Over the summer, I’ve been meeting with as many town and RM councils as possible to get local feedback on issues affecting these municipalities. I received some positive feedback, and I thought I would share what I heard around the riding. This is what I learned:

Regarding grants from the senior levels of government—the forms and bureaucracy that municipalities need to go through to get federal and provincial government grants can be extremely burdensome. One example I heard: In order to receive a grant of a maximum of $25,000, a village would have to spend $10,000 in unnecessary administrative expenditures.

I received a few questions about firearms legislation. We are proceeding with legislation to repeal the registry for long guns, but the vote in the House of Commons will be extremely close. The opposition parties may defeat us on this matter.

Policing issues came up in a couple of the towns. The consensus was that we need more RCMP, and if any of the 600 new RCMP officers the government is hiring could come to our region, so much the better.

Others topics councilors mentioned: Short line railways, energy efficiency, farm support programs and labor shortages. All in all–a bit of everything.

With the feedback I received from the mayors and councilors, I’ll be able to inform Cabinet Ministers of some of the necessary changes that need to be made to government policy. In conclusion, I would like to say a big Thank You to everyone who turned out at these meetings.

I’m Brad Trost, your Member of Parliament, and I welcome your feedback. Write or call my offices.