The regionalization debate is heating up.

Municipal Affairs Minister Krista-Lynn Howell says the report has been out there for a few weeks now and she’s encouraging feedback from municipalities and local service districts.

Howell indicates that some of the largest challenges faced by many communities is finding the resources to service their population and getting the leadership in place to address those needs.

She says a regional approach will take some of the burden and responsibility off a handful of people, allowing a greater pool of people to draw from and making it more of a group effort.

Howell acknowledges a certain amount of hesitation remains.

She says change leads to many questions, but there is a recognition out there that things need to be done differently.

Fred Woodman is with the Upper Trinity South Communities which includes Markland, Blaketown, South Dildo, Old Shop, Dildo, New Harbour, Hopeall, Green’s Harbour and Cavendish. He says representatives of each of the Local Service Districts recently came together to discuss regionalization.

Woodman says among their concerns are the fact that they were not consulted on the report, and the suggestion that Local Service Districts are somehow a burden on the system.

He says in New Harbour, he pays for garbage collection and fire services and he owns his own water and sewer system.

In terms of snow clearing, he says according to the information available to him, a neighbouring municipality received $135,000 dollars in funding from government while New Harbour got none.

That funding he claims was well above the amount budgeted for snow clearing in that municipality. He challenges anyone to explain to him how his community is “freeloading.”