The City of Steinbach will receive $1.3 million from nearly $40 million the Province of Manitoba recently divided among all the municipalities outside of Winnipeg.

The $39.9 million distributed on a per capita basis is the remaining money from the overall $70.6 million Strategic Infrastructure Basket available to municipalities outside of our capital city.

Steinbach Mayor Earl Funk says this extra funding is being given out because the province has recognized how inflation is affecting projects in our communities.

“There are so many projects that we priced out three to four years ago that we wanted to do in 2024-2026 that are now 30-50 per cent more, and this is in response to that.” 

Funk notes the city can use the funds to invest in whatever they deem a priority, whether it's existing projects already underway, to start new projects, or to help mitigate the ongoing high levels of inflation.

As for how Steinbach City Council will use the unexpected injection of funds, Funk says they are still figuring that out.

"It will be put towards projects. I'm not going to commit ourselves to exactly which one, but it will be put towards projects that we want to get done."

On top of the $1.3 million, Funk says there is also an additional $44.5 million that will be available on an application basis through a new Municipal Economic Development Infrastructure Program.

This money is also only available to municipalities outside of Winnipeg.

Funk says they have a large number of projects that would benefit from this funding.

"We have to go through our whole list and look for 'where is the best bang for our buck?' Because some wastewater projects can be done through water stewardship, and so I would rather use that fund for a wastewater project and then apply to this fund for another project." 

The application deadline for the new Municipal Economic Development Infrastructure Grant Program is October 6th.

 

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