Brandon Minute: Issue 128

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

📅 This Week In Brandon: 📅

• City Council meets tomorrow at 7:00 pm, on Tuesday rather than its usual Monday because of the Labour Day holiday. One of the items on the agenda is a request to spend $210,000 on drainage work at the City-owned Wheat City Golf Course, where recurring flooding and wet conditions have forced hole and full-course closures. Administration wants the money drawn from the Parks Reserve to build swales, ditches, and expanded ponds across six holes, with Golf Brandon managing the work this fall. Because the expenditure tops $50,000 and was not in this year's approved budget, it needs Council's sign-off. Of the total, $40,000 would be redirected from money already set aside for course upgrades, and the remaining $170,000 would be recovered over time from the course's operating commissions, which have averaged about $90,000 a year.
  
  
• Council will also receive an update on Brandon Transit's master plan, which lays out service changes over the next five years. The first major change takes effect on October 5th, when Routes 4 and 5 are consolidated into new Routes 3 and 7 serving the North Hill, the Corral Centre, Assiniboine Community College, and the downtown exchange. Transit Administration says it will propose two further changes in the 2027 budget: extending 30-minute evening service until 9:00 pm and pushing Sunday service to 10:00 pm. The route redesign is being absorbed within this year's approved transit budget.
  
  
• Council will consider a review of its committees and boards that recommends several governance changes. Administration is proposing a new Governance and Priorities Committee for strategic discussions, a consolidated Appeals Committee to take over the work of the current taxi and building-standards appeal bodies, and a policy requiring every City committee to adopt terms of reference. The review would also recognize "educational briefings" as a distinct meeting format for information and training where no decisions are made, which Administration says would make clearer to the public when Council is only receiving information and when it is actually deciding something. The report carries no direct cost. A second phase would examine Council's appointments to outside boards and agencies.
  
  
• Council will also weigh in on a push for tougher energy rules for new buildings. Last month the City's Environment and Climate Change Committee recommended that Council adopt a minimum Tier 2 energy performance standard for new City-owned buildings and major renovations, and lobby the Province of Manitoba to require the same tier for all new construction. In comments prepared for tomorrow's meeting, Administration urges caution, warning that adopting a higher energy code without first assessing the cost "appears misaligned" at a time when construction costs are climbing faster than inflation and housing affordability is under pressure. Administration notes that higher standards would raise upfront building costs, though they could lower operating costs over a building's life. Council is being asked to receive the comments and direct staff to prepare a fuller analysis of the affordability and financial impacts before deciding.
  
  
• With Brandon's October 28th municipal election approaching, a longtime council watcher has entered the Ward 4 race for the sole purpose of forcing a vote. James Epp registered against Councillor Shaun Cameron, who is seeking re-election in Ward 4 and had faced no challengers, and says he is running as what he calls a "legal requirement" to block an acclamation. Epp says he does not want to be a councillor and would refuse to take office unless turnout neared 50%, arguing that residents deserve the chance to cast a ballot and measure support for incumbents. He plans to move his candidacy to other uncontested wards if serious challengers step forward, naming Ward 6 as his backup. As of last week, Wards 3, 5, and 6 still had no competition. 

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

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