The Association of Manitoba Municipalities' annual convention took place last weekend.

This was the first conference under a Conservative provincial government in Reeve Kam Blight's time as RM of Portage La Prairie reeve. He notes the format of the conference was pretty much the same however, there were a few differences.

"This year we never received approval for any ministerial meetings that we requested which was a little bit different as we've always had that opportunity in the past."

Blight describes some of the elements brought up during the conference.

"We brought up a lot of infrastructure concerns. I brought up the western overpass on the west side of Portage La Prairie, that's a major issue for us, a major concern. We want to see something done there. Naturally, the high water levels, the operational guidelines of the Portage Diversion, how the Assiniboine River is operated, the outlet channel, Lake Manitoba. There were so many issues like that that we discussed. [...] We definitely tried to hammer those issues and points home with individuals of the provincial government and I think they heard our points and our concerns very clearly."

Blight adds meetings have also been orchestrated with neighbouring municipalities to discuss common issues, learn from each other and work together. He notes in all the conference was a win-win for the municipality.