Pallister says Selinger ‘will raise the PST for sure’

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This article was published 31/03/2016 (3485 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brian Pallister accused Greg Selinger Thursday of planning to raise the PST again.

Pallister told reporters that Selinger has refused to deny he would raise the PST again, and said the premier has dismissed any questions on the subject as conjecture.

“He’ll raise the PST for sure if he gets another chance,” Pallister said.

Selinger’s decision to raise the PST to eight per cent from seven per cent in 2013, after earlier promising he wouldn’t, is at the heart of the NDP’s internal divisions and a key plank in Pallister’s attacks on the NDP leader.

Countered Selinger by email: “The only taxes we plan to raise are on the richest two per cent of Manitobans to give working and middle-class families a tax break.

“Brian Pallister opposes this plan because he stands up for his wealthy and well-connected friends. He also wants to make it easier for the wealthy to have more influence on politics here in Manitoba, by raising the donation limit,” Selinger said. “One just has to read the news to hear about the impact of big money in politics in B.C. and Ontario.

“That’s why our NDP government banned union and corporate donations — because democracy should not be a question of who has the wealthiest friends and the deepest pockets. We believe that every Manitoban’s vote should count,” said Selinger.

Pallister made the declaration after standing coatless on the steps of the legislature to promise to scrap the provincial subsidy for political parties and to warn the other parties that he’d kill the so-called vote tax retroactive to Jan. 1, 2016.

He said it would save taxpayers $2.4 million over the next four years.

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The Tories have refused the subsidy since 2012, and publicly went through the motions Thursday of saying no to $185,000 for 2015. Since 2012, Pallister said, the NDP has accepted $1.1 million and the Liberals $253,000 in the per-vote subsidy.

“It was a principled decision, and it was the right decision,” said Steinbach Conservative candidate Kelvin Goertzen.

Pallister said if voters ranked their priorities for the April 19 election, maintaining the vote tax would not be high on their lists. Political parties being funded through individuals giving their time and small amounts of money make for a healthy democracy, he said. Pallister said the Tories would consider raising the limit on individual donations.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca