The Association of Manitoba Municipalities held a bye-election recently to fill vacant director positions after the Municipal election left several open spots. Swan River Mayor Lance Jacobson put his name forward to fill the open spot in the Parkland District.
"I reached out to all of the municipalities prior to the election and spoke to several Mayors, and Reeves, and Heads of Council, and some of them have told me some of the things they were already thinking, but I'll definitely do my best to meet with them, or reach out to them, and bring all issues forward."
Jacobson has been interested in taking on a bigger role within AMM for some time and says that the regular elections for the role will be coming up in June 2023, so it'll be a good opportunity to try out the role before running again for a full two-year term.
"I would say it has been something that I've been thinking about for some time. I was first elected in Swan River in 2010, and over the first few years, I had grown some awareness of the AMM and some interest in it. After serving my first term as Mayor I thought, lets give this a try and see how this goes."
Jacobson says that it's a position he's been interested in for a while and wants to help bring the area closer together.
"I want to bring the AMM and the Parkland a little bit closer together. One of the things I thought would be an effective way of communicating between all the Parkland municipalities is to, maybe once a year, have all our heads of councils meet, and discuss some of our common issues, goals, and what we can bring forward to the AMM, and also to ministers and to the provincial government, and also the federal government."
Jim Manchur, the Reeve of Gilbert Plains, is the other AMM Parkland Director.
