The Manitoba Government released its first annual report Tuesday on the PST- supported five-year infrastructure plan.  In the 2013-14 fiscal year the PST increase created 190 million dollars in revenue, of which 115 million was rolled into government spending on infrastructure.  
 

Manitoba's Core Infrastructure Investments report shows that the province invested almost 850-million dollars in core infrastructure in 2013-14.   The Conference Board of Canada confirmed in an independent review that this expenditure had the spinoff of creating over 8-thousand jobs, boosting the economy by 1.1 billion dollars and increasing exports by 586-million dollars.

At the same time the government announced the creation of a new Infrastructure Innovations  Council.  It's a joint endeavour by the province and the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association.  

Chris Lorenc, President of the MHCA, says the council will help position Manitoba as Canada's centre of excellence for innovation, design, construction, maintenance and rehabilitation in core infrastructure.   

Its task will be to make sure the industry is ramping up so that large-scale infrastructure projects can be completed efficiently and that construction deadlines are met.   The province is funneling 5.5 billion dollars into improving Manitoba's infrastructure over the next 5 years.