City Council met on Monday night in Estevan with short list of topics up for discussion.

The majority of council was spent on a public hearing regarding letters objecting the city's proposed annexation of land from the RM of Estevan. Lawyer James Trobert made a presentation on behalf of the RM and outlined why the annexation of land at this point in time doesn't make sense from their standpoint.

"Tonight we heard on behalf of the municipality and I think the presentation was professional and well thought out," explained Estevan's Mayor, Roy Ludwig. "It will give council a lot to think about moving forward. We have been working on this for the last three years and as many know, the RM decided to withdraw from negotiations. We understand where they are coming from and the points they made were well thought out."

"At the end of the day it will be councils decision on whether or not we move forward, or if we can look to make an agreement with the RM that we can live with. If we take it down that route, mediation gets involved and if that's not successful then it goes to the municipal board where they look at both sides of negotiations and come out with their final determination."

Lawyer James Trobert speaking on behalf of the RM of Estevan during city council on Monday night.

Should negotiations come to a stalemate and the final decision ends up in the hands of the municipal board, both sides will not fully get what they want.

"The logical conclusion from this will be to end up in front of the municipal board and they will make the final decision. They will look at information from both sides and come down with their determination on what they feel is a fair resolution. If you get to a municipal board decision you're probably not going to have everybody happy. There will be things on both sides people won't be happy about. We would rather negotiate but the RM has withdrawn so we will continue to have dialogue with them. We definitely still have a good relationship and will continue to have discussions."

Ludwig shared what the next step will be for city council.

"We will seriously take this under consideration along with what took place at the open house and then we will decide which way we want to move forward as a council."