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Transfer vow pleases province

Makes goal of erasing Manitoba's deficit easier

By: Bruce Owen

Posted: 03/5/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Manitoba's financial picture got a little brighter with the Harper government's budget promise that it won't cut cash transfers to the provinces.

Finance Minister Rosann Wowchuk said Thursday that Tory commitment helps the province as it battles a projected budget deficit of $555 million.

"I'm hoping that (commitment to the provinces)... will extend further out into future years," Wowchuk said. "There could have been a reduction and there wasn't. That's good news for us."

How those transfers figure into the next provincial budget to be introduced March 23 is still a work in progress, she said. Federal transfers to the province totalled about $4 billion last year, slightly less than half of the province's $10.3-billion core budget.

Wowchuk also said much of what's in the federal budget lacks details on what specific funding is available to the province, but there are some pretty big hints of what's on the horizon.

That includes money to put toward stabilizing the rail link to Churchill. Plans are in the works to spend $60 million to bring the line up to snuff so passenger and freight trains aren't delayed as they often are now.

Wowchuk said also in the works is federal participation in the search for missing aboriginal women and the ongoing police investigation into unsolved slayings of aboriginal women. There are 84 unsolved cases in Manitoba alone.

Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz also said he was pleased to see Ottawa dedicate money to clear the open cases.

"If there's a commitment for $10 million, that's a genuine commitment. Obviously, they're taking this very seriously and that's extremely positive," Katz said.

Also on the table is federal funding to help increase slaughter capacity of cattle in Canada, partly in answer to country-of-origin labelling (COOL) rules brought in by the U.S. government last year. Those rules have seen hog and cattle exports to the U.S. for processing plummet.

Funding under the Slaughter Improvement Program will target $25 million for cattle-processing plants that handle animals over 30 months of age.

"If we can have slaughter capacity here we can avoid sending live animals to the U.S., and avoid some of the challenges that COOL is bringing us," Wowchuk said.

Ottawa's new budget also provides $51.7 million over the next two years to the Canadian Grain Commission, so it becomes more "flexible," in opening up more opportunities for farmers internationally and domestically.

Also in the budget is money for more research and development, aboriginal education and green energy incentives that could involve Manitoba Hydro. It also lets credit unions incorporate and continue as federal entities, so they can expand beyond their home province.

The budget also devotes $35 million over the next two years to Natural Resources Canada to research and develop new ways to create medical isotopes. The University of Winnipeg and University of Manitoba are two groups looking at a plan to make medical isotopes using the particle accelerator at the nuclear facility in Pinawa.

-- Files from Bartley Kives, Mia Rabson

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 5, 2010 A6

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