Brandon Minute: Issue 122

Brandon Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Brandon politics

📅 This Week In Brandon: 📅

• There will be a City Council meeting tonight at 7:00 pm. The meeting includes a presentation from the Provincial Exhibition, along with several infrastructure and municipal operations items. Council will consider requests for additional funding for flood mitigation and restoration, advance funding to replenish household waste collection carts, repairs to the landfill gas collection system, and a proposed subdivision at 1910 Bell Avenue. The agenda concludes with bylaw readings to repeal the rezoning of the Bell Avenue property and to open a new public road at 5 Hummingbird Lane.
  
  
• The City of Brandon is partway through a $139-million upgrade of its water treatment plant, which officials say has struggled to consistently meet Health Canada drinking water guidelines in recent years. The concern centres on two byproducts of chlorine treatment, trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids, which Health Canada classifies as possible carcinogens. Quarterly testing showed the City exceeded the trihalomethane limit on 14 of 20 tests over the past year, with an average reading of 0.116 milligrams per litre against a limit of 0.1, and it was slightly over the haloacetic acid threshold on two of 16 tests. The City told Council last year that the current plant, built in the 1940s, does not remove enough organic material from Assiniboine River water to meet standards the province tightened in 2012 and 2017. Rather than replace the plant, the City is adding a dual-membrane filtration system and will blend the two supplies, an approach Stangherlin described as the most affordable option. The upgrades are expected to be finished in October 2029, after which the City says treated water will sit well below the guidelines. Brandon maintains the water remains safe to drink.
  
  
• Meanwhile, developers have broken ground on a 72-unit rental housing project in downtown Brandon that will draw significant public support through the City's Downtown Market Housing Incentive Program. Under the arrangement, the City will provide roughly $936,000 in construction milestone payments funded by the federal Housing Accelerator Fund, offset more than $230,000 in eligible development charges, and give a grant offsetting 20 years of the incremental municipal property taxes the development generates. The building, at 1200 Pacific Avenue, is being developed by the Keller Group and Sneath Group and will include 36 one-bedroom, 18 two-bedroom, and 18 three-bedroom units. It is the first project to break ground under the incentive program, which the City says is aimed at revitalising the downtown and expanding housing supply. Mayor Jeff Fawcett called it an example of the collaboration between the federal and municipal governments and the private sector needed to address housing needs. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2027.
  
  
• Provincial crews are rebuilding a 1.6-kilometer stretch of Richmond Avenue in Brandon, one of the city's busiest routes, in a $5.97-million project the Province expects to finish by the end of the summer. The work runs between Second and 18th streets and has closed some intersections and made access to nearby businesses more difficult. Richmond Avenue placed fifth on CAA Manitoba's Worst Roads list this year, after finishing ninth in 2025 and tying for tenth in 2024. Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Lisa Naylor said the Province was well aware of public discontent with the road's condition and that the work would make it safer and more reliable. Mayor Jeff Fawcett said the City is pleased with the progress and has worked with the Minister on other routes, including 18th Street, once ranked the province's worst road and repaired last year. He said First Street is next in line for future work.
  
  
• Finally, the President of ABC Taxi, Abraham Takie, is urging the City of Brandon to tighten its licensing rules for new taxi companies, arguing the current system lets too many operators into the market. Under Brandon's rules, an owner needs about $500, four vehicles, and four drivers to start a company, and Takie wants the vehicle requirement raised to 10 or 15. He said several new cab firms have launched recently, with some offering flat fares of $5 or $10 that undercut metered rates and make it harder for established operators to compete. Takie, whose company has run in Brandon for more than 40 years and operates over 50 vehicles, contrasted Brandon with Winnipeg, where taxi licences are more limited. Not everyone agrees more regulation is needed. Nebiat Anmut, who launched Call A Cab in February, said competition benefits customers and that the market should decide which companies succeed. 

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

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