Manitoba reports $270-M surplus as election day looms

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This article was published 29/09/2023 (709 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The province has released its annual financial report, showing Manitoba took in more than it spent during the last fiscal year — leaving a $270 million surplus rather than a forecast $548 million deficit.

“This is great news for Manitobans just days before the election,” Progressive Conservative party spokesman Shannon Martin said Friday.

The government is required by legislation to release the annual public accounts by the end of September. The provincial election is Tuesday.

The report shows total revenue for fiscal 2022-2023 was $22.1 billion — $1.9 billion higher than the 2023 budget forecast. Expenditures were $21.9 billion — $1.1 billion more than budgeted.

Like other Canadian provinces, Manitoba posted a surplus thanks to its economy rebounding from the COVID-19 pandemic and high inflation driving up prices and boosting tax revenue.

Manitoba taxation revenue increased $965 million, and income from its business entities increased $574 million (owing mainly to Manitoba Hydro having a good year).

Transfer payments from the federal government increased by $220 million, and $200 million remained in a revenue contingency fund, the finance department reported.

The $21.9 billion in spending was $1.1 billion more than budgeted, and resulted from affordability measures such as “carbon tax relief fund” cheques, increased health system costs owing to “pressures” on regional authorities, volume and price increases in the Pharmacare program, municipal operating grant increases, and school division salary and expenditure increases, among other examples.

The cost of servicing the province’s $30.3-billion debt was $94 million more than budgeted. The annual interest charged on the debt nearly doubled to $1.9 billion from the previous year.

Manitoba had the third-highest GDP growth (3.9 per cent) among provinces and the second-lowest unemployment rate (4.6 per cent).

Manitoba’s net debt-to-GDP ratio — a measure of its capacity to repay its debt — was 34.4 per cent, lower than the 35.9 per cent forecast in the budget and down from 35.7 per cent in 2021-22.

“What it shows to Manitobans is you have a (Tory) government that can walk and chew gum at the same time and make those historical investments in health care and education, while making affordability the key component of the budget in a stable and responsible manner,” Martin told reporters Friday.

“If anything, this validates our plan and commitment to Manitobans going forward.”

Opposition parties, however, said it shows the Tories can silently sit on a surplus and watch Manitobans suffer.

“The reality here is that in the middle of a health care and cost of living crisis, the PCs have not been honest about how much revenue they were taking in,” NDP finance critic Adrien Sala said Friday.

“Today, we learned that they’ve been hiding this information from Manitobans for months. I think it’s upsetting for people to learn that the government actually ended last year with a big surplus,” Sala said. “That just speaks to how disconnected they are from the needs and priorities of Manitobans.”

A surplus is nothing to brag about when there are record levels of violent crime, homelessness and people can’t afford groceries, Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said. “That money doesn’t do any good sitting in government coffers.”

The PCs have “squandered” federal transfer payments since forming government in 2016, Lamont added.

“During that time, they’ve… run deficits and racked up debt while cutting taxes. We’ve seen billions of dollars squandered when we desperately need investment in health, in justice and in addressing people’s help with the cost of living,” the Liberal leader said

“We have record homelessness and they’re boasting about a ($270-million) surplus? It’s a sign of failure… The PCs have not been able to get that money to where it’s supposed to go.”

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, meantime, applauded Manitoba’s surplus.

“The government deserves credit for balancing the budget,” Prairie region director Gage Haubrich said in a news release.

“Now it’s time to set up a plan to pay back the debt and make sure Manitoba stays in the black… Taxpayers can’t afford to have the government waste anymore of their money on debt interest charges.”

Although the province has reported a surplus in 2022-23, under the Fiscal Responsibility and Taxpayer Protection Act, there remains a deficit of $368 million.

The balanced-budget legislation that aims to eliminate the deficit and reduce the debt excludes Manitoba Hydro’s net income from the bottom-line balance, resulting in a deficit.

Both the PCs and the NDP have promised, if they form government, to balance the budget in the next term.

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.

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