Mr. Speaker, today I rise to discuss an issue which is not only of great importance in my riding of Brandon—Souris but transcends into an issue of national importance.
The issue involves providing the city of Brandon the highway infrastructure needed to attract and service the Maple Leaf hog processing plant. This will have a great economic impact not only on the city of Brandon but also on the province of Manitoba and Canada as a whole.
The federal Minister of Transport has said that his department has been generous in funding highway networks. However, the federal government's involvement in highways since the Liberal government took power has been dismal. On average the federal government has allocated only $6.4 million per year to Manitoba highways despite collecting in Manitoba an average of $124 million per year in road fuel excise taxes.
In reality, the federal government has only put 4.8% back into Manitoba roads. This clearly illustrates Liberal government policy toward the provinces. We will take when we are supposed to give. We will take credit when credit is not due and we will lay blame where fault is our own.