Former Morden mayor to head new NDP cabinet office in southern Manitoba

The provincial government is setting up shop in southern Manitoba with a new cabinet office in the Pembina Valley region.

Former Morden mayor Brandon Burley will lead the initiative. Burley, who served as the city's mayor for five years, will be the liaison between the premier's office, cabinet and stakeholders in the Pembina Valley region, the province said in a news release Wednesday night. 

"If you look at the election map from last election cycle there wasn't a lot of NDP representation in the rural," he said in an interview with CBC News.

"So it's a big step for this government to reach out as they have in western Manitoba, now southern Manitoba, to work with these regions."

The NDP government announced earlier this month it would also be setting up a regional cabinet office for western Manitoba in Brandon. 

Burley resigned from his role as Morden's mayor in October and was named to the premier's transition advisory team shortly after. He said southern Manitoba is very broad and in his role on the advisory team, he spoke to people as far away as Thompson and Swan River about their concerns. 

If people in their communities identify as being part of southern Manitoba, Burley will assist them until he's told otherwise. He said eventually the lines of service will be formally drawn up, but that his role goes "well beyond the Pembina Valley" region.

"The province is developing an outreach effort and there are other people who are going to be joining this team at a point," he said. 

"It could be other regions, it could be other people working on outreach within the government itself," he said. "I have no specifics on that yet, but for right now my focus is southern Manitoba, in the communities that fill their allegiance to that kind of neck of the woods." 

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said in Wednesday's release that "this is an important step in making sure Manitobans in the southern region have a strong partner in the provincial government."