The City of Winkler is hoping to take advantage of a granting fund through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) to help move the city toward its transportation progression strategy.
Director of Planning and Engineering, Scott Toews says the strategy was rolled out in round three of public engagement for the city's transportation feasibility study.
"That first step was for the city of Winkler to be looking at initial servicing options for a door-to-door service that could evolve into a home-to-hub or a hub-to-hub type operation," said Toews. "And so those initial steps help us establish the travel patterns and the number of people that would end up using public transportation in the City of Winkler. And so we're looking at rolling out under this grant application a three-year pilot project that would help us implement those first stages in the project.
Under the grant application, Toews said the City of Winkler is looking to roll out a three-year pilot project that would help the city implement the first stages of the project.
Toews says the FCM grant has the potential to cover 80 percent of the project, up to $500,000. It would also require a contribution from the City of Winkler for the remaining 20 percent, which works out to $125,000, for a total project of $625,000.
"We have a recommendation towards Council on moving towards a progression strategy, so it will depend on the available funds that are available in 2024 or 2025 to help move this project," said Toews. "Council had mentioned yesterday (Tuesday), that receiving grant funding at 80% funded would certainly help accelerate a project like this."
Based on discussions from the Transportation Committee and at Council on Tuesday, Toews says there's an interest in moving something forward. If unsuccessful in receiving the grant, he said they would have to evaluate what they'd be able to do.