Budget pledge not cast in stone: Selinger

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This article was published 29/04/2015 (3821 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Premier Greg Selinger says a pledge his government made more than two years ago to balance the province’s budget by 2016 was never ironclad, despite the fact it’s enshrined in Manitoba law.

For a second straight day Tuesday, Selinger defended his government’s new target of 2018 for getting Manitoba’s books out of the red.

“It was in law. It was a target. But we always said that we wouldn’t do it at the sacrifice of essential services for Manitobans, and we wouldn’t lose our focus on growing the economy and making sure that people have opportunities to work,” the premier said after a ceremony honouring Manitobans who have lost their lives due to workplace incidents.

The NDP government has been running deficits since 2009. It previously broke a promise to balance the books by 2014. That promise was also guaranteed in law, which the government had to amend to run deficits until 2016. The government will have to amend the law to run a deficit in 2016-17.

The Selinger government’s latest broken promise on the deficit has the business community seething.

“It just serves to further undermine business confidence in the fiscal stewardship of this province,” Loren Remillard, executive vice-president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, said Tuesday.

While it is very disappointed at the news — first revealed by Finance Minister Greg Dewar late Friday — the chamber is not surprised, Remillard said. “The language from the government over the last couple of years has gone from ‘we will (balance the books by 2016)’ to ‘we’d like to’ to ‘maybe’ to ‘some time in the future.’ It’s just been a watering down of what was to begin with a very weak commitment,” he said.

For the premier now to say the 2016 target was never carved in stone is disappointing, Remillard said. “A government is only as good as its word,” he said. “If you don’t think that it’s going to be a realistic target, then say that.”

What’s troubling, the chamber official said, is the government is not facing a major flood or some other crisis that is sapping its finances.

He said the government is also guilty of “doublespeak” in that it now appears to be pleading poverty at the same time as it brags whenever experts predict Manitoba will have one of the best performing economies in the country this year.

“At this point we’d be happy if they would decide as to whether it’s the best of times or the worst of times. Pick one and then we can deal with that context,” Remillard said.

Selinger and Dewar have said in recent days they believe it is no time for government to stop priming the economic pump by reducing spending on infrastructure.

On Monday, the premier said the recent drop in oil prices — and its impact on the economy — is also a cause for concern for his government.

That drew laughter from Conservative Leader Brian Pallister on Tuesday.

“Falling oil prices, according to the Conference Board of Canada, will benefit one province ahead of the other nine — Manitoba,” he told reporters.

“They (the conference board) predict that our actual economic performance will be improved by as much as half of one per cent as a consequence of a decline in oil prices,” Pallister said, pointing to the positive impact on the province’s manufacturing sector. “The premier shows a shocking lack of understanding of the economic realities that Manitoba must deal with.”

During the 2011 election campaign, Pallister said, New Democrats promised to balance the books, but now it appears they will run next year on a promise not to balance the books.

“And they’re saying it’s good for us,” he said.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca