Winkler Mayor Henry Siemens took his monthly "Ask the Mayor" session on the road Tuesday afternoon. Rather than connecting with residents at City Hall, he went to Garden Valley Collegiate, giving students an opportunity to approach him about what’s on their minds. "I was really impressed with this session," he shared after it wrapped up. "The fact we had 100 young people show up with questions and with interest, I was really, really proud of our community, and who we are and where we're going when I see this level of engagement from an active group of young people." Any questions catch you off guard? Siemens admitted, yes, there we a few, but that's always the case when you're taking questions from a group. "Whenever we have larger groups of students, they come up with some interesting questions, you can't ever plan for every one of them." he said. "I think what I was most impressed with was the knowledge they showed up with, and the intelligence behind the questions. I didn't think there was a single frivolous question here. Every single question had a reason why it was asked, and was important it was asked, and it was important that information was shared with them." Related stories: Province grants $99,000 for Morden-Winkler policing study, plus support for new medical unit Cannabis advocates call on Winkler Council to revisit dispensary ban Seeds for tomorrow planted Siemens couldn't say enough about how much he enjoyed his time, and stressed the importance of engaging with all aspects of the community regarding feedback and conversation. "The engagement from our community, it's so vital to help us make decisions. that we're able to talk to a broad spectrum of the community," he offered. "To be able to have this many young people here today who had obviously some specific interests, but overall community interest, that we would see more of that as we continue to have our 'Ask the Mayor' sessions, that people would recognize they have an opportunity to form policy and direction when they come and have those types of conversations with us." The next Ask the Mayor is November 4th at the Meridian Exhibition Centre. - With files from Alexander Peters -