"On behalf of the Association of Manitoba Municipalities, I'd like to congratulate Premier-Elect Wab Kinew and the entire NDP government on their victory Tuesday," said Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) President Kam Blight following the NDP's Tuesday night election win.
"AMM is certainly standing by and ready to work alongside the NDP to help continue to grow Manitoba," added Blight.
He made reference to some of the elements in the NDP's campaign platform that relate to the efforts of the AMM.
"With elections come opportunities. And I think we saw that. AMM took the initiative to bring forward our major issues they're facing for all 137 municipalities very early on in the election," explains Blight. "We wanted to make sure those issues were front and centre, to get the parties talking about them, and to build those issues into their platforms. And I think we were very successful in doing just that. And the NDP certainly did bring forward opportunities where they could address the four main pillars that we brought forward, which were fair and predictable funding, investing in infrastructure, investing in people, and public safety."
He says each of those points were addressed by the NDP by having created ideas and the means by which they'll address them. Blight notes the AMM will be planning opportunities to talk about the many issues faced by municipalities and work alongside the NDP government to help fulfill those potential commitments.
"I've already been conversing with Premier-Elect Kinew and we're going to give the NDP government some time to get settled in," says Blight. "We're going to start reaching out to have meetings as soon as possible. I'm very big on building relationships and I think relationships are key to any sort of success in a partnership."
Bight says his organization is anxiously awaiting to see which ministers will be appointed for each of the different departments.
"Our staff will be working behind the scenes with the NDP staff to better our province at their earliest convenience," adds Blight.
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