Province to consult on build budget

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This article was published 16/11/2017 (2352 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister’s government is ready to step aside if anyone can run any part of a $500-million annual infrastructure budget better than it can.

Ron Schuler, the province’s infrastructure minister, made the offer on Friday morning, while making the announcement that tenders are now open for contracts that will be dominated by maintenance work on existing roads and bridges, as well as flood protection.

“What should we not be doing as a government? What could you do better?” Schuler asked during the annual meeting of the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association (MHCA) in Winnipeg.

“What should we allow others to do? How can we be more efficient?”

Schuler said the Pallister government is about to start consulting industry, municipalities and First Nations. He later told reporters labour would be consulted, as well.

“Consultation will lead to a new way of thinking,” Schuler said.

The minister said comparable capital spending last year was budgeted at $502 million, and $518 million was eventually spent.

“Although less than last year, we believe it is robust,” he said.

Schuler said flood mitigation for Lake St. Martin is part of the package, a project that will run $500 million over five years.

He pointed to design studies for what will be a $250-million South Perimeter Highway project, and for the St. Norbert bypass.

On Thursday, Schuler announced the province’s preferred $100-million option to keep Highway 75 open around Morris during flooding, although that was not part of Friday’s tenders.

There will also be the start of the second phase of the so-called “Freedom Road” into Shoal Lake 40 First Nation on the Ontario border, the minister said, though he acknowledged there is no single major highway or bridge project in the 2018 spending.

Schuler would not prejudge what kind of improvements might be raised during consultation, but he ruled out toll roads.

“The toll road thing is a non-starter — we don’t have the population base. P3s (public private partnerships), we are prepared to look at good ideas,” he said.

MHCA president Chris Lorenc told his group’s members while the Tory capital spending may not be as much as they would have liked, levels under the previous NDP government were unsustainable.

“We know the fiscal challenges. We adjusted pour priorities to the new realities,” he said.

Lorenc told Schuler the MHCA would appreciate at least inflationary increases each year, and urged him to release a detailed account of Manitoba’s infrastructure deficit, which he said the NDP had refused to do.

The industry wants Pallister’s help in opening up Saskatchewan to MHCA’s members, Lorenc said.

He said that tenders favouring local knowledge are code for giving the jobs to local firms, while Saskatchewan companies are free to bid in Manitoba.

“That, in this country, should be unacceptable,” Lorenc said.

Schuler rejected suggestions Lorenc had been bargaining in public.

Pallister also believes in free markets, the minister said.

Lorenc said later that no government in Canada is keeping pace with infrastructure needs, but Manitoba needs to be consistent, and to look for value for its dollars.

He said Lake St. Martin may be a $500-million job over five years, but Ottawa covers 90 per cent of the cost.

Lorenc said Pallister has “substantially” kept his election promises in regards to infrastructure spending, always remembering that new governments find a different financial picture than what the former government presented.

“That’s life,” he said.

NDP Leader Wab Kinew said Schuler’s announcement just puts Manitoba further behind in its needs.

Kinew called for preference to be given to local firms, even if they’re not the low bid.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca