Steinbach MLA Kelvin Goertzen says last weeks federal budget didn’t leave any excuses for the provincial NDP finance Minister who has been looking to increase taxes even further and rack up even more debt.
“Every year the NDP government looks for someone to blame for their massive deficits and tax increases. Last week the federal government committed to yet another increase in transfer payments to Manitoba so the NDP have no one to blame for their financial mess except themselves,” said Goertzen.
Just from equalization, health and social services transfers, Manitoba will receive 3.4 billion in the coming budget year up from 3.36 billion in the previous budget year. That doesn’t include federal funding for a host of programs including infrastructure, training and other special projects which push funding from the federal government to over 40% of the Manitoba budget.
“Last budget we saw the highest increase in taxes in 25 years and it included everything from a higher tax on gasoline to a new tax on home insurance. Yet the NDP still rang up a half billion dollar deficit. It’s the result of bad management and poor decision making. The excuses have to stop and real results need to be seen in this budget,” said Goertzen.
Goertzen says he hopes to see a realistic plan to eliminate the deficit and a longer term plan to start paying off the province’s debt.
The provincial budget will be released on April 16th.
