Big repair jobs to help fix economy
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/03/2009 (6339 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
HIGHWAYS, housing and the halls of learning will see millions of dollars this year as the Doer government tries to keep Manitobans working.
The province is spending $1.6 billion on infrastructure this year to fix highways, build new schools and overhaul some of Winnipeg’s uninhabitable Manitoba Housing units.
That’s more than double what was spent last year, and the new cash will employ the equivalent of 10,000 people for a year.
But details were scarce.
Highways, which were to get a $400 million boost this year as part of a multi-year plan, will instead get $535 million. Already on tap this summer were the TransCanada twinning and improvements to Highway 75, a major trucking route that is notoriously rutted.
The same kind of multi-year plan used for highways spending will be used for the first time this year for schools funding.
Low-income and subsidized housing like the Gilbert Park and Lord Selkirk Park complexes will also get a $160 million facelift.
The city of Winnipeg, which has always begged the Doer government for more infrastructure cash, will get about $213 million, $10 million more than last year. But much of it is money the city was already banking on for 50-50 transit funding and new cash for ambulance service.
Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz said city staff are still trying to figure out what the provincial budget means to the city’s bottom line.
The city was looking for $3.6 million in additional ambulance funding as well another $11.5 million.
About $135 million of the province’s infrastructure money is coming from Ottawa as part of an economic stimulus spending.
— Mary Agnes Welch, with files from Bartley Kives
Infrastructure: $1.6 billion
What it buys
Upgrades to highways and bridges, renovations to social housing like Lord Selkirk Park and Gilbert Park, capital projects at the University of Manitoba and other schools, construction of a cardiac sciences facility at St. Boniface General Hospital and a new 80-bed aboriginal personal care home.
What it means
A lot of the projects have been long-planned and oft-promised, but some are also being sped up to create jobs. The province is keeping many of the specifics under wraps for future announcements.
