Speculation abounds as Manitoba budget day looms

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/03/2019 (2557 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Pallister government’s fourth budget in slightly less than three years is expected to continue to plot a course towards balancing the province’s books.

Rookie Finance Minister Scott Fielding, appointed to the portfolio Aug. 1, recently announced a revised budget deficit forecast for the current fiscal year of $470 million. On Thursday, he’s likely to project a deficit for 2019-20 that’s well below that.

Neither Fielding nor Premier Brian Pallister would comment on the budget after question period in the legislature Wednesday, as MLAs returned for the first sitting day since early December.

“I’ll have more on that tomorrow,” Pallister said.

NDP Leader Wab Kinew said he was expecting “more cuts” to health care in Fielding’s financial blueprint.

Earlier this week, Fielding and Health Minister Cameron Friesen announced the government would under-spend its health budget by $240 million for the fiscal year that ends March 31. Friesen said the government was now projecting a $50-million increase in health spending on a budget of more than $6.5 billion for the current year.

By Kinew’s reasoning, such an increase amounts to a cut since it doesn’t fully account for inflation.

“It’ll be important for Manitobans not to take the government at face value and to hold them to account to ensure there’s strong health care in Manitoba,” he said.

The government’s health spending decisions have led to the cancellation of surgeries, mandatory overtime for nurses, and increased wait times in emergency rooms in recent months, Kinew said.

The Pallister government has promised to trim the provincial sales tax to seven per cent from the current eight per cent during its first term in office. The next provincial election is slated for October 2020, although Pallister has not ruled out an earlier election call.

That’s created speculation the government could announce the timing of the promised PST cut Thursday.

Kinew said if a PST cut is announced, “very likely there’s going to be an early election.”

He said his party would be ready. “We’ve gamed out a few different scenarios, including a snap election very soon. So we will be prepared to run an election very soon,” he said.

Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont also thinks it’s possible the government may make an announcement about the timing of a PST decrease.

“It’s actually quite possible that they’ll announce (the budget is) balanced — in part because over the last few years, federal transfers have gone up by about a billion dollars and our deficit used to be about a billion dollars,” Lamont said.

The Liberal leader says he expects to see more spending cuts in Thursday’s budget, with few initiatives that will boost the economy.

“What this government has been doing is choking off (economic) growth by not investing, not investing in mines and not investing in roads and bridges,” he said.

Meanwhile, Fielding has hinted on two occasions recently the City of Winnipeg may be pleasantly surprised by what Budget 2019 has in store for infrastructure spending.

Mayor Brian Bowman has remained skeptical, however.

Bowman said this week he expects the province will announce about $17 million for the city’s accelerated regional roads program in 2019 and, hopefully, pay back on what he said are IOUs — money for projects the province agreed to pay but has yet to do so, including its share of the Waverley Street rail underpass, second phase of the southwest rapid transit corridor, and other outstanding commitments.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca