Mayor’s 2016 State of the City Address a Call to Build ‘Team Brandon’


May 19, 2016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Brandon, MB – In his second State of the City Address hosted by the Brandon Chamber of Commerce, Brandon Mayor Rick Chrest issued an open invite for leaders and residents from every corner of the community to band together and help build “Team Brandon.”

Mayor Chrest delivered his address to a crowd of approximately 425 people at the Brandon Chamber of Commerce’s May Luncheon event earlier today and noted that in approximately one and a half years since taking office, City Council and City Administration have formed a highly collaborative, collegial team. Chrest said Council’s focus will now turn to strengthening the relationships and partnerships that exist with all of Brandon’s moving parts, and issued an open invite for community leaders to join him on an official trip to the Provincial Legislature later this fall.

“It will be a busload of dedicated Brandon leaders and we will invade the Legislature en masse,” Mayor Chrest told the gathered audience. “We expect to pre-arrange appointments with respective Ministers and the Premier, have a promotional booth in the lobby of the Legislature, and facilitate as many opportunities as we can to engage with MLAs of every stripe as well as senior bureaucrats. We will generally put Brandon on the map and make sure they know we are committed to working positively with government and that ‘Team Brandon’ is open for business in all facets of our community.”

Chrest noted that of specific importance to him will be working closely with the newly-elected Federal and Provincial governments to advance the City’s need for infrastructure funding for a major upgrade and modernization of its municipal water treatment plant.

The Mayor’s lunch-hour address also updated Brandon’s many important infrastructure projects already in progress, including the soon-to-be-completed pool renovation at Brandon’s Community Sportsplex, the ongoing terminal expansion at the Brandon Municipal Airport, as well as continuing work to improve recreation facilities like the Wheat City Golf Course, the proposed outdoor complex for soccer and other field sports, and the redevelopment of the Assiniboine River Corridor.

Mayor Chrest also took time to highlight some of City Council’s operational achievements in the past 12 months, including bringing in a 2016 budget that kept the municipal tax increase to 0.26% without cuts to core services and augmented funding for important stakeholder groups such as the Keystone Centre and Renaissance Brandon. He also applauded the positive working relationships Council has enjoyed with the many other community stakeholder groups important in the continued success of the City of Brandon.

“This is ‘Team Brandon!’ I plan to continue to do my best to keep us working as a team, thinking as a team, and improving Brandon as a team,” Chrest’s speech concluded.