One week before the last provincial election was called, the Progressive Conservative government quietly gave JohnQ Public an $18 million grant.

There was no public announcement about the one-time funding that was paid in full to JohnQ — a company owned by 12 rural municipalities — on Aug. 29, 2023.

The grant is for a land purchase in the Rural Municipality of Ritchot to develop a proposed “Winnipeg Regional Rail Port,” NDP government principal secretary Emily Coutts said in an email.

JohnQ has come under scrutiny in the past month after the government requested Manitoba’s auditor general to review a $100-million daycare construction program initiated by the previous government that JohnQ project managed with the help of Boom Done Next — a company co-owned by Marni Larkin, the director of the PCs’ 2023 re-election campaign.