View From the Legislature

Last week the Manitoba Legislature was bustling with choirs and visitors during the annual Christmas Open House. MLAs in attendance also had the opportunity to participate in the annual MLA choir and demonstrate their singing skills, or lack of, performing some holiday classics.

While the atmosphere was light with the celebration of the season in full swing and the Manitoba Legislature on its winter recess, early in the New Year Manitobans would be wise to start paying close attention to what is happening at the Manitoba Legislature. That is because the coming spring budget will be one of the most important in recent years as clear signs of economic challenges are showing and the NDP government has yet to tell Manitobans what the plan is to manage those challenges.

The NDP economic plan, if there is one, has been confusing at best. Shortly after getting elected to government, they turned a $300 million surplus into a $2 billion deficit, the largest deficit in a non pandemic year in Manitoba’s history. And while the NDP have promised to bring the books back to balance before the next election, they haven’t given any indication how they intend to do that.

While they have looked to save money in some places, it seems to be in the areas that Manitobans least want to see cuts. And exactly opposite of what the NDP ran on in last falls provincial election. They started almost immediately by cutting nine new schools and a number of other needed school expansion projects, including in Grunthal. They followed that up with cancelling surgery options for Manitobans and just this past week the Manitoba Nurses Union and Doctors Manitoba warned that the NDP have told health officials to prepare for healthcare cuts and that many rural Emergency Rooms were set to close due to lack of staff.

All this leaves Manitoban wondering why there is still a massive deficit and where is the money being spent if not in healthcare and education?

And unfortunately, it looks like there are strong economic headwinds on the horizon. Last month the incoming Trump administration indicated it was their intention to put 25% across the board tariffs on all imports from Canada into the United States. That would have devastating effects on the Canadian economy, including here in Manitoba. It would also, it is worth noting, negatively impact the cost of gas and food on Americans.

Added to this, unemployment in Manitoba has jumped nearly 25% since the NDP took over government last fall. The most recent report shows that unemployment was up sharply to 5.8% in November in our province. Added all together, the soaring deficits (despite NDP cuts to education and healthcare) threats of tariffs from our largest trading partner, higher unemployment and a weakening economy all are reasons for very significant concern.

And yet, there has hardly been a word from the Manitoba NDP on how they plan to deal with these challenges. That is why the next spring session of the Manitoba Legislature will be a critically important one. Early in that session the NDP will be required to produce a budget that will not only reveal the current state of the provincial finances but should contain some type of plan to deal with the coming fiscal challenges. To date, the strategy of cutting health and education funding while driving up massive deficits and ignoring economic threats isn’t working. It is that type of mismanagement that led to record tax increases under a previous NDP government, a time Manitobans do not want to see repeated.