Wednesday, May 21, 2025
The Manitoba government is providing $60 million in capital funding and a further $60 million in bridge financing to support Assiniboine College’s new Prairie Innovation Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, which will expand workforce training opportunities and support the future of agriculture in Manitoba, announced Premier Wab Kinew.
“Manitoba’s agriculture sector is critical to our province’s economy and to staying resilient against Trump’s tariffs,” said Kinew. “The Prairie Innovation Centre will house new and expanded training, so Manitobans can learn the skills they need to get good, in-demand Ag jobs here in Westman and across the province.”
With Manitoba’s agriculture industry expected to grow substantially, the Prairie Innovation Centre in Brandon will add hundreds of additional training seats in Westman to meet this demand, noted the premier.
The Manitoba government is providing:
- $60 million in capital funding, with $40 million going to the Prairie Innovation Centre and $20 million for a new 216 seat child-care project within the centre.
- $60 million in approved bridge financing to allow construction to begin immediately.
Assiniboine College has been working to establish the Prairie Innovation Centre as a state-of-the-art learning facility on its North Hill Campus. The centre will foster collaboration with industry, promote cutting-edge research and expand agricultural training capacity to help meet local labour market needs, noted the premier.
“We are pleased the province is providing the financing for the Prairie Innovation Centre, said Mark Frison, President, Assiniboine College. “It is an important project that will help to improve value-added processing and export development capacity in the agriculture sector. Today’s commitment allows us to go tender immediately. We look forward to working with the province to finalize participation of the government of Canada in the project.”
The Manitoba government has identified that this project is an important investment to the government of Canada and is advocating for federal support, said the premier.
In addition to training Manitobans for the agriculture jobs of the future, project construction is expected to create almost 1,000 jobs, added Kinew.
Featured image credit: Government of Manitoba
