Selkirk Biz brings business owners and political leaders together for local discussion
The Selkirk Biz once again hosted the State of the Region event, where they gave local residents and business owners the opportunity to talk to and ask questions of our local political leaders.
The room was packed for the 2026 Selkirk Biz’s State of the Region
This year, Selkirk Biz Board Member Tracy Mainland Kramble was the emcee for the event. She started off the event with a land acknowledgement and welcomed all of our local leaders who were speaking, as well as many other councillors and MLAs who came to support the event.
The first speaker of the event was Selkirk MLA Richard Perchotte.
“I’m surrounded here by colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and appreciate everybody being here. I see mayors and councils. I see local leaders, and it’s amazing to see everybody coming out here today,” said Perchotte.
His presentation focused on the future and the promise in the region. He mentioned his hopes that the new Selkirk hospital can continue to be utilized and even have more opportunities in the future to help deal with medical backlogs.
“I’d love to see the government step forward and open the door and pathways for the opportunities for business to thrive. When a business can come out here and thrive, people come with that business, and community expands, local business expands, tax bases expand, and we have revenue to keep going and offer more programs,” he said.
He concluded by hoping that work can be put into making our area’s highways safer in the future and thanked everyone for being there.
Next up was Red River North MLA Jeff Wharton.
Wharton started by acknowledging the hard work of Perchotte, who recently announced that he is not going to be seeking reelection. Wharton commended Perchotte’s work “fighting for the folks of Selkirk-St Andrews every single day.”
He then discussed the successes that his party had when they led the government.
“We did do some wonderful work in partnership with our mayors and reeves for both East St. Paul and St. Clements. We did new sewer and water infrastructure. We talked about better roads. We also focused on safety and lowering speed limits on certain highways,” he said.
He then discussed the positive change from lower speed limits and traffic lights in Brokenhead.
As for the future, he highlighted some highway safety concerns that he hopes the province can address.
“We need to look at Highway 59, we need to look at repairing that road for safety from (Provincial Road) 317 north through Brokenhead. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We will continue to work with the government to ensure that your issues and your concerns are addressed,” said Wharton.
The mayors were up next, starting with Joy Sul from St Andrews.
Her speech centred on strong partnerships.
“As I’ve mentioned before, we are incredibly grateful to have received a $1.1 million grant from this government for the Lockport Active Transportation Path and streetscape project on Hwy 44,” she said.
Sul thanked the provincial representatives who made it happen and discussed how this investment is about more than infrastructure, but is a way that St. Andrews and St. Clements can form a very literal connection, allowing people to enjoy what both communities have to offer.
She then turned to recreation.
“A.K. Soccer is investing $4.5 million into a world-class indoor and outdoor soccer facility. By working together, we are creating opportunities for our youth – not just here but across the region,” said Sul.
She then mentioned that one of the highlights from the community over the past year included the Sgt. Tommy Prince Celebration, and that more may come with that, as plans are underway on a walking trail in his honour.
Sul concluded with the humourous announcement that she will be “arrested” on May 6 at the McDonald’s in Selkirk on Main St. on McHappy Day and that she will be accepting donations to the Ronald McDonald House as “bail”. If you would like to contribute to Sul’s fundraising efforts, stop by McDonald’s.
“Thanks to all of you, our partners, our residents, our business partners and our community leaders. The progress we see today is not the work of one person or one council – it is the result of working together. Partnerships build results,” she said in conclusion.
Mayor Debbie Fiebelkorn of the RM of St. Clements went next, and she came prepared with a slide presentation.
“Our focus has been simple and disciplined- strengthen our foundations, invest responsibly and prepare our communities for the future. Today, I want to share how that work is showing up in practical ways for residents,” she said in opening.
She spoke about plans to maintain the roads in the region through a one per cent mill rate increase this year, which comes on the heels of a large mill rate decrease last year. Fiebelkorn explained that they are focused on maintaining the about 720 kilometers of roads in the region.
They have also made progress at the Libau landfill with a new engineered waste cell designed for long-term environmental protection and service reliability.
“Public safety remains one of our most important responsibilities. In 2025, we invested in two new fire department command units to improve communication and coordination at complex emergency scenes. We also added a specialized wildland and grass fire truck for Narol, built to respond to one of our greatest seasonal risks,” said Fiebelkorn.
After updating the room on what they’ve done recently, she turned to the future.
Fiebelkorn discussed work moving forward on the south reservoir and service sharing opportunities, while continuing long-term planning at the Libau landfill.
She also discussed how the South St. Clements Activity Centre is working its way towards completion.
“Looking ahead. 2026 is a delivery year. We are moving from planning and procurement to visible community facing results. Priorities include opening the activity center, advancing regional partnerships such as Henderson Highway planning, supporting the library expansion campaign, and continuing to keep residents informed and engaged. We are not slowing down,” said Fiebelkorn.
She is also getting “arrested” in support of the Ronald McDonald House on McHappy Day, so perhaps a little competition between St. Clements and St. Andrews will take place.
Mayor Peter Truijen of West St. Paul shared his news next.
He jumped in with the positive news that West St. Paul is experiencing growth in residential, commercial and industrial sites and that a new school is being built in the Meadowlands subdivision for Kindergarten to Grade 8 students and is expected to open for the 2027 school year.
Truijen then discussed the new housing that is being approved and is underway in the community, as the community has experienced a great deal of growth.
As for the future, Truijen discussed the future project of a bridge over Grasmere Creek, which will connect Kapelus Drive to Grassmere Road and remove the Kapelus Drive access point to Hwy. 8, increasing safety.
He then discussed how SmartCentres and Costco are both planning to bring business to West St. Paul in the future.
“In the first three months of 2026 alone, we have already over $91 million in construction value added to our municipality, which is an increase of 150 per cent at the same time last year,” said Truijen.
He concluded by talking about how the RM is now establishing their Community Safety Officer Program and how they are hiring three CSOs(Community Safety Officers) to work alongside the RCMP to increase visibility and for enforcement of selective provincial bylaws such as the Traffic Act.
Mayor Carla Devlin of East St. Paul came up to the podium next.
“Over the past year, council and administration have remained focused on strengthening core infrastructure, improving services and investing in the programs and amenities that matter to our residents,” she said.
Devlin mentioned their success in this area with the opening of the splashpad, expansion of the pickleball courts, and accessibility improvements at Hugh McDonald Park.
She then discussed how East St. Paul’s Community Safety Officer Program was the first in the province, and that they are seeing success there as well.
“In 2026, we are building on that investment by adding a third CSO officer and a vehicle and staff to support. We’re also adding drone technology to support both our CSO program and our fire department. The technology will enhance situational awareness and emergency response and public safety,” said Devlin.
She then went on to speak about wastewater infrastructure in East St. Paul, which is an important topic to the community.
“In April, council made a significant decision to endorse the construction of a new wastewater treatment plant on a greenfield site on the newly acquired Imperial Oil lands. This decision followed extensive technical review and reflects Council’s commitment to a long term solution to support existing residents and environmental stewardship into the future,” said Devlin.
In conclusion, she said that she’s most proud that the RM isn’t just reacting to issues as they arise but is planning ahead, investing in infrastructure, public safety, recreation, and the future of the municipality.
The final mayor of the day was Selkirk’s Larry Johannson, who brought with him a video presentation to go alongside his speech.
“Selkirk is growing. It’s growing in population, economic opportunity, vibrancy and civic pride,” he said.
Johannson then discussed the City’s downtown, which has seen some love over the past few years, with millions of dollars of investment being put in by the City and investment from organizations like the MMF, which recently completed construction on their building at the corner of Eveline St. and Eaton Ave. Johannson says that this is just the start.
He then went on to talk about how, since Selkirk repatriated land use planning and building permit services, they are seeing homes being built, with more to come, which will be needed as the City’s population is growing.
Another anticipated project in downtown is the Garry Theatre, which has seen some major announcements over the past year, and Johannson shared more good news.
“The Garry was (once) the epicentre of entertainment for our region, and it will (be), once again, thanks to the city, the province, and the many donors and sponsors who have stepped up, it will be the epicentre again. I can’t wait to see you all at the Garry in a few weeks,” he said.
Johannson then spoke about plans for the West End Development, which will include 60 acres for a regional natural space park.
“We’re now in the final stages of opening the first 23 acres of that land for development, with much more to follow in 2026,” he said.
Johannson updated residents on the urban forest of Selkirk, which the city plans to add 1000 more trees to this year as part of its climate action work.
“In closing, I will say that in 2026 we are building on the successes of the last four years, and lifelong residents like myself can see and feel the difference in Selkirk and together, we are building a more sustainable, vibrant, inclusive and prosperous Selkirk for all,” said Johannson.
The final speaker of the day was Premier Wab Kinew, who started off talking healthcare.
“Our government is really, really focused on improving the quality of health care, and that’s right through from more physicians being recruited, hundreds more in the province already, hundreds more nurses, health care aides, right on down the list to allied health professionals. But here in the region and at Selkirk Hospital in particular, I wanted to talk about two big time initiatives in health that have been very, very well received so far. One is that we added 800 surgeries to the Selkirk Hospital last year, and we’re doing it again this year, another 800 coming up,” said Kinew.
The second health care initiative that he spoke about was midwifery services. This program currently boasts 73 families in this region who have a midwife who is helping them through their journey to grow their families.
Kinew mentioned work that’s being done, investing in passing lanes on Hwy. 8 and work on Hwy. 9, before discussing his appreciation for the collaboration that the province is seeing from local municipalities with the Community Safety Officer Program.
Another local project that Kinew mentioned is the children’s section expansion to the Gaynor Family Regional Library, which the province gave $600,000 to, and this grant, along with great contributions from the region’s municipalities, and huge donations from local organizations and residents, made the project possible.
“We were really happy to make that investment, but also follow it up in the budget was an increase to operating funding for libraries right across the entire province of Manitoba,” said Kinew.
He explained that when he goes to places like Ottawa, the Manitoba advantage is very clear.
“We’ve got great future opportunities, like the Port of Churchill, but the thing that really makes Manitoba special is the people. It’s the people who go out and volunteer for minor hockey so that we can have those success stories that we acknowledged a few minutes ago. It’s the people who go to work each day in the healthcare facilities to care for one another during those special moments where our families grow, or those challenging moments where the people we care for are facing some very tough situations, or if it’s simply the folks who make sure that the libraries and parks and streets that we call home each and every day are wonderful places to live. This is what Manitoba is all about, and this is what your provincial government is focused on celebrating. So I heard somebody say earlier, the state of the region is pretty great. I’ll add to that (and) say the state of the province is going very well,” said Kinew in conclusion.
The meeting ended with an opportunity for residents to ask questions of the premier.
