Property taxes assessments have been on the agenda of every municipality across the province as representatives from the provincial government have been making the rounds of municipal council meetings. Usually on a two-year cycle, province-wide tax reassessments have been delayed by the pandemic and have not been done since 2019. Overall, the municipality’s taxable assessment has been increased by about 5%, compared to a provincewide increase of closer to 10%. This would actually mean that the municipality would see a tax decrease, assuming no changes to the budget or mill rate.

In planning matters, the council sees a few routine requests including one that would link two properties across the municipal boundary between North Cypress-Langford and the Town of Carberry and require the property to be consolidated into one or the other (into North Cypress-Langford, in this case). They also continue to look at the Westman ATV trail issue. The planning district will be hosting an Open House on June 23 to hopefully bring all of the stakeholders together to discuss any community concerns with the trail.

Rachel Andrews, Development Officer for the Cypress Planning District, says that overall the municipality is doing well this year, with many new developments in the works. In response to Councillor questions, she also indicates that permits issued have to be acted on within one year, but because of the pandemic and subsequent supply chain issues, they have been working on ways to ensure that people don’t have to reapply when their projects are delayed.

The Council is supporting the Association of Manitoba Municipalities in a couple of their lobbying efforts. The first is to see a change in rates for extreme weather crop insurance, based on the amounts of moisture seen across the province this spring The second is for the province to address some imbalances and change their funding model from strictly per capita to considering other issues, such as miles of roads maintained and infrastructure developed, to promote industry outside of the City of Winnipeg.

Other issues before Council included seasonal hiring, water rates, road repairs, increasing mileage rates, and increasing funding for cemetery maintenance to offset fuel costs.