While the nation's analyzing the recent federal budget announcement, Portage la Prairie MLA Ian Wishart describes his reaction.

"It's guarded," notes Wishart. "I mean, a lot of it was re-announcements from the last budget. And, frankly, we're still trying to figure out what's new and what isn't. Things like additional dollars in the labour market. We were supportive of that before. It helps us with our training initiatives here in Manitoba."

Wishart says it seems to be everything was about the same dollars for more years as previously announced, anyway.

He says they're looking for commitments on the Factory of the Future, noting it's important for us here in Manitoba. Wishart explains this project isn't just a construction site, but also a training site for us. He adds they also want firm commitments for First Nations health and education issues. He notes there are several dollars attached to that endeavour but not very many details. Wishart adds those are the good news elements of the announcement.

He says the uncertainty of how relations with the United States will fare plays into much of how the budget was presented. Wishart says he feels the lack of details in the budget were purposely made to retain a level of flexibility so the feds can be more responsive to how things progress south of the border.

Wishart says he was encouraged about how the topic of child care was handled, noting it's an important issue with Manitobans. He explains some of the federal initiatives will work well with what we're trying to do in Manitoba.

Summing it up, Wishart stresses the labour market issues and child care are very important to our province. We do use labour market training across rural Manitoba. He notes the child care issue's something we're very far behind on throughout the province, and any additional help in that area will certainly be well received.