City councillor to seek third term

Damian Penner is the first City of Steinbach councillor to announce he will be seeking another term during this fall’s municipal election.

Penner is completing his second term, for a total of eight years on council and said he made his decision after considering and getting feedback from his family and the employees at Rocco’s Pizzeria, the restaurant he owns in Steinbach.

“When you put your hat in the ring to be a municipal official, I strongly believe that you have to be committed for the four years,” he said.

Penner said he’s proud that council completed two major projects in the last term, the Southeast Event Centre and the infrastructure renewal that saw a new intersection at Highway 12 and Loewen Boulevard, both unprecedented in terms of financial cost and scope.

The focus now, he said, is to keep addressing infrastructure needs, to position the city for continued growth.

This attention to infrastructure has been a tradition for successive councils and Penner said Steinbach has a strong reputation.

“We have the opportunity to tour a lot of communities across the nation and talk to a lot of councils across Canada and Steinbach is known across Canada,” he said. “We have councillors of major cities tapping us on the shoulder and saying how are we able to do this, how are we able to accomplish this.”

Penner said his love for the City of Steinbach is reflected by those who live here, and all are willing to look for the betterment of the city as a whole.

That includes addressing growth, something Penner said he believes the city has done well and is something that must continue to be a priority.

“We’ve kept up with the infrastructure,” he said. “We need to do more. We need to really bolster it because we expect the growth to continue.”

Penner said being fiscally responsible has always been his goal, something that he lives out as a small business owner in the hospitality industry, and something he lived as an only child to a single mother.

“I saw every day how an individual’s income can get whittled away through taxes and fees, and the everyday struggles to make a single dollar stretch into two,” he said. “I do not take for granted the impact that property taxes can have on a family and through responsible long-term infrastructure planning I want to ensure that taxation has as little impact to families in our community as possible.”

Penner said council will focus on the wastewater treatment plant project that is being planned but said all infrastructure is the priority.

“We are elected on a mandate of making sure our infrastructure is up to par for the City of Steinbach,” he said.

“I firmly believe in focusing on the basics of municipal government,” he added. “Steinbach has seen unprecedented growth over the past decade, meaning there needs to be an intentional investment into our infrastructure to ensure our growth is sustainable. In order to do that we must go forward in bolstering our roadways, parks and water infrastructure to not only keep up with the current demand we see on them, but to improve them to handle future usage.”

Steinbach Mayor Earl Funk has also announced his plan to seek another term.