Post-secondary funding a hot topic at budget session

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/02/2024 (673 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Westman residents presented Finance Minister Adrien Sala and Brandon East MLA Glen Simard with a wishlist for more funding for post-secondary education, health care, Indigenous programming and more at a 2024 budget consultation at the Riverbank Discovery Centre on Wednesday evening.

Nearly every seat was filled, with the almost 50-person audience made up of residents and representatives from local post-secondary institutions, the Brandon Chamber of Commerce, unions, municipalities and more.

In his introduction, Sala told the audience that his government wanted to hear what Manitobans were prioritizing heading into their first budget.

He ran down some announcements his government has made since taking office, including additional beds being added to the Dauphin Health Centre and a new nurse training facility in Neepawa as well as the pause on the provincial fuel tax.

With rookie opposition MLAs Grant Jackson (Spruce Woods) and Wayne Balcaen (Brandon West) in attendance, Sala said his party heard during last year’s election that health care had not been a priority under the previous Progressive Conservative government.

Sala also reiterated a point he and Premier Wab Kinew raised after being sworn late last year, that the previous government had left the province with a $1.612-billion budget shortfall that needs to be tackled. Despite that, the finance minister said Manitoba has one of the country’s most diverse and stable economies.

Riley Webster, the executive director of the Manitoba Association of Friendship Centres, said recent budgets have not featured enough spending on reconciliation and urged the government to spend more on assisting urban Indigenous communities.

“Manitoba’s friendship centres are operating under funding levels last adjusted in the year 2000,” she said.

Presenting jointly were Brandon University president David Docherty and Assiniboine Community College president Mark Frison.

Docherty said Brandon was left out of the “largesse” that was shown toward Winnipeg post-secondary institutions in last year’s budget.

While he acknowledged that Brandon’s current Tory MLAs were not in office during that budget and the current government was not in power, he said it sent a bad message to have Brandon-based nursing students get one-third the funding of their Winnipeg counterparts.

While working in Alberta, Docherty said the Rachel Notley government gave post-secondary institutions funding figures four years in advance, which allowed for better long-term planning.

“We’re asking for that window, not giving us two or three weeks before the next fiscal year,” he said.

Frison thanked the NDP for their election commitments toward the Prairie Innovation Centre at ACC and for previous provincial investments in a health-care centre. However, he concurred with Docherty’s point and said funding was already lopsided before then.

The college president advocated in favour of a medical school being established at Brandon University and said if it goes ahead, it can’t be set up by giving the University of Manitoba full control — BU needs a strong say in how it is run.

Candy Jones, a Brandon University education professor, asked the government to correct the funding inequities raised by Frison and Docherty. She decried previous cuts to a program that trains Indigenous people to teach in their home communities in a post-Truth and Reconciliation world.

BU professor and Manitoba Association of Faculty Associations president Alison McCulloch also emphasized the need to better fund post-secondary institutions, criticizing the post-secondary funding in last year’s budget as well as advocating for more funding to support decolonialization efforts and research projects.

While science, technology and medical programs are important, McCulloch urged the government not to neglect liberal arts programming.

Brandon Chamber of Commerce president Lois Ruston said the local business community has been dealing with a difficult set of complications since the pandemic and the recent due date for emergency loans issued to business during that time has been a big part of that.

She advocated for the current provincial government to lobby the federal government for assistance with the loans, expand Manitoba’s electrical grid to support growth in Brandon and to tackle social issues affecting people in the Wheat City.

Ruston also echoed the post-secondary leaders’ requests, saying that a medical school expansion could be a “gamechanger.” In her final comments, she said it was disappointing that the provincial nominee immigration program was undersubscribed in 2023 and requested that Manitoba place a greater focus on facilitating international trade.

Westman rural paramedic Wayne Chacun brought up staffing and service shortages in rural Manitoba medical facilities, schools and daycares. Though Chacun, who ran for the NDP in Riding Mountain last year, praised planned daycare and hospital expansions, he wanted to know how those new places and beds would be staffed.

Chacun advocated for more education of medical and educational personnel to take place in rural communities so that people stay there after their training. He also spoke in favour of establishing incentive programs to draw qualified workers to rural communities, saying that while some municipalities have done some work on their own, it shouldn’t be placed entirely on their shoulders.

“We are always one or two people away from losing services,” Chacun said.

A representative from the Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation was on the list of speakers, but was not present when called upon.

On behalf of the Spruce Woods Housing Co-op, board president Eva Cameron discussed how the loss of her complex’s subsidy from Manitoba Housing after the expiration of its funding agreement has made it difficult for it to remain affordable.

While she doesn’t disagree with the need to build new housing units, she said more support is needed for existing affordable housing. Cameron said her facility was told it would receive some new block funding from Manitoba Housing on Tuesday, which was appreciated.

Glennis Lewis, a retired biologist and lawyer, said she wanted the new government to work on conservation and the environment. She stressed a need for good impact assessments when it comes to new projects, saying current legislation is out of date when it comes to public and Indigenous consultation.

Former police chief Balcaen said that he, Jackson and Simard are working together to advance Brandon’s interests despite being from different parties, but he asked the government representatives to continue funding justice initiatives in the wake of recent large drug busts in Westman.

He said funding initiatives like the Brandon Bear Clan, Samaritan House Ministries and Helping Hands soup kitchen are important to help address social issues and advocated for a version of Winnipeg’s downtown community safety partnership to be brought to Brandon as his party had promised to do if elected in last year’s campaign.

Jackson welcomed attendees to his constituency and called for improvements to infrastructure, especially to Highway 34, Highway 5 and Highway 2 in Spruce Woods. He said improvements to the intersection of 18th Street and Braecrest Drive in Brandon are needed with the North Hill getting further developed.

Resident James Epp said he felt there was a lot of navel gazing and discussion of long-term projects at the session and asked the government representatives about why they were holding it.

“You’re riding high off a recent election — what exactly are you hoping to receive out of these?”

Sala said he and his colleagues spend a lot of time at the legislature and sessions like these are part of getting out in communities and engaging the public, especially residents outside of Winnipeg.

The session was still ongoing by the Sun’s print deadline.

» cslark@brandonsun.com

» X: @ColinSlark