Brandon Minute: Issue 132

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

📅 This Week In Brandon: 📅

• Brandon mobile home park owner Ken Templeton says he was surprised to learn that a new tenant on one of his lots could have to pay more than $21,000 in City development charges. Templeton owns the White Swan Mobile Home Court and the Highland Park Mobile Home Estates, where one of the 240 lots has sat vacant for five years since a mobile home moved off it. Under the City's development charges bylaw, an applicant must pay the charges once a property has been vacant for more than five years, and mobile homes are classed as low-density housing, the same as a single-family detached home. The charge on the lot is roughly $7,000 now but rises to $21,193 in 2027, because Council's April 2025 increase of more than 200% is being phased in over three years only for high-density developments. The City described the charges as a "cost-recovery mechanism" for the roads and water services new development requires, and said the five-year rule follows what other Canadian municipalities do. Templeton questions how land developed for 50 years can be treated as an emerging growth area, and warns the charges will hurt affordable housing. 
  
  
• Premier Wab Kinew announced that the Province has partnered with the City of Brandon to acquire the former Turtle Crossing Campground at 4100 Grand Valley Road, a burial site for children who attended the Brandon Indian Residential School. The City sold the land privately in 2001, and Indigenous leaders have long raised concerns about people camping on the site and about difficulty accessing it for research while it was privately owned. The City will hold the property in trust and handle its maintenance, such as keeping the road clear, until a long-term decision is made, and Mayor Jeff Fawcett said the land may eventually be transferred to First Nation ownership. Sioux Valley Dakota Nation Chief Jennifer Bone said the site's long-term future will be decided after consultations with affected families and community members.
  
  
• Ward 3 Council candidate Kevin Chambers wants the Province to raise the provincial sales tax so the City can share in the revenue and fund a new indoor aquatic facility. Chambers, a former high school teacher and Hockey Brandon board member, says residents have repeatedly raised the need for a year-round family pool with zero entry while he has been canvassing. He says he has heard of proposals to raise the tax, currently 7%, with a portion shared with municipalities based on population, alongside a lower personal income tax. Chambers argues that property taxes, which provide most of the City's revenue, don't rise with the economy the way income and sales taxes do, though he acknowledges the idea still needs to be worked out. He also wants the City to offer low-cost evening recreation for youth, such as basketball in unused middle school gyms, possibly organized by volunteers. 
  
  
• Ward 3 Council candidate Craig Shanks is calling on the City to put more money into financial reserves to prepare for surprise repairs and fund major projects. Shanks pointed to the pressure that flooding, windstorms, hailstorms, and wildfires put on city infrastructure. In July, $2,280,000 was taken from four separate reserves for flood recovery and mitigation, though the City has applied to the Province for disaster financial assistance to recoup that cost, and Council more recently voted to use $210,000 of parks reserve funds to improve drainage at the Wheat City Golf Course. Shanks called the $139-million water treatment plant upgrade approved last year a "fine example" of the City not being proactive enough, since more than $29 million of its cost is being paid for through City loans. He argued that taxes were kept too low in the past but that recent increases were too high, and called for a middle ground of around 3%-5%, adding that more tickets and bylaw enforcement, while not ideal, would add to the bottom line.
  
  
• Brandon Transit is launching two restructured bus routes today and bringing conventional fixed-route service to Braecrest Drive for the first time, as part of the City's ongoing implementation of the Brandon Transit Master Plan. The new Route 3: North Hill Connector and Route 7: Corral/HWY Hub were created by restructuring existing Routes 4 and 5, and the City says they are designed to connect riders to key destinations throughout the North Hill area. Three new bus stops are being added on Braecrest Drive between 18th Street N and Knowlton Drive. With fixed-route buses now running there, the existing TransCab service on Braecrest Drive is being discontinued as of today, though TransCab will continue to operate in some other neighbourhoods. Updated route maps, schedules, and stop information are available from the City, and riders can call the Transit Information Centre at 204-729-2300 with questions.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

Would you support raising the provincial sales tax if it meant municipalities could receive a share of the revenue to fund local projects like a new indoor aquatic facility?

Write in and let us know!

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