Brandon to get $8.6M boost

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/04/2024 (909 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon’s share of the $52-million increase in municipal funding provided in this year’s provincial budget will be around $8.6 million, a spokesperson for Finance Minister Adrien Sala told the Sun on Wednesday.

That boost is one of the most important items Brandon is receiving, Mayor Jeff Fawcett said.

When he spoke to the Sun on Wednesday, he had yet to find out how much would be going to Brandon. Though the NDP did not include a yearly funding escalator, Fawcett said that’s something municipalities will work with them on over the next year.

That would provide the city with some stability.

“I would like to think that maybe by next year, we might have that in place,” Fawcett said.

“That’s my understanding. I didn’t expect it in this year’s budget, I was hoping for an increase and ongoing discussions that hopefully lead to that escalator so that we all have a good understanding for our budgets moving forward.”

The NDP’s first budget since taking office last fall also included funding to build a new Park Community Centre, an expansion at Brandon University to train doctors, additional acute care beds for Brandon Regional Health Centre and a 24-7 safe space for Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people in the Wheat City.

The mayor said he’s still waiting for more information on the specifics of those announcements. However, he said he was glad to see Brandon University get recognition and that he hoped other community centres can get some help once the Park Community Centre project is done.

One of the criticisms Brandon Chamber of Commerce president Lois Ruston had for the budget was the exemption of education property tax rebates for commercial properties. An implication of that is apartment buildings will be paying full education property taxes at a time when the city is trying to boost its housing supply.

While Fawcett said he needed to look more into the details of that move and would be following up with Housing Minister Bernadette Smith, he thinks the PST exemption for new housing builds will be more significant.

He said he would also follow up with Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine on the Indigenous safe space announcement.

Association of Manitoba Municipalities president and RM of Portage la Prairie Reeve Kam Blight told the Sun he thought the NDP’s first budget addressed two of the four major concerns that municipalities outlined ahead of last year’s provincial election.

They asked for investments in core infrastructure, public safety, municipal funding and people — health care and social services.

Blight pointed out that the two per cent increase in the operating and strategic infrastructure funding baskets for municipalities was below the rate of inflation, but that it was appreciated after the years-long freeze experienced under the Tories.

While the province didn’t establish a yearly escalator for municipal funding, Blight said the government has committed to working out a multi-year funding model with the AMM and the City of Winnipeg.

He also said the AMM was “very pleased” to see the announcements relating to health care and that municipalities want to work with the government to achieve the goals set out.

“Where the budget fell short the most for us is investing infrastructure itself, such as water and wastewater,” Blight said. “We felt that we could have used a greater investment in that area as well as public safety.”

Aging or inadequate water and wastewater infrastructure in municipalities are holding up otherwise shovel-ready developments for things like housing.

But it’s not just municipal-owned infrastructure that are a concern, with Blight also mentioning a desire for more investment in the province’s drainage network to mitigate overland flooding.

He said public safety was “somewhat overlooked” while being the No. 1 concern held by AMM members.

“We wanted to see a greater investment and more attention paid to that, even something as simple as giving municipalities funding to be able to do community safety and well-being plans, helping with funding of community safety officer programs,” Blight said.

“But we also want them to be true to their word and be tough on crime.”

Despite the items the AMM believed were lacking, Blight said the organization is interested in working on them with the province going forward.

Brandon University political science associate professor Kelly Saunders said she thought the budget reflected the NDP’s election platform.

“The last election was really fought on a lot of aspirational promises on the part of the NDP. ‘We’re gonna fix health care, we’re going to end chronic homelessness, we’re going to advance reconciliation.’ A really high bar and lofty goals,” Saunders said. “In this budget, they needed to show consistency with those electoral promises, but because those promises are so multifaceted, I don’t think they can be more specific without backing themselves into a corner.”

She said she thought the NDP were trying to buy themselves wiggle room to figure out how they’ll fulfil their promises. While she said she thinks Manitobans will give them some time to do so, eventually the government has to start delivering concrete solutions or else their constituents’ patience will run out.

Promising to balance the budget by the end of their first term might be their most difficult task to accomplish, Saunders said, as Manitoba experiences record deficits and declining revenues.

“I don’t know how they’re going to do that,” she said. “They didn’t spell out a plan in the budget yesterday on how they’re going to do that … I think they’re trying to hedge their bets and hope that Hydro revenues will rebound (and) that they’ll get higher than expected transfer payments over the next four years from the federal government.”

But since health care was such a big factor in the NDP’s victory, Saunders said it made sense for this year’s budget to be very focused on that topic.

» cslark@brandonsun.com

» X: @ColinSlark