Some rural politicians weren’t expecting much, are disappointed in Manitoba budget | CBC News
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Some rural Manitoba leaders weren’t expecting much from the provincial budget released Tuesday.
Michael Zwaagstra says he is disappointed with the financial plan. The Steinbach city councillor and deputy mayor says affordability is a major issue for Manitoba families and doesn’t feel the budget adequately addresses that.
The Manitoba government announced it will eliminate the provincial sales tax on prepared food and drinks sold by large grocers for immediate consumption.
The province also announced rebate programs for agricultural producers and improvements to rural health care, including more funding to recruit rural doctors, and committed to rural and northern infrastructure and water-treatment infrastructure.
Zwaagstra says he wishes there was a clearer commitment to increasing money available for water treatment and wastewater upgrades. He says the pool of money municipalities can apply for is limited.
“When you’re in a growing city like Steinbach, we know that we are going to have significant upgrades to our water-treatment that’s going to have to happen soon,” Zwaagstra said Wednesday. “We need support from other levels of government, particularly from the provincial government.”
There’s also not enough support for or recognition of southeast Manitoba, he said.
“We are a fast-growing area of the province — not just the city of Steinbach, but also the surrounding municipalities,” Zwaagstra said.
“We need to see clear commitment from the province to support that growth, whether it’s in regards to necessary upgrades to our infrastructure or whether it’s in regards to affordability measures.”
Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett says there were no surprises in the budget and that he wasn’t expecting any major announcements.
Fawcett told CBC News an announcement about free public transit for high school youths is “interesting in theory,” but there are logistics to figure out.
He said he also would have liked to see more focus on infrastructure.
“We have a school coming, hopefully with another coming right away,” Fawcett said Wednesday. “Overall, it’s not surprising that I didn’t find the budget a big surprise.”
Fawcett says would always like to see more support for Brandon.
“I would have happily taken any funding for the water treatment or any of our water projects that we have going on,” Fawcett said. “But for now, it is what it is.”