The Manitoba government unveiled its 2018 Budget on Monday.

"We're pretty excited with the opportunities that we've been able to accomplish in a few short years," said Manitoba Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler. "We're very pleased with the announcement of Roquette, and of course Simplot, the expansion of the livestock sector - we've seen almost $200 million invested there as well."

Some of the highlights for the ag sector include:

- implementing the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) Multilateral Framework Agreement on April 1 to support the investment of $176 million over five years in strategic programming focused on the sustainability and competitiveness of the agriculture and food sector;

- maintaining crucial programs such as AgriInsurance, and Agricultural Income Stabilization including AgriStability and AgriInvest and enhancing coverage to include corn, soybeans, and some novel crops;

- providing targeted financial assistance of $1.5 million to agriculture producers in advance of the adoption of beneficial management practices to improve environmental sustainability of their operations;

- an investment of $102 million to establish an independently run conservation trust that will fund projects to support the Made-in-Manitoba Climate and Green Plan

- $70 million to launch the Lake Manitoba outlet project

- investing an additional $3.6 million for the farmland school tax rebate program, making sure farmers get to keep more money in their pockets and can put more money back into their operations;

- providing a $133,000 increase in funding for the Veterinary Diagnostic Services Laboratory to purchase specialized equipment; and
    
- increasing the Wildlife Damage Compensation Program budget by $151,000 to mitigate damages caused by wildlife.