Kinew unveils NDP ‘fiscal framework’: balanced budget, no PST increase By: Carol Sanders Posted: 1:15 PM CDT Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023 Last Modified: 3:27 PM CDT Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023 Updates

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With the start of the provincial election campaign still weeks away, the NDP unveiled its fiscal plan Wednesday in the clearest signal yet the party isn’t waiting to start courting voters.

With the glass towers of downtown’s Truth North Square as his backdrop, NDP Leader Wab Kinew said his party’s plan includes a balanced budget, middle-class tax cuts — and a timeline to end social ills he said the Tories have allowed to fester.

“We need to do better downtown to help all Manitobans and to help our future economy,” Kinew said at the announcement on the rooftop patio of Tavern United Wednesday morning before the bar opened for business.

“The economic horse pulls the social cart. We are going to invest in having a strong economy but we also need to understand that that’s a reciprocal relationship. Part of having a strong economy means tackling some of the social, addictions and health-care issues we’re facing today.”

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Kinew said he wants Winnipeggers to once again feel good about taking visitors downtown.

“I drive by a bus shack and see people living in it — I look at that and say, ‘Way to go, (Prime Minister) Justin Trudeau. Way to go, (Premier) Heather Stefanson.’

“I thought this was a rich country…. How do we accept this?”

Kinew committed an NDP government to end chronic homelessness in eight years, noting that there are complex issues involved and it won’t be easy.

“We have to try,” he said.

And he promised to balance the provincial budget.

“I thought this was a rich country…. How do we accept this?”–NDP Leader Wab Kinew

“We are going to adopt the economic forecast and fiscal outlook in Budget 2023 — with that major proviso that we will be returned to balance in the first term of an NDP government,” he said, speaking with caucus members and candidates standing behind him.

The Progressive Conservatives Budget 2023 projects a deficit of $363 million and says Manitoba is on track to balance the budget by 2028-2029.

Details of how the New Democrats plan to balance the budget in their first term will be made public after the election writ is issued, Kinew said. It will not involve getting rid of the Tories’ education property-tax reduction or raising the PST, he said.

“Right now Manitobans are struggling with high inflation. You’re feeling it every time you go to the grocery store; for us to ask you to pay more at this time would be wrong,” Kinew said.

“We’ll maintain that 50 per cent education property-tax rebate.”

The NDP would work with school divisions to reduce the bill sent to property owners in the first place rather than mailing out rebate cheques later, he said.

“I think we could just take the money off the top of your property tax bill at the start of the year and save you money each and every month,” Kinew said. “If you’re paying 400 bucks on your property tax bill, under our plan you’ll pay $200 a month. At the same time we’ll probably save a couple million dollars in terms of printing and mailing costs (to send out cheques) that we can then use to re-invest in education,” he said.

The New Democrats would honour the basic personal income-tax exemptions and index income-tax brackets to the rate of inflation “to provide you with relief when you need it,” Kinew said.

He dismissed PC claims that an NDP government would raise the provincial sales tax to pay for its spending promises.

“I want to say clearly and unequivocally that the Manitoba NDP under my leadership will never raise the PST,” he said. “When the PST was raised 10 years ago I criticized it then.”

In 2013, an NDP government increased the PST by one point to eight per cent. In 2019, it was reduced to seven per cent by the PCs.

“The reason why I don’t like raising a tax like the PST is because it hits middle- and lower-income people the most,” he said.

“The reason why I don’t like raising a tax like the PST is because it hits middle- and lower-income people the most.”–Wab Kinew

The Tories responded to the NDP announcement Wednesday by thanking the party “for promising things today that we and our government is already delivering on — things to make life more affordable for Manitobans,” Finance Minister Cliff Cullen told reporters on Zoom.

“It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad, because a few months ago when the NDP had a chance to join us in helping Manitobans, they voted against (the majority government’s budget).”

Cullen, who is not running for re-election in his Spruce Woods riding, said history has shown the NDP would raise taxes, despite Kinew’s assurance to the contrary.

Although the government announced more than $2.5 billion in spending between June 1 and the Aug. 4 imposition of the pre-election blackout, Cullen said the Tories won’t have to raise taxes to keep their promises.

Manitoba’s Election Financing Act forbids many types of government advertising, announcements and news conferences in the 60 days prior to an election, with some exceptions such as matters of public health and continuations of ongoing ad campaigns at agencies such as Crown corporations.

The law is aimed at preventing the governing party from gaining a campaign advantage over other parties without access to government resources.

— With files from Danielle Da Silva

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.

Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.