Kinew government paying attention

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This article was published 17/05/2025 (313 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“What is it, $23 million has been raised privately. That is a huge amount of money right? And when we see that sort of commitment from the private sector, from the community, it really does make you stop and take notice.”

— Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew

 

Premier Kinew is quite right — successful grassroots fundraising campaigns are worthy of government attention when it comes to opening the provincial purse strings. In fact, it’s fair to say that Assiniboine College had already done a remarkable job in attracting large investments for the Prairie Innovation Centre it has planned for its North Hill campus.

As we have reported over the last two years, there have been several donations already. Local philanthropists Gord and Diane Peters donated $10 million for the centre in January 2024. Note that this Brandon power couple had also been instrumental in another Brandon project that required local investment before getting off the ground — the restoration of the domed Display Building No. 2.

But there are several others worthy of note. Sunrise Credit Union gave $1 million to the Prairie Innovation Centre project in October 2020. Accounting firm MNP also handed over $1 million in June 2022. The RBC Foundation earmarked $700,000 in October 2024. The Anthony Matlashewski Charitable Foundation donated $500,000 in June 2024. Scotiabank also gave $125,000 in November 2024. The Manitoba Crop Alliance donated $100,000 in November 2021.

And the previous Progressive Conservative government, under former premier Heather Stefanson, announced $10 million for the centre in January 2023, which went to planning, assessing future programs and building supporting infrastructure.

More telling, perhaps, is the fact that Assiniboine College president Mark Frison also donated $50,000 of his own money to the centre in 2021.

These kinds of donations exhibit the kind of dedication and determination in our community that we have come to expect. Not only do they say much about the people who live here, but it also makes the cause nearly impossible to ignore within government circles.

And to his credit on Wednesday, Kinew showed that his government has been paying attention by announcing a $120-million boost to the Prairie Innovation Centre, as a means to get shovels in the ground.

The funding breaks down to $60 million in capital funding — with $40 million going to the Prairie Innovation Centre and $20 million for a new 216-seat child-care project inside the centre — and $60 million in bridge financing to allow construction to begin by the end of the year. And of course, the expectation is that the federal government will step in to help relieve the college of having to pay back that loan sometime in the future.

While those government-level negotiations will continue apace, this announcement has been a “game changer,” as Frison told the Sun this week. Putting out tenders on the project is no longer a matter of months or years, but rather weeks, with shovels in the ground soon after. This is great news for the college and for the city and region at large, as such an innovation centre will help train our young people for good paying jobs in the agricultural sector. That’s a clear win for western Manitoba.

But it must be said that these kinds of community-government partnerships are always a two-way street. For not only do you need a willing community partner on the ground willing to put their own money and time on the line, you need a willing government that is interested in building up the region and investing in its prosperity.

And thus far, the Kinew government has been a willing partner, one that has been steadily building a track record of investment in our community.

In his previous state of the province address in May 2024, Kinew announced $7.4 million in funding for Brandon University and $2 million for Assiniboine Community College beyond what the two post-secondary institutions had been promised in that year’s budget. That announcement set right a budgetary misstep that had short-changed BU and Assiniboine.

In September last year, the province announced $9.7 million to rebuild 2.9 kilometres of 18th Street within the city of Brandon — a section of highway that had been dubbed Manitoba’s worst road as part of CAA Manitoba’s annual survey.

Just last month, the province announced $10.7 million in funding for a top-up to the AgriStability program during a visit to the Maple Leaf Foods hog processing plant in Brandon. That was on top of the $100 million announced in the 2025 budget earmarked for agriculture, part of a $500-million contingency fund to respond to the effects of tariffs and the potential of a prolonged trade war.

That same week, the province made good on an election commitment to fund the redevelopment of the Park Community Centre, setting aside $6 million toward the project, which will include a licensed, non-profit child-care facility.

This is the kind of community building that we want to see from our government. Not only does it show that Brandon East NDP MLA Glen Simard does have the ear of the premier — and is being listened to around the caucus table — but that our government is willing to work with our city to build.

It also may suggest that the New Democrats are setting their sights on winning Brandon West in the next provincial election.

Nevertheless, you don’t have to be an NDP supporter to see that this is a powerful and mutually beneficial partnership of which to be a part.

And that, too, is worthy of note.

» Matt Goerzen, editor