"It was an interesting experience," described Henry Siemens, Mayor for the City of Winkler, when asked about writing his inaugural State of the City address.
Siemens delivered the remarks at the Winkler & District Chamber of Commerce's annual general meeting on Thursday.
"It's not something I had prepared for before, and it allowed me to give a fair amount of thought to what we wanted to bring forward," he added.
In the end, Siemens focused on partnerships and relationships and said Council's vision for growth involves a regional approach during a time when everything costs a lot more money.
"Whatever project we do, are there opportunities to do it together with others? Are there ways to do things so we not duplicating what's already happening elsewhere? A large part of that was very much along those lines, and that's why we're reaching to have those conversations with our neighbours."
For example, Siemens meets with Morden Mayor, Brandon Burley, and R.M. of Stanley Reeve, Ike Friesen, once a month to discuss shared concerns and opportunities, and says every time they meet they find something new that can be done collaboratively. An example of this collaboration, noted Siemens, is a recent joint announcement indicating all three municipalities were committing a total of $3.6 million towards the Boundary Trails Health Centre expansion fundraising effort.
"In every conversation around every project, our desire is to work with our neighbours when possible. to work in a greater neighbourhood," said Siemens.
Winkler is also part of the Pembina Valley Reeves and Mayors (PVRAM) group that meets regularly to find ways of effectively lobbying the provincial and federal governments to come to the table with support for projects and initiatives as well.
"As we have some of these conversations, we decided that we can do more as a group than we can any one of us individually. We recognize that maybe one or two of us can be ignored, but when we come forward as a group, we can't be."
Additionally, Siemens addressed the delays in a trio of major projects that were slated for the city in 2022. They were the wastewater treatment plant, an affordable housing project on Main Street and the C.W. Wiebe Medical Centre expansion.
Siemens said, however, things are looking brighter for 2023.
"The Province of Manitoba came to the table with some top-up funding on the wastewater treatment plant that allowed us to move forward. We have a really creative solution coming forward on the housing piece. That's going to be exciting to hear about in the next coming weeks," he explained. "The clinic, in partnership with the City and R.M. of Stanley, and a generous and creative landlord, has a project that is going to allow them to meet their space needs. It's good to see that in Winkler, impossible projects find a way to happen."
Meantime, Siemens confirmed in his address that ratepayers in Winkler can expect a 5.9% increase in taxes for 2023/24.
"We did run through our budget, and I did allude to it in interviews after our planning session, that there was going to be a need for more this year," he said. "Our costs have gone up the exact same way costs have gone up at home. It's just not possible for us to work with yesterday's dollars anymore when everything is more expensive."
Details on the tax increase and the city's 2023/24 budget will be laid out at Council's March 14th meeting, and Siemens encourages members of the public to attend.