‘Not a typical year’: Manitobans’ priorities may have real impact on NDP’s first budget

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This article was published 10/01/2024 (695 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Finance Minister Adrien Sala is asking Manitobans to weigh in on the NDP government’s first budget in consultations that may have a real effect on the final document.

“Normally, budget consultations serve as a means to verify and promote the government’s agenda, as opposed to generating new ideas or meaningful changes to the budget plan,” University of Manitoba economics assistant Prof. Jesse Hajer said Tuesday.

“But this is not a typical year.”

The government budget survey posted online this week asks Manitobans to prioritize the importance of a raft of NDP campaign promises, in addition to dealing with a larger-than-expected $1.6-billion deficit.

“The NDP is no longer in a position to meet all their election commitments, and decisions will need to be made as to which commitments are delayed or modified,” said Hajer.

The survey asks respondents about such things as fixing health care, reducing the deficit, ending chronic homelessness, fighting crime “the right way” and investing in arts, culture and sports. Other questions focus on the importance of providing a school nutrition program, free prescription birth control, the gas tax holiday, rebates for electric vehicles and meeting climate challenges.

“The government will need to decide if it’s going to backtrack on commitments to repair and reinvest in health, education and public services more broadly, or backtrack on keeping the tax cuts for the wealthy and aggressively balancing the budget,” Hajer said. “Input gathered during this process could help shape these decisions.”

Manitoba’s Opposition party is keeping watch.

“We look forward to hearing what Manitobans have to say about their budget priorities this year, and we are still waiting for (Premier) Wab Kinew to outline how he’s going to pay for his $3 billion in election promises,” a statement from the Progressive Conservative caucus said Tuesday.

Public engagement on the 2024-25 budget includes telephone and in-person town hall meetings that start in Brandon on Jan. 31, with more dates and locations “in every corner of the province,” said Sala, who plans to take part in all of them.

The consultation isn’t about paying lip service to the public but a “genuine” effort to listen to Manitobans and understand their priorities, the finance minister told the Free Press Tuesday.

“We did just go through an election process where we heard about people’s priorities, with health and affordability the top items, and we’re already showing we can deliver on those,” said Sala, citing the addition of hospital beds and provincial gas tax holiday, which began Jan. 1.

“We did all that while ensuring that it didn’t create a net increase to our deficit,” he said. “We’re already demonstrating our ability to make good decisions — to show fiscal responsibility while delivering on the priorities of Manitobans. I think that’s what people can expect going forward.”

The previous Tory government didn’t listen to Manitobans, then left behind a $1.6-billion “fiscal challenge” — the largest non-pandemic deficit in the province’s history, Sala said.

“We are going to overcome that challenge and we’re still going to deliver on the priorities that Manitobans set out for us,” he said.

Sala said he doesn’t regret all the promises his party made during the campaign, when the Tories pointed to a 2023-24 budget surplus rather than the huge deficit the Kinew government inherited.

Manitobans are now being asked how much of a budget priority it is to address that “fiscal challenge.”

“We can ensure that when we bring our budget forward in the spring, it really does reflect the priorities of Manitobans,” he said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca