4 | City of Winkler
included a 60 percent leap in new single
residential units and a jolting jump in mul-
tiple family units of more than 200 percent.
“There’s been a real boom in housing con-
struction, and it sure seems like something
is happening inWinkler,” says City Engineer
Johan Botha.
Now for his part, to be sure, Botha is less
interested in determining the causality com-
pelling all this activity, but is more geared to-
ward making sure municipal infrastructure is
properly serving the needs of the community.
Botha leads one of the smallest, yet arguably
most-capable of any city engineering depart-
ment one will encounter in Canada. Though
he’s not one to particularly brag (quickly
acknowledging that he has an Engineer-in-
Training, technical assistant “wizard” and
a wonderful lady who provides administra-
tive support), the fact remains Winkler has
saved vast sums of money due to Botha’s
engineering prowess, and that’s something
Winkler Mayor Martin Harder didn’t have
any problem bragging about during a recent
ribbon cutting to open the city’s new water
treatment plant. In acknowledging the ser-
vices that will be provided by this $4 million
investment, Mayor Hardin also recognized
that the planning aspects and the project
engineering of the job were completed in-
