Rural Municipality of Hanover, Manitoba

center stage in a number of movie shoots in the last few years, including a recent Hallmark Christmas movie filmed at the Rustic Wedding Barn. And there is no shortage of recreational activities. “We have a lot of good recreation facilities throughout our five communities,” says Stahn. “Arenas, baseball complexes, soccer pitches, a splash park, a pool. Within a half-hour drive, there are eight or ten golf courses, places to hunt, biking, and walking trails. The RM has a lot to offer and that’s a drawing card for people looking at moving to the area.” Over time, Hanover has invested a substantial amount of money in infrastructure upgrades. Every year, they are rebuilding a couple roads (doing the worst ones first). Because of the growing population, and the thriving poultry and hog industry in the area, the roads have to be in good shape to handle car and truck traffic. The major roads coming into the area maintain the heaviest weight ratings available in Canada. “We’ve used the federal gas tax funds to improve our roads and wastewater facilities in the last ten years,” says Lahaie. “We are thankful that the Federation of Canadian Municipalities lobbied the federal government to have the gas tax flow to municipalities to improve our infrastructure. And the province of Manitoba had the Municipal Road Improvement Fund, where we received $400,000 per year and we would match that. Added to the gas tax, we reconstructed almost a million dollars of roads for five straight years. We saw a great benefit from those two funds, and we hope they continue in the future. In 2019, we’re receiving $800,000 from the gas tax fund. We have five wastewater lagoons and the funding helps offset the debt on that infrastructure, so the taxation burden is lessened for our ratepayers.” Waste collection in rural Manitoba is not as advanced as in the cities, but about four years ago, Hanover invested in automated garbage containers. Two years later, they brought in automated recycling bins to be picked up by truck, and they also have composting depots during the summer for yard waste from all five communities. Less going into the landfill means less money the