Manitoba’s Justice Minister is looking forward to getting more details on some areas of the federal budget.

Minister Kelvin Goertzen says one area of importance is a better funding agreement for legal aid in Manitoba.

“It means a lot in terms of access to justice,” he says. “I do understand that there was a significant increase of funding for legal aid overall in the budget. We haven’t heard the details about where that will be distributed across Canada. But I’m cautiously optimistic that with more funding overall, that will benefit Manitoba as well.”

According to Goertzen, the federal budget was missing some key funding for the Guns and Gangs Strategy in our province.

He says the federal funding that supports this program is set to expire this year.

"It’s very important to ensure that we're stopping the flow of illegal guns that are coming between borders, both north and south, and east and west,” says Goertzen. “We've seen success on some very big drug busts, illegal drug busts in Manitoba recently, including Operation Divergent, which was promoted a couple of weeks ago with $70 million value of street drugs coming off the street.”

Goertzen says he will continue to press for the continuation of federal funding for this strategy.

With rising inflation, he adds that affordability is one issue that is important to all Manitobans.

“You know, people are paying a lot for gasoline, they’re paying a lot for food, and they're feeling it,” Goertzen says. “And inflation is going up at levels we haven't seen for decades, so affordability was talked about in the budget. Both the federal budget, when it comes to housing and other things. But the details, I think we'll hear more about in the weeks to come.”

Goertzen says healthcare is another key issue of concern for Manitobans.

“I would have liked to have seen perhaps more commitment to increasing the transfer payments for healthcare.”

He hopes to find out soon how much federal funding will trickle into our province.