Newly-acclaimed Association of Manitoba Municipalities President Kam Blight says many positives came out of the recent 2022 Fall Convention.
"With the energy that was there, the excitement was very encouraging," explains Blight. "There were close to 800 municipal officials in attendance, and I think there's a lot of hope and optimism going forward, and that's very exciting."
He says there were many new attendees, making 45 per cent of those gathered.
"It was a great opportunity to meet a lot of the new ones that are now going to be involved with their councils," continues Blight. "Some of the major topics were public safety, healthcare and increased funding to municipalities. Those are three of the main issues that came forward. We certainly appreciate the Province of Manitoba supporting our conference and having as many of the ministers as possible at the ministerial forum to answer our delegates' questions."
He reflects on the record-breaking number of women who attended.
"There's 22 heads of council that are now female and that is up one from 2018," notes Blight. "It's just great to see the interest in being involved in municipal politics, whether being at the Council level or Head of Council level, and to see that number trending upwards."
Blight says these next four years will be quite exciting.
"The theme of our convention was Setting the Direction, and I think this week was a great start to that," adds Blight.