Kinew seasons business breakfast with litany of campaign promises

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/09/2023 (760 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

New Democrat Leader Wab Kinew unleashed a wide range of promises Tuesday aimed at driving Manitoba’s “economic horse” forward.

Cutting the provincial sales tax from rental builds, reducing elementary school class sizes and building a Winnipeg hydrogen hub are among the promises Kinew made at a Manitoba Chambers of Commerce event.

“We need affordable housing in Manitoba,” Kinew later told reporters.

Axing the provincial sales tax for builders creating rental units will remove an anticipated $5 million from Manitoba government revenue annually, Kinew said. He added that the tax cut could spark more builds during a housing shortage and help tamp rising housing costs.

An elected NDP government will allocate $20 million to hiring more teachers, Kinew told reporters. Another $5 million is earmarked for more educational assistants.

Kinew described the party’s education plans during the chamber breakfast. He promised smaller class sizes for younger grades starting at kindergarten.

He didn’t give specific class sizes, but later said the target is 20 children or less per class for early years.

The NDP will create an assistant deputy minister role for Indigenous excellence — “We need to close the graduation gap,” Kinew said — and reinstate an assistant deputy minister in the Bureau de l’éducation française.

“We’re going to strengthen the K to (Grade) 12 curriculum,” Kinew said.

He promised to ensure curriculum reflects “the Manitoba of today,” meaning teaching on residential schools, LGBTTQ+ rights and the Holocaust will be included in courses. An NDP government will also establish more Indigenous-language programs in schools and ensure rural communities “have a say” in education.

Kinew invoked former NDP premier Gary Doer during his promises: “One of (Doer’s) great sayings was, ‘The best economic plan is a good education plan.’”

The New Democrats will spend $30 million annually on a province-wide school nutrition program, and government will work with school divisions beginning this academic school year, Kinew said.

The party points to $520 million reserved for “contingencies and unanticipated events” in the Progressive Conservatives’ budget, saying they’ll use that money to fund their election promises.

The NDP will adopt the PCs’ 2023 budget, Kinew stated.

He promised up to $100 million for a new hydrogen hub located in or near Winnipeg, adding, “What we need is a place to fuel up the hydrogen buses for Winnipeg Transit.”

Winnipeg Transit plans to grow its zero-emission fleet, and has ordered 16 zero-emission buses — eight hydrogen fuel cell battery-electric and eight battery-electric models, with an estimated arrival of mid-2024.

Kinew envisions a facility that generates hydrogen, where the energy can be “directly loaded into the buses themselves.” The private sector would build and maintain the facility, but government would help via financial incentives and debt-guarantee programs, Kinew said.

He took aim at Albertans in the room Tuesday: “In the future, Manitoba, we’re not going to participate as much in building wealth for Albertans. We’re going to focus on building wealth right here for Manitobans.”

Kinew also pledged $8 million annually to creative-sector investments through capital funding and grants.

He said an NDP government will change the film and video production tax credit, giving cash up-front to companies filming in Manitoba rather than after they’ve incurred expenses. It would also create a dedicated tourism minister.

Working with the City of Winnipeg on the South Winnipeg Recreation Campus in Pembina Trails and the East of the Red RecPlex was among the campaign promises laid out Tuesday, as was support for the Centre Culturel Franco-Manitobain’s entrance project.

“He knew his audience today,” said Manitoba Chambers of Commerce president Chuck Davidson, citing Kinew’s references to balancing the budget and his assertion that the economic horse “pulls the social cart.”

“(It’s) not something we’ve always heard from NDP governments,” Davidson said.

There are plenty of similarities between the two leading parties, Davidson noted — after all, the NDP is campaigning on the PCs’ budget. Both parties have touted economic growth as a major priority.

“(We’ll) be able to work with whoever’s going to be in the new government,” Davidson said.

During the chamber event, Davidson asked Kinew what makes the NDP’s platform different from those of the other parties. The leader’s response: the New Democrats’ health-care plan.

He called health care “the ground on which the economic horse walks.”

Kinew’s address struck positive notes for some associations in attendance.

“We certainly welcome the news of a PST elimination on new rental construction,” said David Salvatore, CEO of the Manitoba Real Estate Association. “I think it will go a long way to helping provide more rental units.”

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Business Weekly

Monday Mornings

The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week.

Sign up for Business Weekly

Sign Up

I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

There could be a “significant supply deficit” across all housing types by 2030, Salvatore said. The province needs another 260,000 units by then, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

“It’s really a matter of an all-hands-on-deck approach from government,” Salvatore said, adding he’d like to see public and private sectors collaborate on housing-supply solutions.

The MREA also supports the Tory pledge to cut the land transfer tax for first-time homebuyers.

The Tourism Industry Association of Manitoba was “pleased to hear” Kinew’s promise of reinstating a tourism minister, acting spokesperson Jamie Dumont wrote in an email. The association is looking for increased funding to Travel Manitoba.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com

Gabrielle Piché
Reporter

Gabrielle Piché reports on business for the Free Press. She interned at the Free Press and worked for its sister outlet, Canstar Community News, before entering the business beat in 2021. Read more about Gabrielle.

Every piece of reporting Gabrielle 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.