NDP grassroots defer decision on PST hike

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/06/2012 (5074 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NDP grassroots decided this morning at the party’s annual convention to defer a resolution calling for the provincial government to hike the PST to raise more money to fix Manitoba’s crumbling roads and bridges.

The decision means a call by the Manitoba Federation of Labour to increase the provincial sales tax by a percentage point will not be addressed. Instead, it will now be examined by the party’s executive at its next meeting.

Or, in other words, it’s disappeared into the ether.

MFL president Kevin Rebeck said the resolution was pulled to allow party members to address more serious matters like worker safety and the Harper government’s pending changes to employment insurance and its plan to take a greater role in immigration. The party’s annual convention is being held at the Victoria Inn.

The MFL’s resolution called on the Selinger government to increase the provincial sales tax by a percentage point and to dedicate the proceeds to renew or replace municipal infrastructure. A point hike would raise an estimated $262 million a year. Manitoba is said to have an $11-billion municipal infrastructure deficit.

That resolution echoed the position of the Business Council of Manitoba, which consists of chief executive officers of the province’s leading companies. The council has been asking for the same thing for more than a year.

Manitoba municipalities, including the City of Winnipeg, have also asked for a dedicated funding source that would allow them to tackle deteriorating roads and bridges.

But even it had been addressed, it would have done little to sway the Selinger government. The government is not obliged to follow policy as set at convention.

Last Tuesday, Premier Greg Selinger said the province is already pouring hundreds of millions into infrastructure.

“We always take resolutions at the convention seriously, but as you know we’ve committed to a new infrastructure agreement with the federal government,” he said.

Selinger also said Manitoba has committed to giving municipalities the equivalent of one percentage point of the PST for infrastructure purposes.

“There’s only one province that comes close to doing that in Canada and that’s Saskatchewan,” he said.

Selinger and Infrastructure and Transportation Minister Steve Ashton have already said they will spend a record $589 million this year to fix the province’s roads and highways.

They have also outlined a building plan that includes repairs to 80 bridges and 200 roads damaged in last year’s flooding.