Manitoba Restart Program to fund infrastructure projects
June 16, 2020
By CCE
Manitoba’s government is spending nearly $600 million to improve provincial infrastructure, including road, water and waste projects, to help support the economy after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As Manitoba is now in a position to slowly and carefully restart our economy, these investments will help ramp up the construction industry,” says Brian Pallister, premier. “They reflect municipal priorities and will improve the safety and well-being of our communities.”
He announced which projects will be funded over the next two years by the $500-million Manitoba Restart Program stimulus package, which was announced in May. They include highway resurfacing and safety improvements, water and sewer projects, local jails to alleviate pressure on the Winnipeg Remand Centre and the provincial share of projects under the federal government’s cost-sharing Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP). The projects will be put out to tender in the coming weeks, with the latter pending Ottawa’s approval.
Further, Pallister announced the allocation of an additional $91 million for construction improvements to the Trans-Canada Highway across Manitoba, Provincial Trunk Highway (PTH) 1, including road reconstruction, rehabilitation and structure replacement work.
“We are also rejuvenating and planting additional shelterbelts to help improve safety and reduce road closures between Portage la Prairie and Winnipeg,” he says, referring to up to $2.5 million in funding through the Growing Outcomes in Watersheds (GROW) Trust program, working with the Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation (MHHC) to plan some 20,000 new trees and shrubs along 16 km of PTH 1.
“These shelterbelts will help to slow spring runoff,” says Tim Sopuck, MHHC’s CEO.
