State of the City Chrest talks COVID-19, new initiatives

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This article was published 21/05/2021 (1952 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For the seventh time in his political career, Mayor Rick Chrest delivered a talk to members of the Brandon Chamber of Commerce for the annual state of the city address via Zoom on Thursday afternoon.

It was the second straight year Chrest has done a virtual address due to COVID-19.

He used his time to announce some new initiatives for the City of Brandon and talk about the ongoing fight against the virus.

After Premier Brian Pallister asked all eligible Manitobans to get vaccinated as COVID-19 case numbers and hospitalizations due to the virus continue to soar, both chamber president Spencer Day and Chrest issued their own calls for locals to get the jab.

Day said his wife was vaccinated yesterday and his appointment is coming up soon, while Chrest said he and his wife were vaccinated at the end of April.

“This is our fastest path to recovery and economic stability,” Day said. “Get the needle in your arm. I’m sure there are going to be worse things we’ll be doing to our bodies on the May long weekend coming up.”

When the mayor addressed COVID, he said there was light at the end of the tunnel.

“We finally have a real, live remedy in the works and it should be a game-changer,” Chrest said. “That is vaccinations.”

In his introduction to the event, Day revealed that the rural economic development office the province promised for Brandon in the 2019 provincial election has set up shop within the chamber’s building on Rosser Avenue.

Chrest began his remarks by praising the chamber and local businesses for their resiliency in the face of the global pandemic and their innovative efforts to adjust to public health restrictions.

He said he’d hoped to discuss the recovery process from the pandemic and how cases in hospitals are dropping by the time the address was due to take place, but those things have yet to be realized with additional health restrictions added on Thursday afternoon.

According to the mayor, a small business relief and restart program is being worked out by the city and the chamber, but details were not yet ready to be released.

“I’m sorry we’re still midway through the process,” he said. “It is complex and naturally the municipality doesn’t have the depth of resources that our senior federal and provincial governments have. However, we’re all committed to working collaboratively, and I’m confident we’ll land on something that can provide modest help to those in need.

“We realize there have been many programs at the provincial and federal levels that have happened with businesses, organizations and employees, but we also know there are some gaps and we know some businesses are barely hanging on that could use a small hand up that may enable them to create some new sales, access additional professional assistance and navigate through to the other side of this. So please, stay tuned.”

The Western Manitoba Regional Library location at The Town Centre is in store for a revitalization. Chrest said that not a lot has changed since the library moved to its current location approximately 20 years ago and it and the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba are up for some improvements.

The mayor also announced that a new downtown safety task force is under consideration by city council. He said it would gather together local service providers and stakeholders to help the vulnerable in downtown Brandon and provide a greater sense of security.

This effort is being made in conjunction with the city adding a new affordable housing coordinator position, which will take over affordable housing work within the city from Economic Development Brandon and contribute to city committees like the poverty and age-friendly committees.

On infrastructure, Chrest said applications are in with the federal government to receive funding from the Investing In Canada Infrastructure Program to help pay for the more than $100-million project to upgrade the municipal water treatment plant and build the new outdoor sports complex at the corner of First Street North and Veterans Way.

City staff is working on finishing a design for the sports complex this year, with the tender for the first phase of work expected to be issued next year.

Up next for the chamber is the presidential changeover ceremony on June 3. That’s when Day will hand over the keys to the kingdom to Barry Cooper of Heritage Co-op, who has been vice-president of the organization for the last year.

“Please don’t show me up too bad, Barry,” Day quipped. “I know you’re excited to roll.”

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