During his State of the City address last week Winkler's mayor offered an update on efforts to roll out a public transportation program.
As City Council had hoped, Henry Siemens announced the first step will launch later this year.
"We're pleased to announce that in 2024 we'll have a first step on that transit continuum type of project," said Siemens. "What that means is that we're going to be able to provide public transportation of a kind. What we're looking at doing right now is to provide a subsidized ride service. But we do know we have a responsibility and an obligation to help people move. We're going to step into that at our annual planning that just finished. We put money behind it and it will start sometime this year."
Siemens says city staff are working on exactly what the first phase will look like. He added the key piece will be to ensure it's affordable for people who don't have a car to be able to move around from place to place.
As they begin rides, Siemens says they will collect the data that comes from them, so when they're ready to move to the next level of public transportation, whatever it looks like, they're well prepared.