In late 1999, the president of Maple Leaf Foods announced that Brandon had been selected out of 42 possible communities for the construction of a $112 million hog processing plant.
[7] The following year, he the led council in approving a plan for the city to own and operate a wastewater treatment plant to serve the Maple Leaf facility.
[9] The city administrator responded to this charge by arguing that most of the money went to improving Brandon's existing capacity for water and wastewater treatment.
He also opposes the separate taxation system for urban reserve lands and believes that aboriginal Canadians should fall under the same tax apparatus as non-aboriginals.
[13] Notwithstanding his views on casinos, Atkinson supported using Video Lottery Terminals to raise revenues and rejected calls for a plebiscite on the issue.
[15] Late in his term, Atkinson led a council in approving a comprehensive by-law against indoor smoking, with no age limits or exemptions for bars.
[19] He campaigned for the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba in 2003 as the Progressive Conservative candidate in Brandon West and lost to New Democratic Party incumbent Scott Smith by a wide margin.