Manitoba's Finance Minister continues to travel the province to hear about spending priorities.

Greg Dewar was in Morden on Monday.

"We want to hear from Manitobans about their ideas so we can build a strong budget that focuses on what matters most to Manitoba families," Dewar says.

Some of the issues voiced Monday night surrounded education and increased support for new schools to keep up with population and immigration, increased wages for government employees to keep up with the cost of living, and increased support for health care providers overwhelmed with an aging population. While each region has specific

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Finance Minister Greg Dewarissues, Dewar says across Manitoba, key points continue to come up.

"We're hearing that Manitobans want us to continue to invest in healthcare, continue to invest in education, continue to invest in infrastructure," Dewar says. "We know that this area is an area that is growing, we know that this area is looking at perhaps needing a new school, and recently our government supported the building of Tabor Home... we're proud to be able to support that."

So far, Dewar says he has been encouraged by the engagement of communities. Along with similar public meetings being held across the region, the provincial government has been using online surveys and a telephone town hall event, giving people a chance to phone in to voice ideas.

"We get a general consensus of what Manitobans would like to see and we'll respond to that," Dewar says. "It's very helpful, I find it to be a very unique experience."

Dewar also shed light on Canada's economy and the recent challenges of low oil prices and the dropping Canadian dollar. However, he says Manitoba has weathered the recent downturn with a stable and diverse economy and a balanced export market, adding the Province ranks high in economic growth compared to the rest of the Country.

He says investment in infrastructure has been key to weathering the 2009 recession and continued growth. Dewar says the Provincial government believes spending cuts to create a balanced budget during the economic downturn would have made the impact of the recession worse, though he adds the Manitoba debt is manageable as the fourth lowest net debt to GDP ratio compared to other Provinces and the federal government.

The key makeup of the budget continues to be health and education which accounts for 39 % and 24 % of the 2015 annual budget respectively.

To voice your concerns and ideas for the Provincial budget visit the province's website here.