The Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) recently held a conference in Winnipeg. Portage mayor Irvine Ferris was there and outlines some issues they discussed.

"We have a caucus group within AMM that deals exclusively with city issues. We have ten cities in the province. Twice a year we'll meet as a group. First of all, we had follow-up on a couple of issues that have been raised previously by some municipalities. We wanted clarification on the printing of tax bill notices."

He notes they spent a lot of time talking about the provincial budget and how it impacts municipalities and cities.

Ferris says Jeff Bereza gave a presentation and brought them up to date with board plans to streamline the process of hearings. He notes municipalities can help the process by dealing with common errors of borrowing bylaws, including not giving enough information on public notice, dealing with mailing public notices, and the problem of too many amendments with incorrect calculations.

Ferris adds Portage is hosting the fall city caucus in September, and discussions will focus on the provincial convention coming up in November and the various resolutions cities will present to it.