Brandon Burley, the acclaimed Mayor for the City of Morden, took a moment during Wednesday's local all-candidates forum to dole out a few 'thank yous' and offer a glimpse into his hopes for the city in the next four years.
“Tonight is a very important night for the future of our community, for where we want to go in the next four years and beyond that. So, tonight I'm here, just like you are, to pay attention to what the community is saying, and where it is we believe we need to go as a community,” said Burley.
The Mayor noted, the last four years were incredibly trying at times, and yet, incredibly rewarding.
“The City of Morden has faced some unbelievable obstacles and, just like you and the rest of Canada and the world, there have been challenges that we've had to address, from COVID-19 to the rising cost of inflation and you name it, we've seen it. But, with a good team behind us, and a good team in front of us in management, we've been able to succeed, and we've been able to achieve a substantial amount of growth and a substantial amount of good.”
Burley pointed to the City’s recent growth, placing 4th of 137 municipalities in growth.
“Right now, we're the second-fastest growing community outside of the Winnipeg Capital Region, and we're the fastest growing city in Manitoba. That's a pretty remarkable statistic for our little city. It's done with a team,” he said. “Groups of people on Council, citizen reps, people who are every day - whether it be at MCDC (Morden Community Development Corporation) or the Chamber of Commerce, or the many organizations that are putting their effort in - are contributing little by little and day by day to the success of our community.”
But with that growth, noted Burley, comes its own set of challenges.
“There are serious perils in front of us,” he said. “Infrastructure is a major one. We’re trying to do more with less money. We have half the money allocated in funding for wastewater programming that we have to get done creatively. We are confident, that with a good council, with a good senior management team, the City of Morden can brave those challenges, and come out as a leader again in another four years.
We want to make sure that our capital expenditures, our capital expense programs are piggybacked on proper asset management planning, and we want to make sure that we have a transition to renewable energy that is responsible and sustainable.”
As Burley closed his remarks to the crowd, he reflected on the importance of the All-Candidate’s Forum to the election process.
“To get to know our candidates is important. To learn about them, to vote,” he noted. “I believe Morden’s time is now. Morden needs to act boldly, and tonight I ask you to choose councillors you believe can lead this community forward for the next four years and beyond.”
The Municipal Election is October 26th.