Tax rebate and minimum wage bills to pass before legislature breaks

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This article was published 01/06/2022 (1388 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson unloaded on her political opponents, promised a brighter future for Manitoba then wished everyone “a wonderful summer” in the last question period of the spring session.

“They are nattering nabobs of negativity,” Stefanson told the house after her Progressive Conservatives were grilled on issues ranging from the surgical backlog, funding for schools and the recent homicide deaths of three Indigenous women before the house was expected to pass more than 20 bills late Wednesday.

“They have no plan, no vision for the future of our province,” Stefanson said after being pressed by the NDP to answer questions about health care and education.

“We have a plan to strengthen health care, a plan to rebuild our economy, a plan to protect our environment, to invest in our communities,” the premier said.

“There is going to be a better, brighter future for our province because of our plan,” she said to the cheers of her caucus.

Stefanson used the spring sitting “to recycle Brian Pallister’s bad legislation,” NDP house leader Nahanni Fontaine said.

“Manitobans were clear: they were done with Brian Pallister’s agenda, an agenda that helped the wealthy get ahead and left everyone else behind,” Fontaine said in a news release.

The Stefanson government picked up the former PC premier’s 25 per cent education property tax rebate offered in 2021 and expanded it to 37.5 per cent this year. It killed Bill 64, the Education Modernization Act, that would’ve put a stop to school trustee elections in Manitoba’s anglophone school divisions. Another bill that died after Pallister quit was resurrected to change the rate-setting authority of the Public Utilities Board.

“The PCs are stuck in the past. (They are)more willing to make cuts and repeat Pallister’s mistakes than help families,” NDP leader Wab Kinew said in a news release.

Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said Pallister was trying to “blow up” the education and health care systems.

“This is a government that’s been trying to fix a bunch of stuff that they broke but they’ve really set the bar really low,” the member for St. Boniface said. The one thing that struck him, he said, was whom the premier quoted when she called the Opposition “nattering nabobs of negativity.”

U.S. vice-president Spiro Agnew, who resigned in disgrace in 1973, was famous for calling the media “nattering nabobs of negativism.” Facing charges of tax evasion and corruption, Agnew quit a year ahead of his boss, president Richard Nixon.

“Of all the people you’re going to quote on the day that finishes the session as a way of sticking it to your opponents, you’re quoting Richard Nixon’s, vice-president, Spiro Agnew, who resigned in disgrace?”

Stefanson told reporters it was a “robust” legislative session, with bills such as “Clare’s Law” that addresses intimate partner violence to those that “make life more affordable for Manitobans.”

She pointed to a new minimum wage bill that allows an increase outside of the annual hike tied to the inflation rate and a $349-million appropriation bill so the PCs can send Manitobans education property tax rebates before their municipal tax bill is due.

At the same time, Stefanson said she was mindful that Manitobans have been through a lot during the pandemic, the invasion of Ukraine that hit close to home for many, as well as flooding.

“I think Manitobans wanted us to sort of calm the waters and get through these difficult times and I think we have,” the premier said.

When asked if she expects significant progress will be made on the surgical backlog before the next election due by Oct. 3, 2023, Stefanson was optimistic. “I think we’ll make significant headway over the course of the next few months.”

Stefanson said she’s got a busy summer planned, travelling throughout the province connecting with Manitobans at events such as Folklorama that are returning after a two-year pandemic hiatus.

When the session resumes Sept. 28, the PCs have legislation in the works that includes expanding private liquor sales as well as modernizing liquor licensing.

They’ll also consider legislation to proceed with the transfer of the child welfare system to Indigenous organizations and legislation that addresses human trafficking in hotels and vacation rentals.

— with files from Danielle Da Silva

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca