The picture is still hazy for northern Manitoba when it comes to whether it will see changes in the upcoming provincial budget.
Provincial Finance Minister Cameron Friesen spoke about the upcoming Manitoba provincial budget with The Reminder on Feb. 12, exactly one month from the release of the budget.
Friesen said final planning for the budget was still in progress, adding that the process of determining funding begins months ahead of time.
“The work that goes into the budget really begins in earnest in the summertime and continues into the fall through the estimates process, where every department develops their new proposals and shows where spending increases will occur. There’s a process through which core government and all the other reporting entities work toward that budget date.”
Friesen confirmed that the new budget would include more than $1 billion in overall infrastructure spending, a major plank of the provincial Progressive Conservative government since coming to power in the 2016 election.
“We’ll do that again this year, but we believe that we’ll get a better value by virtue of the fact that we’re taking a value for money, a return on investment view, to make sure that all these things have strategic value,” said Friesen.
Deficit reduction will remain a main focus of the provincial budget. While cuts to provincial services last year were noticed in some parts of Manitoba, few changes were initially seen in Flin Flon.
A government-directed $6 million cut to the Northern Health Region budget was announced in March 2017, along with directions issued to all health regions to cut upper management positions by 15 per cent.
Friesen made no concrete commitments on northern health care, but added that some aspects of provincial funding are in need of reworking.
“Certainly when it comes to rural and northern health care, we’ve got some challenges ahead of us, to ask ourselves ‘What does appropriate health care look like?’ I think that really, when it comes to health care, people care less about a health care provision in the way, shape or form that it is now – they care more about the level of confidence they can have that, if something goes wrong, they have access to our system and that access is prompt,” he said.
“We need to repair our services because even though we’re spending more for the delivery of services, we’re not getting the same results that you’d think should come with that investment. We need to rebuild the economy.”
Friesen mentioned that the ongoing work of the Look North Task Force had informed the budgetary process. Friesen came to Flin Flon in January as part of a whistlestop tour that took him and other government officials through Churchill, Thompson and Flin Flon to discuss regional issues.
While Friesen said the full impact of the task force’s efforts haven’t yet been felt, he added the group’s findings will play a role going forward.
“I would say it’s definitely informed this budget. In terms of the interface between this budget and the certain reports and initiatives, Look North is certainly one of those. The full impact of our initiative on Look North will not be felt in the budget, but it will begin to be felt,” said Friesen.
“We need solutions that are developed by northerners and work for northerners. That work will continue, but there will be updates in the budget for how that’s going.”
