Brandon scrubbed as location for AMM meetings

The mayor of Brandon is upset the Association of Manitoba Municipalities has decided to no longer hold its annual general meeting there.

Brandon and Winnipeg usually alternate years as host city of the event but AMM president Doug Dobrowolski said the event has outgrown the Wheat City.

However, Brandon mayor Dave Burgess called the decision disrespectful and undemocratic because the AMM membership has twice voted to continue alternating the location of the meeting, most recently in 2006.

"I think it's really a terrible disrespect to democracy. We've had the membership vote about 95 per cent in favour of having it in Brandon every second year," he said.

'I think it's really a terrible disrespect to democracy.' Brandon mayor Dave Burgess

"They've totally disregarded that and there's no excuse for it."

There just aren't enough hotel rooms in Brandon for the roughly 1,000 delegates and sponsors who usually attend, said Dobrowolski.

So the AMM board of directorshas voted to keep the meeting in Winnipeg until Brandon's accommodation situation improves.

"It was a unanimous vote around the table," said Dobrowolski. "This just didn't come up this year. It's been a problem for the last number of years."

Brandon is growing and there are new hotels being built in the city, Burgess argued.

"We've had to fight this fight before [and] we've never had the board take such a dramatic representation against what the membership stated," he said. "This will be very important to the members, and I think you'll hear loud and clear from them."

Losing the convention, which was most recently held inthe cityin November, will be a big blow to the local economy because it is one of theBrandon's biggest events, he added.

Delegates and sponsors typically inject about a million dollars worth of revenue into the city during the four-day event, Burgess said.