Mayor Henry Siemens shared a tale of two cities in his state of the city address last week.
Speaking to the members of the Winkler and District Chamber of Commerce at their annual meeting Feb. 20, Siemens reflected on Winkler as it is today and where city council dreams it can be in the future.
First, the mayor addressed the economic uncertainty of the world right now, with our neighbour to the south threatening tariffs. He encouraged Winkler’s business leaders to stay the course as the community rallies to weather the coming storm together.
“The world is full of lots of scary things. Today it’s the looming tariffs. Tomorrow it will be something new. Many of them might very well be extremely painful if they come to pass, but we can’t let it distract us from continuing to do what’s made us successful in the first place,” he said. “As a community we will deal with whatever comes when, or if, it comes, but in the meantime let’s keep doing what makes Winkler, Winkler.
“Our community is special and unique,” Siemens said. “We have caring and supportive churches and social service organizations. People give freely of their resources and time to many causes and events. We have a great city built by a creative and industrious business community that puts us on the map on the world stage.
“We can’t—we must not—stop being who we are and doing what we do because one of our partners has decided he no longer wants to play nice,” he stressed. “If we are to come through this tariff threat we have to be ready for what comes after. That means hoping for the best, planning for the worst, but being ready for anything in between. I have no doubt whatsoever that the Winkler business community is up for this challenge.”
Winkler in 2025 will see several major capital projects near the finish line after years of dreaming, planning, and hard work, the mayor shared.
The water treatment plant expansion is on budget and on track to come online this fall.
“That will provide freshwater security for Winkler to a population of 25,000 people,” Siemens noted. “At our current growth rate, that is likely somewhere between 2038-2042.”
Likewise, the new wastewater treatment facility being built in partnership with the RM of Stanley will also meet the community’s needs into the 2040s.
“This $56.5 million project is also on time and on budget. We anticipate substantial completion by February 2026 and full commissioning—meaning being fully operational—by fall 2026.”
Plans are in the works to make use of the plant’s extra capacity in its first few years of operation to help Morden as it works towards its own wastewater solution.
“There are specifics to be worked out and agreements to be negotiated before we know if it’s even possible, but we’re confident that this has the possibility of becoming a true win-win for everybody,” Siemens said. “Morden will get time to get their solution built out, but their development isn’t hamstrung while that happens, and we’ll generate revenue from the unused part of our system while they’re doing that, because our population isn’t 25,000 yet.”
Finally, work is well underway on renovations to the Winkler Centennial Arena.
“We’re told we’ll be playing hockey in this building in January 2026,” Siemens said, sharing new conceptual drawings of the project that illustrate the modern look it will bring to the aging facility. The renos—which completely gutted the interior for a totally redesigned space—will ensure the rink better meets the needs of the community and give it many more decades of service.
Work continues, as well, on addressing the community’s housing shortage, the mayor noted. Central Community Homes’ 28-unit affordable housing complex going up on North Railway Ave. will make a dent, but it’s not nearly enough.
“With their waiting list of over 100 families, they need much more, and we are working with them to make sure that the Manitoba government doesn’t forget about us,” Siemens said, noting local developers are also working to address the growing needs. “Last year, 267 dwelling units were started. I believe that’s the single largest number of housing starts in any one year in Winkler’s history. There’s literally something new coming up in every corner of Winkler. That’s still not enough for what’s needed. In 2025 and beyond, we will continue to depend on our building sector to find new ways to build even more housing.”
Other exciting projects in the works include several regional initiatives, Siemens shared, including supporting the Pembina Valley Water Co-op as it improves its network, discussions on the feasibility of a regional airport, and ongoing work on a walking/biking pathway to connect Winkler and Morden.
Siemens then turned his attention to the Winkler of tomorrow.
“We are at an exhilarating point in Winkler’s history,” he said. “With the decisions council has made over the last number of years, the commitment of current council to do the same, and with extremely good management by city administration, we have an opportunity today to make Winkler unique in a truly special way—by making a few more difficult choices now, future generations will not be saddled with aging, crumbling infrastructure that they can’t afford to repair or replace, that they won’t be able to provide services to the community because there is no money.”
Council has been working on having an adequately funded asset management plan that “puts money aside for the repair, renewal and replacement of all of our infrastructure so that we can do what we need to do when we need to do it,” Siemens said. “There are very few, if any, communities that can fully say they are in that position. We’re not quite there yet, but we’re getting close enough to see it from here. If we’re able to do it, our children and grandchildren will live in a community that has what they need and they’ll still be able to afford to live there.”
As it embarks on that dream of future sustainability, council is also endeavouring to be fiscally responsible today, Siemens stressed.
“To fund what Winkler needs now while simultaneously reserving what we will need tomorrow, council sees a necessity of setting tax rates slightly above the rate of inflation for the next few years,” he announced. “That will help us maintain a careful, consistent path toward funding both today’s and tomorrow’s needs.”
Winkler ratepayers can expect a 4.2 per cent increase in taxes in 2025. Council has also laid out plans for 2026 and 2027 that will see likely increases of 3.3 per cent in each of those years.
“It is never an easy decision to ask you for more,” Siemens said. “We firmly believe though that to be good stewards of all that Winkler is and can be, now is the time to make this ask.”
Planning out the budget for the next three years comes with a few major financial positives, the mayor noted, most notably when it comes to the interest the city pays on its loans.
“We will be able to shorten our borrowing time frame down to a maximum of 10 years for all of our projects,” he announced. “That one change alone will save us over $7.8 million in interest costs. While that may not necessarily mean immediate savings on your tax bill, it will result in us being able to fund future obligations more quickly with less of an additional increase in future taxes.”
Council takes seriously its responsibility to the community when it comes to finances, emphasized Siemens, who believes the decisions being made today will pay major dividends in the future.
“With a few more years of extremely disciplined preparation, we have an opportunity to set Winkler as a financially sustainable community that provides for some of the wants and the majority of the needs of its citizens.”
