Early Stages

For many of us the vision of forming a new eco-village in Manitoba has been alive for many years. However, it wasn’t until the summer of 2014, when a dear friend started a Facebook page called “Manitoba Eco-village currently forming”. I remember seeing this and thinking “Am I really going to dive into this right now?” And then I did. When I arrived at the next gathering, I quickly discovered that I had stumbled into the very seed of an idea; nothing more, nothing less. Some folks would ask “So what’s the plan?” to which the answer was, basically, “I don’t know, what do you wanna do?” This process continued for quite a few months. So many good folks showed up to these meetings and soon it became clear that nothing would happen if a few of us didn’t hunker down and create a legal foundation for which to walk upon and talk upon. The group then evolved to be known as the Manitoba Eco-village Network.
With a core group ranging from 3-8, the early stages proceeded with finding funding, in the form of the most generous offering I’ve ever witnessed. We moved right into forming a cooperative. That was a far more tedious process then anyone would have thought. {Justin}

At the end of it we have registered as a marketing co-op – This means that members can reduce operating costs, increase marketing power and gain access to more resources, services, and supports collectively. 

As Myriad Village Marketing Co-op Ltd. we have taken minutes at each of our meetings dating back to March 2015, while searching for the right piece of land. Our land searching crew we called the “land hounds” visited countless properties all over Manitoba. Many of which were nothing more then, as we called it “More swamp for sale”. When the land hounds stumbled upon the “Dennis lake property”, as we found ourselves calling it, we felt a major boost of inspiration. The diversity of the space and the seemingly intentional placement of small forests were a welcome sight.

After meeting with the municipality, we discovered that we have their full support and encouragement to re-zone and make this project a reality. The next step and definitely one of the most important steps, is where you come in! 

Myriad Village is nothing without the courage and creations of all that connect to the vision. Even after all the time huddled over government documents, the co-op act, real estate ads, among countless other components of this process, there is much more to be done. After our first year of membership, which I accepted as an opportunity after being invited to the initial launch, we passed our by-laws. Since then, we have begun building foundations such as composting, an outhouse with humanure system, digging a well, seasonal lots, and secure material storage. {Holly}