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WINNIPEG — A Manitoba Heavy °µÍø½ûÇøion Association (MHCA) delegation recently met with provincial Finance Minister Adrien Sala to outline six key areas where it would like to see government focus its efforts.

The delegation included MHCA board chair John Highmoor, along with board members Kevin Brown, Nicole Chabot, Marcel Machado, Richard Wilson, along with MHCA president and CEO Chris Lorenc and MHCA vice-president Felicia Wiltshire.

According to an MHCA newsletter notice, the areas discussed included:

• A call for a significant increase to the Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure (MTI) annual highways capital budget.
• A recommendation to allow MTI to tender over budget in order to ensure all funding allocated to the highways capital budget is spent within the year.
• A request to allow MTI to carry over any unspent budget in the event work cannot be completed within the year it was allocated.
• A recommendation that the federal and provincial governments should each pay 40 per cent of the costs associated with major capital investments in trade gateways and corridors, such as Route 90 and Chief Peguis Trail, leaving 20 per cent of the capital costs for the municipal government.
• The need for the Province of Manitoba to invest in a Transportation System Asset Management and Investment Strategy to provide an evidence-based investment strategy for Manitoba’s transportation system.
• A request to establish an economic development agency to help bring focus and action to the Provincial Economic Development Strategy that the Provincial government released in September.