The RM of Portage la Prairie's approved its preliminary 2019 budget. It comes in at $7,090,000, and Reeve Kam Blight's pleased it's $50,000 lower than last year.

He adds it doesn't contain any tax increases, which is something Council's worked very hard to achieve.

"It's something that we've made a priority," he says, "And we've challenged our administration and public works to continue to focus on efficiencies. We have to be honest that there have been increases in assessment, and increases in additional tax revenues coming into the municipality, with the growth that we've seen, so we've been very fortunate in that regard as well. But it is something that we watch very, very closely."

Blight outlines some of the things money from the budget will be used for.

"Naturally, it's the industrial growth that we have in our municipality," he says, "We're very excited about what our future holds for us, and we're going to continue to try and build off of that. We've purchased some more land around the Enns Brothers property, and we're looking at turning that into a nice industrial park.

A public hearing on the budget will be held in the spring.

Here's the Report to Council.