A Portage la Prairie resident and former city councillor is looking forward to the opportunity to chair the Manitoba Municipal Board.

Jeff Bereza — a Portage city councillor from 2006-10 and currently business development manager with Legend Seeds Canada in Winkler — was recently appointed to the role by the provincial government.

"For me it's a great honour to be part of the board, especially to be appointed chair," says Bereza. "It's a great honour to be able to hopefully give something back to my province."

Bereza says his experiences on council will help in the new role. He was a member of the Portage Planning District, which worked with the Municipal Board. Bereza also worked to re-draft the City of Portage la Prairie's land development document.

"Things like that are going to play directly into the job of being on the Municipal Board," he explains.

One area Bereza hopes the Municipal Board can affect across the province is the length of time it takes to complete major municipal infrastructure projects.

"Whether it's roads, or water treatment plants, or recreation facilities, the longer you wait or (take) to make a decision, the more costly your projects get," says Bereza. "Hopefully we can help to streamline that a little bit, so we can make these things work a little more quickly."

A government release explains the Manitoba Municipal Board is a quasi-judicial tribunal whose members hear applications, appeals and referrals related to legislation including the Municipal Act, the Municipal Assessment Act, the Municipal Board Act and the Planning Act.