The Manitoba government is making a long-term commitment to maintain strong links between communities and ensure safe roads and bridges for local families, commercial drivers and tourists. This announcement was made by Municipal Government Minister Stan Struthers.
“Rural Manitoba is growing and expanding, and rural communities depend on strong, local infrastructure like good roads and bridges,” said Minister Struthers. “This funding will go to roads that municipal governments identify as important to help businesses in our communities prosper and thrive with good jobs for our young people at home.”
The minister said the Manitoba government will invest more than $76 million in municipal roads and bridges over the next five years. He said the agreement will add a total of $36 million in new funding to existing road improvement programs across Manitoba, making it the largest-ever rural road renewal investment. Under the programs, Manitoba communities identify roads and bridges requiring replacement or repairs and apply for provincial funding.
“The funding being announced today shows that the provincial government has been listening to municipalities – Manitoba is more competitive when we work together,” said Doug Dobrowolski, president, Association of Manitoba Municipalities. “This funding allows municipal governments to plan ahead, starting important infrastructure projects all over Manitoba that will benefit our communities right away.”
The five-year plan builds on provincial funding provided in recent years to upgrade more than 260 kilometres of municipal roads and repair or replace 16 municipal bridges across the province. Program guidelines and application forms for the 2014 Municipal Road Improvement Program are now available on Manitoba Municipal Government’s website at www.gov.mb.ca/ia. The application deadline is April 30.
Minister Struthers noted today’s announcement is part of more than $1.5 billion that will be invested in municipal roads, clean water and other municipal infrastructure through the province’s new $5.5 billion, five-year core infrastructure plan developed in consultation with municipalities, business, labour leaders and industry associations across Manitoba.
Highlights from an independent analysis conducted by the Conference Board of Canada project that Manitoba’s $5.5-billion investment in core infrastructure will:
- boost Manitoba’s economy by $6.3 billion,
- boost exports by $5.4 billion, and
- boost retail sales by $1.4 billion.
The board also estimates these investments will create 58,900 jobs and that each $1 dollar invested in the five-year plan will benefit Manitoba’s economy by $1.16.
The five-year plan can be downloaded at www.gov.mb.ca/mit/pdf/five-yr-plan.pdf
