Tories vow to axe payroll tax

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This article was published 11/09/2023 (800 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Progressive Conservative Leader Heather Stefanson laid out her vision Monday to boost Manitoba’s population to two million people by 2030 and eliminate payroll taxes in the province.

“Growing our economy and positioning Manitoba as one of the most attractive places to live in Canada is how we will achieve our two million population goal by 2030,” Stefanson said at a campaign event attended by supporters and media.

The province’s population is 1.4 million, Manitoba Bureau of Statistics reported in April.

Her speech, on the outdoor patio of a luxury high rise on Main Street, just above street level, was punctuated by cheers from her supporters and a sing-song chorus of “Where is Heather?” from striking Manitoba Public Insurance workers on the street below.

Stefanson promised to phase out the “NDP-created, job-killing payroll tax” that “punishes businesses for expanding or paying their employees higher wages.”

A re-elected PC government would phase out the payroll tax over the next eight years, with the tax cut in half within four years, she said. The cut would amount to roughly $55 million a year in lost revenue, but — along with the PCs phasing out the education property tax, reducing income taxes and promising to kill the land transfer tax for first-time homebuyers — would make Manitoba more attractive to investors, the candidate for Tuxedo said.

Promised PC tax cuts add up to more than $1.2 billion, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives said Monday. In a press release, it said the proposed cuts raise “serious questions” about how a PC government would cover revenue losses without large cuts to services..

A booming economy will allow the province to more than make up for revenue losses related to tax cuts, Stefanson told supporters.

“Vision 2030 is the best way we can create more revenue for the services we all rely on, like health care, education, roads and social services,” she said.

When asked if he supports eliminating the payroll tax, NDP Leader Wab Kinew questioned his PC counterpart’s priorities.

“Heather Stefanson is showing you what she thinks should be the No. 1 priority, and I’m telling you what should be our No. 1 priority from the Manitoba NDP perspective,” the Fort Rouge candidate said at a campaign event outside the Victoria General Hospital. “Let’s fix health care.”

Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said the PCs have been claiming “for decades” that they will grow the economy by cutting taxes. “The reality is that the PCs are taking record amounts of federal transfers and borrowing additional money for these tax cuts and promises, while they continue to make cuts to public services that Manitobans rely on,” the candidate for St. Boniface said Monday.

“Manitoba is facing crises in health care and homelessness because of the last seven years of cuts and freezes. We could be going into a recession, and Manitoba cannot afford another irresponsible PC government that simply does not listen to the front lines,” Lamont said.

“Challenges will only be met and overcome if we look for the opportunities,” Stefanson said at her campaign event Monday. She pointed to Manitoba’s wealth of critical minerals and said her government’s strategy to tap into them attracted a record $170 million in exploration spending in 2022. Stefanson talked about Manitoba’s plan to leverage its hydroelectric energy in attracting clean, green industries, and pointed to the province’s current economic health, with manufacturing, exports and GDP numbers up and jobless numbers down.

The PCs had previously predicted two million Manitobans — but not for nearly 30 years. In the 2021 budget, it forecast population growth and challenges, with Manitoba’s population of 1.3 million growing steadily then reaching two million, but not until 2050. It forecast an aging population with seniors’ share of the overall population increasing from 16 per cent to 19 per cent by 2050 and core “working age” folk (20-64 years old) decreasing to 56 per cent from 59 per cent.

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“An aging population will create new pressures on provincial finances and the demand for public services in the future,” the budget document said.

Stefanson committed to spending on skills and training to fill 100,000 jobs within five years and attract “new industries entering the provincial economy,” including aquaculture, solar glass manufacturing, biofuels, critical minerals (potash and lithium) and carbon sequestration.

“This is about preparing for those opportunities ahead and creating a pathway for us to get there. …Vision 2030 is a Manitoba that is two million people strong, with an economy that is one of the strongest in the country,” Stefanson said.

— with files from Danielle DaSilva

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.