Suggesting a steady dose of investment announcements is the provincial government’s way of tossing up Hail Marys in an attempt to get re-elected, Opposition Leader Brian Pallister said his government would spend $1 billion per year on infrastructure if elected.

Pallister, speaking Tuesday morning to the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association and Manitoba Home Builders’ Association, said his government would find cost savings within the government bureaucracy to apply to fixing roads, water systems and bridges.

“We’re going to get more value for money,” Pallister said. “Money that goes to overlap and duplication, you want get more of that money working to build better roads, better drainage, better water and sewer and bridges.”

Pallister said a performance review of government would find the cost savings.

“We will find savings,” he said. “There’s waste in all governments, and overlap and duplication, but especially in older, tireder governments. There’s lots of waste and we’ll find that waste and we’ll redirect those savings in a better way for Manitobans.”

Pallister suggested the provincial NDP and upstart Liberals are making funding pledges without thought as to where the buck will stop, going so far as to say Premier Greg Selinger’s party is “Hail Mary-ing so that they can try to buy support so they can get in for another term.”

“Just saying we’ll spend more money on it, as both of the other parties are saying now, isn’t the answer,” he said. “Manitobans understand you can’t just throw money at a problem, there’s a limit. And somebody’s gotta pay for it.”

Selinger responded that the province spent more than $1 billion on infrastructure last year. And, when the province raised the PST one point in 2013, it set off on a five-year plan of infrastructure spending that totalled over $5 billion.

“It’s very interesting that he’s committing to that because he’s also saying that he’s getting rid of the PST,” Selinger said. “So the obvious question is ‘How’s he going to pay for it?’ When he’s committed to phasing out the PST, he’s very critical of the PST and now he says he’s going to have money to do infrastructure. He can’t really have it both ways.”

Pallister suggested the province has underspent its infrastructure budget on average by 28% in every year of its last term.

“You can’t raid, raid, raid and then have a parade and act like you’ve got a strategic infrastructure plan.”

Selinger refuted that claim.

“We’ve ramped it up every single year,” Selinger said. “Every single year we’ve accelerated the amount of money going into infrastructure. ... And anything that’s not spent in a year, gets rolled over to the next year.”

Political scientist and author Christopher Adams said Pallister’s announcement is part of a plan to soften his image.

“Infrastructure seems to be the green light for politicians of right, left and centre ... to spend money,” Adams said. “It’s a safe thing for the Progressive Conservatives to talk about.”

david.larkins@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @LarkinsWSun