Manitoba budget set for March 20

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This article was published 07/03/2025 (190 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s blueprint for the coming fiscal year will be unveiled March 20.

It will address “health care, the economy and actions to combat tariffs,” a media bulletin said Friday.

Finance Minister Adrien Sala will deliver his budget in the middle of a Canada-U.S. trade war, with economic uncertainty surrounding on-again, off-again tariffs imposed March 4 on Canadian goods imported to the U.S.

On Wednesday, 25 per cent tariffs on aluminum and steel are set to begin.

A 25 per cent levy on most other goods and 10 per cent on energy imported from Canada are expected to take effect on April 2 after U.S. President Donald Trump paused the tariffs he had imposed on March 4.

Until the tariffs are cancelled, Premier Wab Kinew has vowed to keep U.S. tariff counter-measures in place. On Thursday Kinew said he is considering more actions that Manitoba may take.

The province hasn’t said yet how much countermeasures may cost or what it’s willing to spend to shore up the economy that will take a hit because of tariffs.

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For now, the Manitoba government is deferring payroll and retail sales taxes for three months, pulling U.S. booze from Liquor Mart shelves and looking at how it may use Manitoba hydroelectricity exports to the U.S. as “leverage” in the fight with the much larger opponent south of the border.

The March 20 budget will show what province is prepared to spend fighting the trade war while it tries to fix health care, make life more affordable, and keep its promise to balance the books by the end of the Kinew government’s first term.

Manitobans will be able to watch the presentation of Budget 2025 live at news.gov.mb.ca.

It will be held two days after the provincial byelection in Transcona, on March 18, to replace NDP MLA Nello Altomare, who died on Jan. 14. Advance voting in the constituency begins March 8.

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.