Budget brings benefits to Westman

Brandon’s post-secondary institutions will see more funding this year, at least three new schools are planned in Brandon and Neepawa, and the Keystone Centre may find itself awash in black ink by the end of the fiscal year.

Those were a few of the key takeaways from the 2025 Manitoba budget released on Thursday that will go to benefit residents of western Manitoba.

“We’re really proud that we’ve got a government that’s focused on investing in Brandon and ensuring that residents there have the supports and services that they need,” Finance Minister Adrien Sala told rural reporters late Thursday afternoon. “We’re proud to be a rural- and northern-focused government, and Manitobans and Brandonites can expect to see us make continued investments in these communities.”

As the Sun reported Thursday, the province has committed to building two new schools in Brandon, including a school in southwest Brandon for the Brandon School Division and a French-language school for Division Scolaire Franco-Manitobaine.

The builds are part of the planned construction of 11 new schools across Manitoba over the next three years, including a new regional high school in the town of Neepawa.

The Neepawa area has, in general, undergone a dramatic population spike throughout the past decade, with much of the community growth fuelled by Filipino families arriving to work at the HyLife Foods hog processing plant.

A new Neepawa school for Beautiful Plains School Division was initially announced by the former Progressive Conservative government as part of a public-private partnership in 2023. Construction of a new Grade 9 to 12 school was to help realign student distribution throughout Neepawa, with the building that currently houses Neepawa Middle School and Neepawa Area Collegiate being reorganized into a Grade 4 to 8 facility,

Those construction plans were put on hold by the incoming NDP government that fall, as all previously announced school builds were placed under review.

The Sun could not reach Neepawa Mayor Brian Hedley in time for comment on Thursday evening.

For Brandon, Budget 2025 documents show that the province has put aside $400,000 in new annual structural operating funds for the Keystone Centre, matching a $400,000 increase first brought forward by Brandon’s city council as part of last January’s budget deliberations.

“This is new money,” Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett told the Sun. “The city put in new money for operational funding, and they’ve matched it. We’re definitely looking for more sustainability at the Keystone Centre, a little bit more in line with the (Winnipeg) Convention Centre and places like that. You know, just don’t start them off operating at a loss, right?

“That’s something we’ve been working on for quite a while.”

The 2025 Manitoba budget also confirms a two per cent increase in operating funds for municipalities, which builds upon the two per cent increase announced in 2024. Additionally, the province confirmed a commitment to give municipalities four per cent of the provincial fuel tax through the One Manitoba Growth Revenue Fund to “build hockey rinks, playgrounds and community centres.”

In spite of the wording of the announcement, Sala said these gas-tax funds were not restricted to any specific kind of spending.

“Those funds are going to be just new funds provided above and beyond that operating grant funding, and … municipalities will be able to use those funds as they see fit,” Sala told reporters.

Fawcett noted that the gas-tax increase was announced at the Association of Manitoba Municipalities meeting last year and was included as part of the City of Brandon’s budget.

“They announced at the AMM in the fall that it would be a big bubble for this year’s budget,” Fawcett said. “Quite often we would do our budget first and then we would find out what they were doing. (This time) we did know that the money was there.”

The budget also allocated $2.3 million for sobering centres in both Brandon and Thompson. The Brandon centre project, which has yet to be completed, will be part of the John Howard Society’s transitional housing project at 353 16th St. North.

As of Thursday evening, Fawcett said he was not sure how much was being specifically allocated for Brandon.

“We’ll dig into what that all means, because we are going to try to get that over the line,” Fawcett said. “It is going to happen, so hopefully that advances the project.”

The projects named in the 2025 Manitoba budget for Brandon were almost as important as those that were left out.

There were notable program funds announced for both Brandon University and Assiniboine College, including $3.6 million to support 20 new medical lab technologists and 20 new combined lab and X-ray technician spaces at Assiniboine.

The province also announced 359 new nurse training seats to be spread across several post-secondary institutions in Manitoba, including BU and Assiniboine. However, there appeared to be no specific mention of operating budget increases for post-secondary institutions in the province.

When reached by the Sun late Thursday afternoon, BU president David Docherty said he was hoping to get some clarity on the situation shortly. However, Docherty — who was at the Manitoba Legislature for the budget speech — said he was made to understand that all post-secondary institutions were getting an across-the-board increase of around two per cent.

“My understanding, is that … and we haven’t seen it in writing, but every post-secondary is getting the same percentage increase,” Docherty said.

Docherty said he expects to see a letter from the province soon that will give more information on the university budget situation. However, he understands that the base funding calculation for Brandon University will include the additional $7.4 million in funding announced by Premier Wab Kinew last May.

“It was made fairly clear that our new base includes last year’s increase,” Docherty said. “And that’s been said on several occasions, but I’ll wait until I’m able to go through our detailed letter and see if it’s in there.”

There was also no mention of the university’s ongoing project to build an on-campus medical school, in conjunction with the University of Manitoba, to train physicians locally.

However, Docherty was unconcerned about the lack of any specific mention in the budget, saying that Advanced Education Minister Renée Cable had called him before the budget was announced to talk about the project. The concern was not that the project shouldn’t go ahead, but rather the speed that it should go ahead at, given the new financial pressures facing the province due to the tariffs imposed on Canada by U.S. President Donald Trump and the reciprocal tariffs enacted by the Canadian government.

“She said it won’t be mentioned in the budget, but we’re going to have some conversation shortly thereafter,” Docherty said. “This government is concerned with tariffs and what tariffs might mean to the cost of construction. Does that mean let’s buy a bunch of steel now? We shouldn’t really have to pay tariffs on steel, we should have enough Canadian, but what does that look like?

“We’ll have more conversation on that as we’re looking at different options. What I can say is that the province is committed to a medical school in Brandon.”

There was also no mention of new funding for the Park Community Centre project in Brandon, which was earmarked in the 2024 budget for slightly more than $1 million, as promised by the NDP in the 2023 provincial election.

The plan for the community centre is to tear down the old structure and build a new one that will also include a daycare facility. When asked by the Sun about the project, Sala said information would be made public “at a later time.”

Fawcett said he is expecting an announcement from the province at some point, but he was unsure of the timing.

“I know that they’ve got plans,” Fawcett said. “I know they’re continuing to work on it. And I know they’ve been trying to make the daycare work in their budget. But we’re just in preliminary discussions. I know that they’d like to actually get started on some stuff there.”

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