The City and the Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie have won a national award for working together on their Regional Childcare Project partnership.

According to a release from the Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators, the City and RM approached the Province of Manitoba in 2021 as a municipal cooperative about entering into a partnership to build a new municipality-owned childcare facility. Construction started on the new $3.3 million 72-spot childcare facility in November of last year. It's being built within the city and should be completed in late summer. 

City Manager Nathan Peto and RM Chief Administrative Officer Nettie Neudorf went to Toronto last Wednesday to receive the CAMA  2023 Collaboration Award for Collaboration within Municipalities.

Peto says they have a long history of teamwork.

"It's been over 20 years, starting with our tax sharing agreement, and going into everything from our recreational authority, our planning district, to economic development," says Peto. "We have a real successful history of collaboration with the RM and this is just a new project that just builds on that foundation. It's really nice to be recognized at the national level for how well we do partnerships in the Portage region."

Neudorf says the whole region benefits when both the City and RM come together. She believes both Heads of Council, both councils, and administrations find common issues and have built trust and understanding over that time.

"I think it speaks to our relationship that we have," says Neudorf. "We just continue to build off of the success from the past and the present, and gives us an exciting look to the future, in terms of knowing that we can take opportunities, or even make opportunities, by working so well together."

Neudorf says other communities can learn from the City and RM by looking at what they have in common, just like our region did so many years ago.