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Editor's Note - a correction has been made to the following story indicating the funding received by the companies mentioned is a repayable term loan. The initial story omitted that point. We apologize for the error.
PrairiesCan Minister and MP for Saint Boniface-St.Vital, Dan Vandal, announced over $11,796,593 in federal funding for 24 projects in communities across rural Manitoba on Tuesday. The funding is intended to support economic growth, development of community spaces, and tourism initiatives in Manitoba.
The announcement included projects funded through the Jobs and Growth Fund, the Business Scale-Up and Productivity program, the Canada Community Revitalization Fund, and the Tourism Relief Fund, all administered by PrairiesCan in Manitoba.
Elmer’s Welding and Manufacturing Ltd. and Spenst Brothers Premium Meats are two local recipients, with each receiving repayble term loans for the following amounts and projects.
$3,339,000 is going to Elmer's to expand manufacturing capacity and operating efficiency by investing in advanced manufacturing technology, process optimization, personnel and training in Altona.
Spenst Brothers received $2,850,000 to expand meat processing and frozen pizza production capacity in Winkler.
“Rural communities across our country are instrumental in the overall health of Canada’s economy. The projects announced today represent a wide range of initiatives and demonstrate the unique needs and opportunities for rural communities and businesses. While visiting small towns across the Prairies, I’m always impressed by the revitalization, growth, and economic development that’s happening, being led by the people who live and work here. And that is especially true for communities here in Manitoba," said Vandal.
PrairiesCan is an economic development agency that spawned from Western Economic Diversification.
"Western Diversification was split up into two different agencies, PrairiesCan and PacificCan, essentially to help with the recovery after two years of COVID," says Vandal. "There's more money in each in all the envelopes in both agencies, and we're doing more outreach to try to get to more rural communities and northern communities," explained Vandal.