A message from the President Guy Moffat

Welcome to the new addition of the Portage and District Business Review. There has been a lot of activity and change since our last edition. First and foremost is the change in our organization’s management. This summer we said farewell to Cindy MacDonald as our Executive Director as she set sights on expanding her experience in a new role with one of our members, Southport Aerospace.

With that change, our Board was in search of a new Executive Director, and we are excited to welcome Stefanie Dunn to the role. Stefanie has brought some new experience and energy to our organization and is working hard to connect with our membership.

We’ve been listening to our members and as a result became an advocate for communication around the Saskatchewan Avenue redevelopment. Some of our members were frustrated by the duration of some of the road closures and being notified in advance of road and service disruptions. We worked closely with the City of Portage La Prairie, and in addition to an information evening last fall, we offered to assist with distributing updates to our members as well as our local media outlets, which we have been doing weekly.

We hosted many successful events of the last year, and one that stands out for me moving the State of the City/RM/ School Division to a new platform. This year, the event was hosted at Prairie Fusion and moved to the evening. We had a great meal and got to hear directly from leaders from each of the organizations in their address to our membership, and representatives from the City, RM, and School Division were also at each of the tables. The delegates sitting at each table rotated on a regular basis to a new table so there was an opportunity for our membership to visit with RM and City councilors, as well as Trustees from School Division, and they were able to discuss some of the topics on their minds.

We are continuously striving to improve, grow, and bring value to our members, so if you have an idea as to how we can do this better, please drop in or give us a call.