The City of Morden has enlisted KPMG, a professional consultant, to facilitate the city's strategic planning process.  

Mayor Nancy Penner said recently community stakeholders were involved in giving feedback. 

"There's a number of components that go into creating a strategic plan, and at the end of the day, the strategic plan will help the city to ensure that we have a positive, healthy well-being community for our citizens." 

Penner said, as Manitoba's fastest growing city, there are goals in mind. 

"We want our taxpayers to get value for the services we deliver, we want our city to remain competitive, we want it to be attractive, and we need to be financially sustainable." 

A background review of previous city initiatives, documents and demographic information was the first step in this process. The consultants then performed interviews with 10 stakeholders who represent large user groups such as the Pembina Valley Water Co-op, Western School Division and the Morden Chamber of Commerce.  

"They developed a list of potential internal and external key stakeholders. We are meeting with all our department heads within the city because each of them comes with specific ideas and plans within their departments on how the city needs to grow and expectations within their departments, what the city needs, but also external stakeholders."   

Penner noted big industries are also included in the mix, with consideration given to the ways the city can support them. 

"We're not a city, in isolation. We need to realize we are bigger than just the citizens of Morden. We need to realize there's key component stakeholders within the city that we want to consult with because it's a number of players that we need to meet the needs of." 

The vision is clear on this step in the process. 

"Community stakeholders are very key discussions that need to take place so the city can look at our go forward planning, not just for today but for future residents and businesses and how we can incorporate their needs and wants and still be fiscally responsible going down the road." 

The City of Morden invites all residents to attend a Strategic Planning community consultation, to share their vision for Morden January 30th at the Morden Civic Centre from 6-8pm.