Premier Greg Selinger is touting last week’s speech from the throne as a responsible plan to build a better Manitoba.
Lt.-Gov. Philip Lee delivered the speech Nov. 20 to open the fourth session of the 40th Manitoba legislative assembly.
Pledges outlined in the speech include:
Education
• Eliminate interest on student loans.
• Expand the existing apprenticeship model to certify new occupations outside the traditional trades.
• Launch a new Credit Transfer Portal to help students move more easily between programs and institutions.
• Work with the Alliance of Manitoba Sector Councils to bring more employers into classrooms and more students into workplaces.
Jobs and economy
• Increase Manitoba’s municipal road budget and double funding for municipal bridges.
• Upgrade the Lake St. Martin Channel and build a new outlet to flow 7,500 cubic feet per second from Lake Manitoba to provide better flood protection for people in the Interlake region.
• Create a new streamlined portal for infrastructure program information and applications in partnership with the Association of Manitoba Municipalities.
• Apply more innovative approaches to core infrastructure design, construction and maintenance through a new Infrastructure Innovations Council in partnership with the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association.
Services
• Work with First Nations to address the proposed elimination of the federal band constable program to ensure affected communities have access to community policing.
• Replace contract employees of Manitoba Child and Family Services with better trained staff for emergency placement shelters, create a new unit for young women with complex needs and undertake more clinical assessments.
• Hire dozens of primary care professionals, including nurse practitioners, into new “MyHealth” teams in every region of the province.
• Launch a new program at Winnipeg’s Red River College to train advanced care paramedics to start emergency medical interventions before patients arrive at the emergency room.
• Make the pilot Emergency Paramedic in the Community program permanent to help more patients avoid unnecessary ER trips.
• Move forward with plans to build 1,000 more social and affordable housing units.
Cutting costs
• Reduce the office space used by government by over 100,000 square feet.
• Undertake a major restructuring of internal services, such as accommodations, procurement, information technology and materials and equipment management, to find savings.
• Continue reducing the size of the civil service by 600 through retirements and attrition.
Protections
• Ensure homeowners are provided complete, upfront, guaranteed quotes and timelines for home improvements.
• Provide pet owners with up-front and all-in pricing for veterinarian services.
• Help homebuyers and realtors more easily identify properties that were previously used as criminal grow-ops or drug production sites.
• Create a new independent energy efficiency agency to expand opportunities for Manitobans to lower their energy bills.
