Communities across North America are celebrating all the good things their public works departments are accomplishing in their communities.

It's Public Works Week and many communities are providing opportunities for their residents to connect with local public works teams to find out more about the services they provide.

For the first time ever, the R.M. of Montcalm held an open event exhibiting and demonstrating the services their public works team provides. Montcalm Reeve Derek Sabourin said the day was about showing everyone the value of public works.

Every year National Public Works Week gets bigger and better. The number of participating municipalities continues to grow, which means the number of citizens who are exposed to the value of public works grows

"We want everyone to recognize what the employees do here at public works and to thank all the staff. They do a lot of things we don't see during times of the day when we are often still in bed. I also want to recognize our local Fire department that showed up today to celebrate with us and many of the local contractors."

Montcalm public works manager Chad Buhlin said his team puts in tireless hours daily at all hours to get their jobs done.

"You guys can drive to work everyday, drink the water and flush your toilets all at the same time. It's a lot of work going on behind the scenes and the public just does not see everything that happens. I know that you all receive your tax bill every year and have questions about where your money goes. Today was an opportunity to showcase to residents in the region where some of their tax dollars go."

Buhlin went on to say the event was a national initiative to get people involved with their public works departments, noting sometimes the work they do goes under appreciated or unnoticed.

Buhlin also mentioned that he is hoping people take away a new appreciation for the job of a public works employee.

"The response we had today was great, I was actually surprised at how many people came out to help us celebrate and recognize the work we do. I did a head count just before the speeches and we would of been around 200 people in attendance today.

Over 100 students attended from local schools and took turns discovering the different aspects each piece of equipment provides.

Equipment from the public works department, and the Montcalm, St Jean and Letellier fire departments were part of the event. Blue prints for the new St. Jean Lagoon were also made readily available for review.