Dear Editor
Murray Mandryk’s well written piece on “Something needs to change at the RM level” (News-OptimistSept. 4) served well to set the table regarding challenges being faced at the RM level. However, I was disappointed he didn’t take it a step further and recommend solutions that are long overdue.
Let’s take a step back and look at the period RMs were formed. Roughly between 1880 and 1915 (In 1898 my granddad arrived in Canada and took a homestead in Rossburn, Man.). Plots of land of 160 acres were measured out, surveyors used horses, canoes and walked as forms of transportation. My father applied for and was granted a homestead of 160 acres in 1927 in Grandview, Man. There was no road, no telephone, no electricity, no natural gas and none of the potpourri of conveniences of communication we have today.
Of course we needed a reeve and councillors back then, but this is 2018. Why have we not changed? We have not changed because the human species, generally speaking, does not like change. Therefore for a period of time it would not be a popular move and the politicians want only to do what is popular not necessarily what is right. So the politicians of all stripes sit on their hands instead of changing to a county system or giving the elected councillors in the county system training and guidance that Mandryk alludes to.
Governance at the local level will continue to get more complex beyond what for many RMs is still grading and gravelling. Time and education will become more paramount.
Where there is a will there is a way. County systems need not be more expensive. However, that hallowed argument will be used by those who wish to preserve the status quo.
We have made larger units of governance in the health and education fields, so why not municipal?
Harry Zamonsky
North Battleford
