Premier announces new infrastructure panel

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This article was published 01/12/2023 (711 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Premier Wab Kinew announced the fulfillment of one of his campaign promises at the Association of Manitoba Municipalities fall convention in Brandon on Thursday morning, creating a new infrastructure panel made up of representative from across the province.

During a forum on the convention’s closing day, municipal leaders had the chance to ask questions directly of Kinew and his cabinet. They asked about infrastructure improvements, increasing funding for their municipalities and police services, housing, health care, taxation, rural airports and more.

After answering a question from Neepawa Deputy Mayor Murray Parrott about improvements to rural roads and highways, the premier announced that Centreport CEO Carly Edmundson and RM of Sifton Coun. Scott Phillips have been tasked with co-chairing a new blue-ribbon infrastructure panel to identify regional needs from around the province.

“Over the past number of years, we’ve heard many times the question ‘how are we going to ensure that our region gets its fair share of infrastructure investment?’” Kinew said, adding: “Let’s bring … people from across Manitoba together to build the infrastructure, including in your regions, which are going to power our economy for the next generation.”

Municipal Relations Minister Ian Bushie committed to establishing a predictable funding model for municipalities that includes annual increases, while Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said he’s open to discussing changes to the policing funding basket.

“I know there are larger challenges within that basket and I’m happy to talk further about that with individual municipalities, because I know there’s some discrepancy between some (rural municipalities) and certainly some legacy challenges that we need to clean up,” Wiebe said.

“But just in general, as a first step, to offer that predictability, that will increase as well.”

He added that it isn’t the end of the conversation and he’s met with Manitoba RCMP commanding officer Rob Hill and federal Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc to address serious challenges about crime in Manitoba communities.

After the forum, Kinew told reporters that the additional funding will include an approach that includes the RCMP, municipal police services and the Manitoba First Nations Police Services.

However, Kinew issued a note of caution about his government having to proceed more judiciously than it had hoped, saying his government inherited a worse financial picture than it had originally expected.

The premier cited the report from last week that Manitoba Hydro missed its annual revenue targets by approximately $610 million and said he knew that municipalities are inheriting financial challenges from the previous government just like his government has.

“That’s why we’ve invited municipal leaders in, because we welcome your suggestions, your creative approaches, your problem-solving ability to help us sort through this challenge,” Kinew said. “On the one hand, we have a very tight fiscal constraint. On the other hand, we have to get things built.”

On infrastructure specifically, Kinew said he and his fellow premiers recently called for the federal government to create a new infrastructure program to replace the old Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.

The old program, Kinew said, required provinces to contribute half the funds for infrastructure projects but didn’t grant them 50 per cent of the decision-making power when it came to how those funds were delivered.

Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn was pressed about his mandate letter asking him to investigate the reopening of Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation offices closed under the previous government.

He said 60 to 70 per cent of people he met with over the course of the convention had asked him about those offices.

“I do want to say that we are in discussion right now,” Kostyshyn said. “Right now, we have some challenges that the premier alluded to. Unfortunately, the vault doesn’t have as much cash in it as we were led to believe … but we also want to support the request that you brought forward.”

Wednesday at the convention, a panel discussion was held about the challenges and benefits of dealing with short-term rentals in Manitoba municipalities. A resolution from the Municipality of Harrison Park asking the province to regulate them was up for a vote on the final day of the convention.

“I do think that it makes sense for us to have an open mind about this sort of regulation of short-term rentals as part of a comprehensive housing approach to boost housing supply and to ensure that we’re investing in meeting the needs of people right across the province of Manitoba,” Kinew told reporters on Thursday.

A week after the discovery of zebra mussels in Clear Lake in Riding Mountain National Park, a councillor from the RM of Riding Mountain West asked the ministers if they have a water management strategy plan in place to protect provincial bodies of water.

Zebra mussels are an invasive species that can challenge native species’ access to food sources and promote the growth of toxic algal blooms.

Natural Resources Minister Jamie Moses said the province is working with Parks Canada in response to that discovery and that Manitoba has “spooled up” its incident response protocol to monitor the situation.

He reminded delegates to promote the cleaning, drainage and drying of watercraft after use to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species like zebra mussels.

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