The RM was incorporated on January 1, 2015 via the amalgamation of the RM of Brenda and the Village of Waskada.[1] It was named after Major Adoniram Cates' daughter, Brenda Cates (1888-1964), though the municipality was incorporated in 1888, four years before she was born. It was formed as a requirement of The Municipal Amalgamations Act, which required that municipalities with a population less than 1,000 amalgamate with one or more neighbouring municipalities by 2015.[3] The Government of Manitoba initiated these amalgamations in order for municipalities to meet the 1997 minimum population requirement of 1,000 to incorporate a municipality.[4]
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Brenda-Waskada had a population of 650 living in 277 of its 332 total private dwellings, a change of -3.6% from its 2016 population of 674. With a land area of 775.64 km2 (299.48 sq mi), it had a population density of 0.8/km2 (2.2/sq mi) in 2021.[2]
