Leaders trade barbs over Manitoba’s economic future

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This article was published 20/09/2023 (760 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While there’s agreement the province needs a strong vision for its economic future, what that looks like, and who is best suited to implement it, were the subject of debate Wednesday as Manitoba’s main party leaders squared off in another public forum.

The Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce hosted the event, which chair Mark Jones described as “our chance to hear from party leaders and make decisions together as a community.”

For more than an hour, Progressive Conservative Leader Heather Stefanson, NDP Leader Wab Kinew and Liberal Party Leader Dougald Lamont faced a crowd at the RBC Convention Centre, presenting their economic platforms and exchanged verbal barbs.

The chamber issued a list of priorities in advance of the debate, asking the leaders to explain their approach to balancing the provincial budget, supporting local businesses and reducing barriers for foreign workers seeking to have their credentials recognized.

“The No. 1 thing we need to do is grow our economy in Manitoba,” Stefanson said. “What we’re doing is working, and we need to make sure we continue that momentum.”

The Tory leader pointed to a slate of recent investments and tax cuts, including a commitment to phase out the provincial payroll tax and cut income taxes.

She identified revitalizing Winnipeg’s downtown area, where the PC government recently committed to funding the deployment of 24 additional police officers, as a critical area of concern.

Her party would also remove the carbon tax from Manitoba Hydro bills and green-light permits for Manitoba’s mining sector.

Kinew spoke at length about boosting Winnipeg’s economy by improving health-care outcomes.

“One of my fundamental political beliefs is the economic horse pulls the social cart. We have all these amazing ideas for advancing our society … but that only happens if our economy is growing, if jobs are being created,” he said. “Let’s make sure that when we invest those funds, we put Manitobans to work.”

He said a New Democrat government would spend the entirety of the annual provincial infrastructure budget and re-open shuttered emergency rooms in Winnipeg and across the province, creating an estimated 10,000 jobs over one term in office.

The Victoria Hospital ER in south Winnipeg would be the first to reopen, followed by the Concordia and Seven Oaks. None of the locations would have intensive-care units, but they would offer expanded services.

Concordia would be capable of performing joint surgeries, while Seven Oaks would be the “kidney hospital” with a 24-7 dialysis unit. The reopenings are contingent on the NDP’s ability to first recruit health care staff, he said.

Additional funding would be used to modernize the systems used to track medical records, for both health-care professionals and the public, he said.

Kinew reiterated a previous commitment to end chronic homelessness by uniting governments and social-service agencies. He pointed to efforts in Houston, Texas, which significantly reduced its homeless population by combining housing with wrap-around services.

The NDP would freeze hydro-electric rates for one year, and temporarily cut the provincial gas tax.

Lamont chastised both parties for making expensive promises without accountability.

“There’s fiscal conservatism and then there is fiscal delusion,” Lamont said. “We’re the only party that has actually released a platform that has been costed to let you know exactly where we stand. It’s not quite clear to me that these other parties are not just making it up as they go along.”

Lamont’s Liberals would invest in universities and colleges, helping the education centres to produce more professionals and skilled workers. They would also work to identify and reduce red tape preventing skilled newcomers from finding equivalent employment.

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“The people we are bringing here are often being wasted,” Lamont said. “We have lots and lots of folks who could be trained here in Manitoba, but who are being denied the opportunity to work with their own skills. … Making sure nurses aren’t working at Walmart and doctors aren’t driving cabs is a huge part of it.”

Rather than focus on recruiting businesses from outside the province, Lamont proposed supporting local entrepreneurs by creating a business development bank, which would offer equity to new businesses rather than loans.

All three parties identified small businesses as crucial contributors to the economy.

The leaders will face each other again Thursday evening in a live televised debate.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.

Every piece of reporting Tyler 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.