Even though the provincial election campaign isn't officially under way, the Conservative party's made a campaign-style announcement on infrastructure.

Leader Brian Pallister's pledged to spend no less than a billion dollars a year on infrastructure. He says it's a key issue for the province.

"Infrastructure is what we build on, it's the foundation of our province. We believe more intelligent investment, more strategic investment's critical. And we also think that we can get, let's just say, better return on the investment by really targeting the projects more intelligently to help more people, to help them create more jobs and wealth."

Pallister stresses to help pay for that, he says they'll look at reducing what he describes as soft costs.

"The money that goes to overlap and duplication, that doesn't fill potholes. You want to get more of that money actually working to build better roads. We have committed to doing a complete performance review of government, and we will find savings. There's waste in all governments, and we'll find that waste, and we'll re-direct those savings in a better way for Manitobans."