Mayor Chris Goertzen says there's some good news for Steinbach as it continues to plan new recreation and cultural facilities. He says the province made an announcement at the Association of Manitoba Municipalities convention this week about a new Growing Communities Fund that will include grants for such amenities.

"This is really encouraging for us because right now there weren't any programs that were available for the major projects that we foresee in the coming years. We'll see what those details are of that fund and hopefully Steinbach, as a city, can take advantage of that."

Goertzen adds the new federal government's platform also indicates it will consider recreation and cultural facilities as infrastructure items and hopes there will be funding from both the provincial and federal governments.

"It would be better if the federal government's dollars would be involved. We'll wait to see the details on that. We're cautiously optimistic."

Goertzen, who is the President of AMM, says they had a great convention which included discussions on ways to do government better and ideas on how to form partnerships when planning new projects. He adds that is very important.

"Municipalities and communities have over 50% of the public infrastructure that is out there and yet they only get eight or nine cents of every tax dollar. That difference requires partnerships with other levels of government."