The Manitoba government is working with Sherridon community council to straighten out dysfunction at the council table, a move that comes as residents grapple with the loss of mail delivery and their only general store.
A spokeswoman for Indigenous and Municipal Relations said officials have been asked to “help resolve internal conflict amongst council members” and that council has agreed to follow an action plan to rectify the situation.
“Departmental staff will continue to work with them and monitor the situation as we go forward,” the spokeswoman told The Reminder.
There are differing views on the nature of the problems facing council. Mayor Nick Benyk said the situation has been developing for about a year.
“We were at a bit of an impasse because of personal issues between a couple of the councillors,” he said.
Benyk said council exists for the community and that personal attacks should not happen.
“We’re going to just monitor things that are being said, and any emotional outbursts need to be kept to a minimum,” he said, describing the action plan council will follow.
Coun. Chris Matheson said the real issue is that council as a whole is not always abiding by the proper procedures.
“I don’t care if I’m outvoted. I just want policies and procedures followed,” he said.
Matheson said that two or three times in the past year, he has taken the proper steps to schedule a special meeting of council, but no meetings took place as they legally should have.
He said a scheduled meeting was illegally cancelled because some members of council were not going to attend. He said the rules require those meetings to proceed and a record kept of who attends.
Matheson said one individual within Indigenous and Municipal Relations told him the department would most likely dissolve the council.
Matheson said he would be fine with that as long as the province provided an individual to offer instruction on how council should function.
The Indigenous and Municipal Relations spokeswoman said dissolving council would be “the last option we would explore if we have exhausted every other effort.”
Only the minister of Indigenous and Municipal Relations, currently Eileen Clarke, can dissolve a council, and this has never happened before, the spokeswoman added.
The spokeswoman said the action plan for Sherridon community council is informal and being updated on an ongoing basis. To share the plan with the media would be inappropriate “given the evolving nature of this situation,” she said.
Another challenge facing Sherridon relates to Benyk currently being unable to work. His business, Bayview General Store, has closed, as has the post office that it housed.
That has forced Sherridon residents to drive nearly 100 km to Cranberry Portage to pick up their mail.
Sheryl Matheson, who along with husband Chris owns Kenanow Lodge in Sherridon, is unhappy about the situation.
“Most people in this community have no vehicles and are elders,” she said.
“There are elders that have not received past pension cheques in some time.”
Another Sherridon resident, Britney Matheson, said the loss of mail delivery is not a major issue for her because she often travels to Cranberry Portage, where her mother lives.
“I can just walk over and grab our mail, but people in town who don’t have a vehicle have more trouble getting their mail than we would, especially the elderly,” she said.
Benyk said he had a casual employee to oversee postal services in his absence, but a small number of residents complained about that individual for reasons Benyk did not consider legitimate.
Benyk said Canada Post did not hire anyone who applied to replace him. Canada Post did not respond to a question from The Reminder about when service to Sherridon may resume.
Even more significant for some residents is the closure of Bayview General Store. Benyk said he is unsure whether the closure is permanent.
He said he kept the store open for a number of years in hopes that the nearby Puffy Lake gold mine would reopen and bolster the local economy. There is now little indication that will happen any time soon.
Given the small population of Sherridon, Benyk said “it’s not really an economic reality to run a store simply as a standalone business,” which is why he had taken on additional jobs.
Benyk said no one has approached him to lease or run the store, which he would consider. In the absence of the store, he believes one resident has begun selling confectionary items out of his house.
For Sheryl Matheson, the closure of the store is a significant blow to the community of about 80 people.
“Especially the elderly, right? They rely on that for milk and bread and the necessities that they can’t afford to go to Flin Flon to get,” she said. “Basic necessities are no longer available, so now they’re having to figure how to get [them], or get their family members to get them out to get these items.”
