Economy rebounding, premier tell business leaders

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This article was published 28/04/2022 (1610 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This year’s provincial budget emphasizes recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic with a special interest in boosting the health-care system and economy, Manitoba’s premier told Brandon business leaders Thursday.

Heather Stefanson was at the Keystone Centre to reiterate components of the 2022 Manitoba budget during the Brandon Chamber of Commerce’s monthly luncheon.

It’s the second consecutive week Stefanson has delivered remarks to an audience at the Keystone Centre after appearing last week at the Association of Manitoba Municipalities spring convention to highlight grant funding for sustainable projects.

During her visit last week, Stefanson highlighted the doubled funding for the Building Sustainable Communities grant initiative, from which nine Brandon programs will receive money this year. No details on those programs were provided Thursday, but the premier said announcements would come from her cabinet colleagues “in the next short while.”

She told assembled guests from the business community that Manitoba’s economy is rebounding with rising employment, retail sales, manufacturing sales and farm receipts, and it’s thanks to people like them.

After Stefanson delivered her speech, Brandon Chamber of Commerce president Barry Cooper took a seat next to the premier for a brief question-and-answer session.

In response to a question about the new economic development secretariat the premier is chairing, Stefanson said it was something that existed in the 1990s and is being brought back to emphasize economic development.

“That will be throughout all of Manitoba, looking at a whole province approach for the different sectors of our economy,” Stefanson said.

One of the keys to economic development especially when there have been recent labour shortages, she said, is getting immigration back on track and helping workers coming from outside Canada to obtain their credentials so they can work in their field when they arrive.

Given the location of the event, Cooper asked Stefanson a question near and dear to the Keystone Centre: when will the province come to a permanent, predictable funding agreement with the facility?

“How do we get to the point where we can have stable, consistent funding they can count on and is not just year-by-year?” Cooper asked.

On the issue of aligning programming at post-secondary institutions with the needs of the job market, Stefanson said the government wants to hear what industries and communities need so they can move things in that direction.

Both then and during a scrum held afterward, she identified the Building Sustainable Communities grant program as something the Keystone Centre could take advantage of and said a collaborative approach is necessary, but didn’t discuss the creation of any kind of long-term deal.

Earlier in the afternoon, the premier highlighted the provincial government retiring $2.9 million of Keystone Centre debt as an example of its support for the facility.

It has been two consecutive weeks where southern Manitoba has encountered severe weather events, with Environment Canada predicting another Colorado low this weekend.

According to Stefanson, Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Doyle Piwniuk has been in communication with Westman communities to help them prepare and get through any flooding that occurs.

Also present at the event was St. Vital MLA Jamie Moses, the NDP’s critic for advanced education and economic development. After Stefanson’s speech, he said this year’s budget lacks a vision for the future.

“We’re continuing to see underfunding in health care, a surgical backlog list that not only grows in number but grows in wait time lengths and in addition to that, when it comes to economic development, we’re not seeing the kinds of infrastructure investments that businesses need and are relying on,” Moses said.

“When it comes to municipalities, their fundings are getting frozen, they can’t work on those infrastructure investments, even the roads that I drove on to get to the Keystone Centre today have potholes in them.”

The next luncheon is on May 12, when Mayor Rick Chrest will follow the premier by giving a state of the city address. The event will be held at the UCT Pavilion at the Keystone Centre.

After being postponed due to a blizzard earlier this month, the chamber’s annual awards gala will take place on May 18, also at the Keystone Centre.

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