Late last week the City of Winkler received news related to its application to access money through CMHC's $4-billion housing accelerator fund.
However, it was not the news City Council was hoping for. Mayor Henry Siemens says the council learned their application was not supported.
"We have a demonstrated need for additional housing. We thought that we were a really good fit for it. Particularly some of the points on zoning changes and things like that that were needed. Many of those things we've already preemptively done," stated Siemens. "Unfortunately, our application was not supported and we're extremely disappointed in that regard."
Although very disappointing, this outcome, Siemens said, does not mean there is not a great need in Winkler. He said Council will continue to work on the need and try to find other ways to support the growth of additional housing in the city.
"We have other pieces that we're working on already and have worked on and we'll continue to work on them."
Siemens says Council had high hopes this would become one avenue to help accelerate the growth of housing in Winkler.
"Knowing that's now not the case, we will continue to chase other options. We will continue to work very hard with our local building community to try to find ways that we can support the growth of additional housing to meet the needs that are in our community."
Siemens says they recognize there's a tremendous need for housing across Canada, and the determination was that there's a greater need elsewhere.