Mr. Speaker, Manitoba's Red River Floodway is an engineering marvel and it has single-handedly saved Canadians billions of dollars in disaster relief funding over the years.
The floodway is currently undergoing a major expansion, with the federal government contributing 50% of the total costs, but there is a catch.
Manitoba Liberal MPs fought extremely hard to secure the first half of the funding from the Canada strategic infrastructure fund, having convinced the Liberal cabinet of the day that this project was of national significance.
The current regional minister, the member of Parliament for Provencher, does not believe this and is planning on paying for the second portion with funds that would normally be allocated to other Manitoba infrastructure priorities, and this in a have not province.
Manitobans are being robbed of $170 million by the Conservative government. This is wrong. They should be outraged.
The floodway expansion is a project of national importance and we need a minister who believes this, a minister who will not cave in to his cabinet colleagues every time. In fact, we need a new government that will fight for Manitoba.