Each guest has his or her own reasons for attending the State of the Province Address, but what are Premier Pallister’s? Why is this event one that he looks forward to every year, and what can we expect to hear at this year’s address?While he wouldn’t divulge everything, here are three things Pallister is looking forward to talking about at this year’s State of the Province Address on December 12th:
1) Manitoba’s place on the world stage
“If you’re like me and you’re competitive, you know that Manitoba can compete,” Pallister says. “But we’ve been held back for a long time, and we’ve addressed some of those factors that have held us back. We’re moving up versus our competition – the other provinces, the states, the countries of the world – and I think there’s real reason for optimism; I want to talk a bit about that at the State of the Province for sure.”
2) Infrastructure investment
“What we need is better advanced notice on projects, and better tendering, more intelligent tendering practices,” Pallister explains. “Lowering the PST; the number one industry that benefitted from that was heavy construction, over $50 million in savings. So what we’re doing here is we’re making sure that our strategic investments in infrastructure are exactly that, that we’re getting the maximum value for money.”
3) Securing a bright future for the province
“We’ve always been the home of hope. This beautiful city, province, has attracted people since before Canada was Canada, since before Manitoba became Manitoba, people came here with hope. And that’s got to continue,” Pallister says. “And that hope has to have a way to become real. That means security, and it means better job opportunities, and it means better educational opportunities, it means a lot of things.
“Manitobans elected us as a team of people to face [these] challenges, and we’re looking right at them, and we’re going to continue to address them.”
To watch our full interview with Premier Pallister, click here.
