The City of Steinbach did not get the answer it wanted from the Manitoba Municipal Board on a request to approve a friendly annexation agreement with the RM of Hanover. The plan would have seen Steinbach expand by 7,300 acres, mainly to the west, to have enough land for the next 50 years. Mayor Chris Goertzen says the Municipal Board has ruled it is only in favour of the city expanding by about one-third of that and has countered with a 30 year plan.

"At present, they've said that anything south of Highway #52 they would include and anything north of Highway #52 they would exclude. They've also sent us an additional letter saying that they're open to discussing exactly which land will be included in our 30-year plan. As we move forward, we're going to obviously have discussions with them, but we're also having discussions with the province and making sure that they see the value of two municipalities working together."

Original map with proposed annexation area in green. The Municipal Board wants to only allow the areas in green, south of Hwy #52 to be annexed.The Municipal Board ruling was released in January but was not made public until this week as the city continues to negotiate with the province. Goertzen says they want to make sure the government understands that both Steinbach and Hanover support the plan.

"We've been telling the story of two municipalities working well together, of how we want to promote economic growth, how we want to, obviously, be responsible with the land that is shared between us. We continue to have discussions on how we can accommodate some of the challenges facing land use between the two municipalities. This is a unique agreement. Very rarely do you have two municipalities agreeing to a jurisdictional change. It's a unique circumstance and it's a unique circumstance that the province needs to look at."

In its decision, the Municipal Board says it feels Steinbach's proposal is too ambitious and would remove too much farmland from production. Goertzen remains hopeful the province will come around to Steinbach and Hanover's way of thinking on this.

"Certainly they've been very open to our discussions that we've had. They've also been very open to hearing that Hanover is fully in support of this agreement and so we'll continue to have those discussions, moving this forward, because we think it's important for the future of Steinbach, the future of Hanover and the future of our region and how we grow."

Goertzen says the discussions should be concluded in the near future.

"In the coming months, we think we should see this come to a conclusion because there are many landowners waiting to understand exactly where their land is going to fall. Will it be part of Hanover or will it be part of Steinbach? We as two municipalities also want to see this come to a conclusion because we have other plans that we want to move down the road."