Not a lot has changed around the Municipality of Boissevain-Morton’s council table with just one new face joining council.

Mike McCallum is on council for the first time and he along with the other councilors and Head of Council Judy Swanson attended their inaugural meeting on Thursday, November 3.

Judy Swanson is back for another four-year term, and she looks forward to the next four years. “It’s exciting and we have lots of councillors we’ve had on in the past. We do have one new person and it’s good to see new people coming into council.

“It might be difficult at the start because we’re continuing with a number of projects, but we’ll make sure he’s up to speed when it comes to everything we’re doing right now.”

Councillors still haven’t received their committee assignments. “I’m not appointing anyone until the next meeting because some of the committee I’m not sure need somebody sitting on them but we’re also going to do more committee work as a committee. For instance, we can take transportation or community development and all of the council will sit together in a meeting specific to that and we’ll do all the questions and make sure we’re all on the same page going forward,” said Judy Swanson.

Swanson is pleased with the make-up of council, and she says they do a great job representing both urban and rural ratepayers. “We all represent the entire municipality so each person on council represents both rural and urban residents. We’re sworn to represent the entire municipality. If you sit in at any of our meetings and listen to what we talk about we’re all involved and we’re all engage whether it’s urban or rural. Where you live isn’t as important as being engaged in what we’re talking about.”

Judy Swanson says getting a new lagoon built near the landfill north of Boissevain is the number one priority for council this term.

“We also have to see the swimming pool through to completion. The rink is certainly on the radar but I’m not sure where on the radar, but we have a group starting to raise money and that’s great. I’m not sure if it’ll be completed this term but we’ll be moving forward with it,” said Judy Swanson.

Another priority for council is health care and working to retain and recruit health care workers.