Manitoba's Infrastructure

This afternoon, I stopped by at the Annual meeting of the Infrastructure Council of Manitoba. The Council was formed eleven years ago to look at the infrastructure needs of Manitoba and to provide advice to all levels of governments.

We were presented with documents which show significant concerns about the management and upkeep of our present infrastructure, let alone building new infrastructure (see also my blog for Sept 2). It was estimated that Manitoba's infrastructure investment debt is $7.4 billion, with $3.4 billion needed for Manitoba's highway system, $2 billion for rural municipal drainage, $1 billion for rural land drainage, and $1 billion for the City of Winnipeg. These numbers are staggering. But, they also point to the critical need to look after our infrastructure well, and for governments to set priorities well.

Ruth Sol provided a view of the situation across western Canada, and a list of prioirities agreed to already by western Premiers. Dr. Roger Gibbons gave a perspective on federal party approaches to supporting infrastructure. Ron Bell spoke from the municipal perspective.

Don Whitmore talked about the contributions of the ISIS (Intelligent Sensing for Innovative Structures) network which is centred in Winnipeg. Researchers at ISIS have developed uses for new fibre reinforced polymers which are lighter than steel, are stronger than steel and are non-corrosive in building the decks for highway bridges. Based on their work, at an international workshop held in Winnipeg on April 14-15, 2005, they developed a consensus on future design of bridge decks to provide leadership to the civil engineering design community. It is a major step forward and should allow for repair of some deteriorating bridge structures at much lower cost than previous. For more information you can visit http://www.isiscanada.com

Congratulations to Chris Lorenc and Tish Best for a well organized meeting.