Manitoba to spend $150M more than budgeted to help with inflation, health care
The Manitoba government says it's spending $150 million more than it forecasted in the previous budget to ease costs in the health-care system, for municipal projects and to offset inflation.
The money is part of an $850-million funding package approved by the Progressive Conservative government through a special warrant.
Part of the money, $200 million announced earlier this week, is going to a second round of cheques to help people deal with inflation.
Eight water and wastewater projects are to receive about $100 million, while $40 million will go toward the expansion of CentrePort, North America's largest tri-modal inland port.
Premier Heather Stefanson has hinted her government may end a freeze on municipal operating funding as part of the spring budget.
The Opposition NDP said the funding doesn't make up for seven years of cuts made to Winnipeg and other communities while the Tories have been in government.
"Since they took office, the Progressive Conservative's have frozen municipal funding, forcing communities to make cuts to services families rely on and starving them of resources they need to thrive," Matt Wiebe, critic for municipal affairs, said Friday.
Stefanson said the province is also considering building on federal grants for transit funding for municipalities.
Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham welcomed the funding commitments from the province.
"There's significant pressures that we face as a city. Indications from the premier today is good news for the City of Winnipeg."
Gillingham added that the city has been facing its own budget deficits due to inflation, the COVID-19 pandemic and weather events.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 27, 2023.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Poilievre unrepentant over calling Trudeau 'wacko' as his MPs say Speaker should resign
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed "Midtown Jane Doe" because she was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity.