Budget delivers ‘wonderful news’ to BU

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This article was published 03/04/2024 (580 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon came away with some major financial commitments from the province’s budget announcements on Tuesday, with the promise of new money to train doctors in an expanded science centre at Brandon University and provincial funding to rebuild the Park Community Centre.

Earlier this month, Brandon University announced it was gearing up for a significant transformation of its science facilities, with plans to extensively renovate the Brodie Science Centre and add a six-storey research annex building.

Tuesday’s Budget 2024 announcements included the news that the additional annex will house Brandon’s long sought-after medical school facility, where new doctors will be trained in western Manitoba.

The expanded medical school in Brandon, said Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, is part of a long-term comprehensive plan to bring more medical residents into the Westman region.

“It’s my hope that the announcement we made around the minor injury and illness clinic last week, combined with the investments that we’re rolling out in staffing up health care immediately, are going to not only expand the ability to stand up this new doctor training facility located in Brandon, but also that we’ll have more capacity in Brandon to supervise medical residents,” Kinew said during a video conference with rural media.

For BU president David Docherty, who welcomed the news, it was important that the province commit to help train doctors outside Winnipeg.

“I look at this and there’s a long way to go,” Docherty told the Sun. “But in a perfect world, the medical school would be set up so as to attract as many local students — and by local, I mean western Manitoba, northern Manitoba, eastern Saskatchewan — as possible. And they can come to BU for their bachelor of science, transition easily into med school. And these will be people who will stay in the region. And I think that’s important.”

The university has been working on a plan to renovate the Brodie building for several years, but Docherty said the idea of incorporating a new medical school facility with ties to the University of Manitoba’s medical program has been in discussion for the last 12 to 15 months.

Though the province has committed itself to laying the groundwork for such a facility, Docherty said that many of the details remain unknown, even to him.

“If you can appreciate on budget day, you don’t get a letter right away,” Docherty said. “They don’t stand up and say that BU is getting this, (Assiniboine Community College) is getting this, the (University of Manitoba) is getting this. What they say is a six per cent increase to post-secondary education. And I don’t know what that means yet.

“What I do know is that … they’re committed to training doctors in western Manitoba, and that’s great news. That’s wonderful news.”

The opportunity of creating an expanded U of M medical school at Brandon University was happily welcomed by Brandon East NDP MLA Glen Simard, who said the province hit the ground running on this particular file.

“That’s what kind of excites me about it, is to know that we can have kids growing up in Brandon and who can stay around a bit longer,” Simard said. “And the hold being that people from the region, trained (in the region), will stay in the region, which I think is a fairly good recruitment strategy.”

Docherty said that in the next few days he hopes to know more about how that six per cent increase to post-secondary education will be divvied up.

“Once we do, we’ll start to put some numbers together, and we’ll have a town hall first to discuss it — first and foremost probably within the university.”

When asked about a possible timeline for the construction, Kinew said the province is lucky to have so many local partners who want to help see this project through, including the presidents of ACC, Brandon University, the University of Manitoba and the mayor of Brandon.

“A lot of our partners in educating new physicians … and educating nurses, are here and are committed to working with us to deliver more health-care staff to the front lines,” Kinew said.

“We want to stand that up as soon as possible.”

The other major announcement for Brandon also came without a specific price tag in Budget 2024 — the funding for the Brandon Park Community Centre, mentioned as part of an increase of $4 million in new annual funding for sport and cultural organizations.

Nevertheless, the news was welcomed by Park Community Centre board chair Ken Friedrich and board member Eldon Schmitz, who said having the province fully on board will now allow them to move forward with the project, and allow other partners to come forward.

“We have a local service group coming forward soon,” Schmitz told the Sun, adding that their commitment was contingent on having both municipal and provincial funding secured.

“It reassures our partners that there’s a bigger partner at the table now,” Friedrich added.

Back in August of last year on the campaign trail as Opposition leader, Kinew had promised the NDP would invest up to $1 million to rebuild the community centre, including a space for a day care, should they win government.

On Tuesday, Kinew said that this amount was still accurate, with “possibly a little more” added to the total.

Heritage Co-op Park Community Centre also pledged $85,000 last June toward the construction of a new commercial kitchen at the community centre, through its Community Development Fund programming.

Friedrich said the board was expecting Tuesday’s funding commitment from the province, but to see it in writing and know that the project is moving forward is exciting.

“It means a lot,” Friedrich said. “It means everything. We have the province involved. It’s very substantial, in my opinion.”

Simard said the provincial commitment to the Park Community Centre will be “a real game-changer” for the neighbourhood.

“I think it’s just a great addition to that community.”

In terms of what was missed in Budget 2024 for Brandon and western Manitoba, Spruce Woods MLA Grant Jackson said the NDP failed to mention anything about infrastructure improvements in the region, particularly the poor condition of Brandon’s 18th Street, which is maintained by the province.

“Our roads, 18th Street and many rural roads need continued sustained investment,” Jackson said, adding that three roads in his constituency that he had flagged to the minister of infrastructure last January were also left out of the budget.

“And No. 2, west of Souris, will be completed in the 2028-2029 construction year. If you’ve driven down that highway, there won’t be a road left.”

He also expressed concern that budget funds that were in place to pay for the construction of nine additional schools in Manitoba have seemingly been cut down to funding for two Winnipeg schools instead.

“Where is that capital funding to build new schools?”

Other Budget 2024 investments in Brandon include:

• Expanding acute care beds by adding beds at the Brandon Regional Health Centre.

• Funding of $250,000 for a 24/7 sobering centre.

• Providing a $20-million investment to support the implementation of a new MMIWG2S+ Strategy including 24/7 safe spaces in Brandon.

• Providing $16.1 million in ongoing funding for emergency ground transport, including funding a 24/7 ambulance in Brandon and the paramedics to support it.

• An investment of $17 million to create three new minor injury and illness clinics, including the one announced last week in Brandon.

In other health-related budget announcements, the NDP vowed to hire 1,000 new front line health-care workers this year.

“We’re staffing up the health-care system with tangible, achievable targets this year. You are going to start to see the improvements to health care in this budget year,” Kinew said at a news conference, alongside Finance Minister Adrien Sala.

Health spending is hitting a record high of $8.2 billion — up by $980 million from last year.

The government said it will hire 100 doctors, 210 nurses, 90 paramedics and 600 health-care aides as part of retention, recruitment and training efforts that will cost $310 million.

“The challenge that we face in health care isn’t going to be solved overnight, but based on the investments in this document, you are going to start seeing improvements in health care this year,” Kinew said.

About $65 million is being set aside to help reduce emergency room wait times, which includes 151 new acute-care beds across Manitoba.

» mgoerzen@brandonsun.com, with files from the Winnipeg Free Press

» X: @MattGoerzen