Manitoba miffed at lack of federal road spending

After hitting the highway to ask Manitobans how to spend $26 million, Liberal MPs in the province have decided they won’t be spending it on roads.

Instead, federal western diversification minister Jon Gerrard announced money to help the province adjust to the loss of the Crow transportation subsidy will go to a variety of other projects.

The money was part of a $300 million fund earmarked for agricultural infrastructure. Saskatchewan and Alberta are spending their share of the money on roads.

“When we toured around Manitoba, what we heard from people is that there are some other very important priorities in Manitoba, as well as roads,” Gerrard said.

Read Also

Farmers urged to be grain-safe this fall

Working around grain bins comes with risk, from farmers falling to drowning in grain: Experts have five tips to help avoid grain-related accidents this harvest.

Lack of consistent water supplies and natural gas limit value-added processing more than roads, Gerrard said. He said if the province can build strong infrastructures to attract industry, it will get the tax base it needs to fix roads.

Along with water and natural gas projects, a significant part of the funds will go to developing irrigation in the southwest part of the province, he said, adding Manitoba has fallen behind its prairie neighbors in building irrigation infrastructure.

The list of projects has something for each farming region in the province, and closely matches the wish lists of groups invited to meet the MPs on their tour last summer.

But it doesn’t come close to what the provincial government and a broad coalition of agricultural groups asked for.

They wanted the money to be spent on roads. Provincial and municipal governments would put up equal amounts of money from their existing road budgets.

The province’s rural development minister Len Derkach said while water and other projects are important, roads suffering from the weight of more grain hauled by trucks need attention first.

More road work than money

Manitoba’s highways minister Glen Findlay said the province spends $100 million on roads per year, but has requests for $1.1 billion in work.

And provincial agriculture minister Harry Enns accused the federal politicians of “deliberate and might I say provocative electioneering.”

But Gerrard said the province’s argument for roads wasn’t convincing because the governments didn’t seem willing to spend money on top of their regular budgets.

He also said commodity groups that were part of the coalition told the MPs about other priorities.

“What, in fact, they told us was that their initial inclination to spend it all on roads was sort of hurriedly thought through.”

Gerrard said only a road going from Grandview to Shellmouth will get some help from the fund.

He explained the road falls “in between a (provincial) constituency which tended to vote Conservative and one which tended to vote NDP and it never got any attention.”

But $2.75 million will go to research of new road construction methods. Gerrard said the research will help governments build cheaper, stronger roads in the future.

Approved projects

The Western Grain Transportation Adjustment Fund will go to fund 23 projects in Manitoba.

The federal government will pay more than $30 million to be delivered through the Canada Agri-Infrastructure Program, under the adjustment fund. This includes $5.45 million in grants to organizations for research and development in agriculture or transportation.
$3.6 million has been earmarked for Churchill and the rail line serving the isolated Hudson Bay port.
Ottawa plans to develop cost-sharing agreements with the province and municipalities.

1) The federal government’s share is $17.55 million for value-added infrastructure.

2) Ottawa has committed $7.1 million for water development projects to help rural areas improve water supply and distribution.

3) The federal government has set aside $500,000 for human resources development.