Business View Magazine | July 2019

305 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JULY 2019 municipality has to pay the city of Steinbach that owns the landfill. The initiative has been a big environmental success story for the RM over the last five years. Looking to the future, Council has created an ad hoc economic development committee, including a businessperson from each of the five communities who will develop a game plan for economic development going forward. As Giesbrecht describes it, “We have a wealth of knowledge and resources, but we need somebody to put it together and package it and sell it. I believe that hiring a good EDO (Economic Development Officer) would be well worth the investment we’d be making. I feel like we’re sitting on a volcano of assets and information, but we can’t seem to light that volcano up. I can see it happening in the next while, and that would be a real catalyst to getting things going here. As a municipality, we also need to get on the radar of businesses and corporations outside the area, and go after the site selectors and people who are looking for places they can refer businesses to locate to.” The Rural Municipality of Hanover boasts the lowest land costs for commercial property anywhere that’s a viable place for setting up a business - about $20,000 per acre; that same land in Winnipeg would sell for $800,000 per acre. “Plus, the bureaucratic tape in the capital city would be a mountain compared to an anthill in the RM,” says Giesbrecht. “Even in Steinbach, commercial land is selling for $500,000 and up. Access here is way easier, and we have relatively reasonable energy costs, as well. Everything a business needs; we just need the businesses now.” Stahn chimes in with his own reflections, “We have clean water, clean air, good housing, good schools, good recreation – those are all critical for young families looking for a quality place to live. The RM planning department also works with developers, guiding and assisting them to make their projects come to fruition, rather than setting up roadblocks.” Commenting on the positive outlook ahead, Lahaie adds, “Hanover is ready to welcome value- added processing facilities to our raw agriculture production industry, just like we did for HyLife, RURAL MUNI C I PAL I TY OF HANOVER , MANI TOBA