As the calendar flips to February and the second anniversary of COVID-19 approaches, Mayor Murray Wright shares his thoughts on 2021 and looks ahead to the last year of his Council's term. Virdenites will head to the polls in a municipal election on Oct. 26, 2022.
As Mayor, what were the highs, and lows of the past year?
“The lows would be that everybody is pretty much fed up with it (COVID-19). Everybody wants things to go back to normal. I don't think we'll ever see normal again in that sense. COVID took up a lot of the year because we had to make so many adjustments, do so many different things and spend money where we wouldn't have had it not happened. The staff went the extra mile, doing a lot of things we didn't ask them to do. I can never give enough credit to the girls in the office. It's hard to keep the morale of the staff up, and I think overall we tried. That's one of the low things...worrying about staff, keeping them in a positive frame of mind because we deal with customers, clients and taxpayers.
“On the good side of the last couple of years, we've all made it through. I think we're all looking at the bright side – the light at the end of the tunnel, and we're going to get there.
“We had an AMM (Association of Manitoba Municipalities) meeting and there were 700 plus people in a room. We all had masks and were following protocol, but it was just a sense of - Wow, we can all get together again in the same room. And it was nice to see the smiles. People from different communities chatting. That was a big boost for me and I thing for the staff that were there as well.
“I think it's great that we have a facility like Tundra Oil & Gas Place, where Manitoba Health did so many vaccination clinics. I think it seemed to go well over there, and that was a positive thing.
The other thing that kind of brought a smile to people's faces and maybe took away some stress was our new water line coming in. I think a lot of people are pretty impressed.
“COVID was a thing for a while that we used as an excuse but everybody got by that excuse. Manitobans... Canadians are a tough bunch of people. We knew we had this and we weren't going to let it beat us, and from the inside out we got that message out there. ‘Hey, don't give up...we'll get through this.’ I'm pretty proud of Council and the staff. We have the citizens of this town as a priority and our staff...to keep everybody safe and heading in the right direction.”
Are there still major challenges there for the Town – operationally and financially?
MW: “Operationally, our staff are doing the best they can for the community, the public and their own safety. Safety is one of our biggest issues. We're not going to put anybody in harm's way when it comes to COVID. All of our staff are double-vaccinated and they are the first to get any other vaccine or booster. That sets a really nice example.
“Financially, we've had to spend a bit more money in different areas to maintain safety and the ongoing work of the Town. We've also lost a lot of revenue, particularly from events at Tundra Oil & Gas Place.”
What do you and your Council still have left to accomplish before the vote in the fall?
MW: “I don't want to go into specifics, but we have four or five major projects that we're working on. Some won't be completed in 2022 or 2023.
“If we have a new Council, I'm pretty sure they'll be right involved with it too, because it's something that's going to affect everybody and all positive. With these big projects coming up, it gives everybody some direction.”
There’s concern that not enough has been done to sell the features of Virden. What do you say?
MW: “I think we're all trying to sell Virden. We have close to 3,325 people in this town. We're all trying to make Virden a better place to live, bringing in younger people. We have a new skate park... we have different things we've done to entice people to come to the town. So, I think in the next four years, whether I'm here in October or not… we're going to lay a base for whoever gets in the position to continue on to benefit the town and all of the people.”
Are you planning to seek another term?
MW: “My wife has total intentions that I'm not going to run. I'll be honest with you – there are days that I wonder why I am doing this and then the next minute I enjoy it. I try to keep a bit of humour when we're doing meetings. I kind of say what I think. I don't mean to hurt people's feelings – so for me to say, no I'm not going to run, I'd be lying. For me to say I am going to run – I'm not sure. I'd like to see these projects finished.
“I'll let people know well ahead of time because if I'm not going to run, I want to make sure that we have somebody that is going to be able to step in and work in public and be there to make sure things stay on the right track.”
