Premier vows to extend sitting unless budget bill passes by June 1

Premier Wab Kinew threatened to put politicians’ summer break on pause Wednesday in a fight over the government’s budget bill after MLAs sat through the night Tuesday and into late Wednesday afternoon.

If the bill doesn’t pass by the end of business Thursday, “we’re coming back in June,” Premier Wab Kinew told reporters.

The debate began Tuesday afternoon and by noon hour Wednesday, Progressive Conservative MLAs were still talking about the bill in the chamber, saying it doesn’t provide enough relief for Manitobans who are struggling with the cost of living.

“We need the government to go back to the drawing board and create a (budget) bill that is actually about improving affordability for Manitobans,” MLA Kathleen Cook told the chamber Wednesday morning.

The NDP said its budget bill needs to pass before the house is scheduled to rise June 1.

The bill would remove the seven per cent provincial sales tax from a list of grocery items, including take-out dinners and snacks, as of July 1.

The Tories say removing the tax on “junk food” will save a family of four only about $100 a year. For months they’ve called on the government to increase Manitoba’s basic personal tax exemption of $15,780 to provide more relief.

“What we’ve been asking the NDP to do immediately is increase it to $21,000, which puts us in line and competitive with Saskatchewan and Alberta,” PC finance critic Lauren Stone told reporters. Increasing the basic personal amount would save a family of four $1,000 a year and cost the province $350 million in revenue, Stone said Wednesday.

“Governments can make this happen — if there is a will, there is a way,” she said.

The PCs tried to delay second reading of the budget bill for five months using a procedure known as a “hoist motion.” The motion was voted down by the NDP majority Wednesday afternoon before the house adjourned at 5 p.m. The budget bill is up for third reading on Thursday, when members return to the chamber. The house doesn’t sit Friday and Monday is the last scheduled sitting day when dozens of government bills are expected to receive royal assent.

Kinew was adamant that MLAs will continue to sit beyond Monday until the budget bill is passed and he criticized Tory efforts to delay it till the fall.

“There’s nothing less helpful to your cost of living than procedural stunts in the legislature,” the premier said.

“We’ll wait this out and deliver what we promised in the budget, which is tax off the groceries, free transit for kids, more money for health care.”

The proposed PC income tax measure is not a “serious” proposal, he said.

“The budget is made over many months and they’re showing up at the last minute and trying to do whatever it is that they’re doing,” Kinew said.

In an almost-around-the-clock filibuster, the Tories went after the NDP budget bill.

“I think there’s a lot of evidence in Bill 53 that the NDP government didn’t give this bill enough thought,” Cook told the chamber Wednesday morning.

The MLA for Roblin said the NDP backtracked on its proposed PST removal on prepared food when it decided to include items sold at corner stores and not just big-box grocers. The PCs say the bill in its current form excludes restaurants, which would still have to collect the tax on takeout food.

Cook said Manitoba leads the country in food inflation and affordability is a significant challenge for many.

Harvest Manitoba reported in December that 60,000 people use food banks in the province each month and that the number had grown by 150 per cent in five years.

“That’s a really unfortunate indicator of how bad things have got for many Manitoba families and how severe the affordability crisis really is,” said Cook, the PC health critic.

Since the NDP has 33 of the 57 seats in the legislature, there was no chance the PC motion to delay the budget bill would pass.

The delay tactic did give the Tories a chance to criticize the bill at length and to try to present themselves as the party fighting for affordability, said Paul Thomas, University of Manitoba political studies professor emeritus.

“Delay is one of the few ways that the opposition can publicize its disagreements with the government in order to inform the public about what it regards as flawed or inadequate policies,” Thomas said.

“In an intensely partisan legislature, the rules and various parliamentary practices have become weapons in an ongoing adversarial contest which resembles a permanent election contest,” Thomas said.

PC Leader Obby Khan said Manitobans don’t want to watch politicians fight, and neither does he.

“From Day 1 we have said, as opposition, we want to work with the NDP government,” Khan told reporters.

“They just want to jam everything through without any sort of dialogue,” he said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca