ‘This might start costing us employees’ or ‘It might start costing us housing sales,’” says Dyck. “This technically isn’t a municipal issue. It’s a provincial issue. We can stand by and wait for the province to do things or we can ask, ‘Is there a role to play and what would our role be?’”
To that end, Mayor Dyck reached out to the executive director of Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning for some answers.
For now, all council is prepared to share is that they’ve created a comprehensive, multi-point strategy to tackle the local wait list. Full details on that strategy will be released to the public in the coming weeks.