Budget 2017
Road to recovery paved with infrastructure investment
5 minute read Thursday, Apr. 13, 2017The Pallister government’s recent announcements on cost controls in public services had many wondering how bad the news from the 2017-18 budget speech would get. Yet the reaction coming from the legislature Tuesday was more of relief, not anguish.
The reactions of some groups (students, public-service unions) would differ, but most of those poring over budget papers found it to be middle-of-the-road stuff. Restraint? Yes. Austerity? Nope.
Finance Minister Cameron Friesen is controlling costs. Overall expenditures by core government departments this year will rise by 2.7 per cent over last year’s forecasted expenditures. Friesen has delivered on the central goal of wrestling with the deficit, cutting the budgeted summary deficit to $840 million this year.
So, with its second budget, the Pallister government has announced it has moved beyond “correcting the course” to “responsible recovery.”
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Bowman content after Tory budget
3 minute read Preview Wednesday, Apr. 12, 2017Budget stops bleeding and gets province on right path, Friesen assures business crowd
3 minute read Preview Wednesday, Apr. 12, 2017Pallister detours from expected route
3 minute read Preview Wednesday, Apr. 12, 2017Pallister’s balancing act
7 minute read Preview Wednesday, Apr. 12, 2017Critics call modest increase in health-care spending a bitter pill to swallow
3 minute read Preview Tuesday, Apr. 11, 2017Spending up on flood infrastructure, down on highways, education, housing
4 minute read Preview Tuesday, Apr. 11, 2017Manitoba budget 2017: A breakdown of the government’s priorities
5 minute read Preview Tuesday, Apr. 11, 2017Who takes a hit
3 minute read Preview Tuesday, Apr. 11, 2017Winners and losers in Manitoba's budget
1 minute read Preview Tuesday, Apr. 11, 2017WINNIPEG - Manitoba's Progressive Conservative government released its 2017-18 budget Tuesday. Here is a look at some of the winners and losers:
Winners:
Current taxpayers: Budget contains no new increases to personal or business taxes.
Future taxpayers: Overall deficit is $840 million, but that is $32 million less than last year.
No new taxes, but relief is minor
4 minute read Preview Tuesday, Apr. 11, 2017No estimate of financial, employment impacts of public-sector wage controls
4 minute read Preview Tuesday, Apr. 11, 2017Cameron Friesen: Budget puts Manitoba ‘on road to recovery’
237 minute video Preview Tuesday, Apr. 11, 2017PC budget steers cautious course around huge deficit
5 minute read Preview Tuesday, Apr. 11, 2017A look at some highlights of the Manitoba budget
1 minute read Preview Tuesday, Apr. 11, 2017WINNIPEG - The Manitoba government released its 2017-18 budget on Tuesday. Here is a look a some of the highlights:
— No increases to personal or business taxes.
— Department spending increases are being held at or near the rate of inflation: 1.8 per cent for health; 1.1 per cent for education.
— Tuition fee income-tax rebate for post-secondary graduates who stay to work in Manitoba — worth up to $2,500 a year per person — to be phased out by 2018.
Eyes on budget as municipal leaders gather
3 minute read Preview Tuesday, Apr. 11, 2017Ominous clouds on budget horizon
3 minute read Preview Tuesday, Apr. 11, 2017Pretty much every Manitoban has witnessed it: a blazing crimson sky at sunrise, stirring optimistic thoughts for the new day ahead, underpinned by a sense of unease at the dark clouds on the horizon that have given the first glimpse of dawn its awesome colour.
That’s the sort of apprehension at least a few in this province must have felt on Friday morning as the government of Brian Pallister unveiled the first half of a two-shoe drop of policy announcements that will, finally, define for Manitobans what the austerity-minded Progressive Conservatives have in mind for the next three years.
Red sky at morning ... nurses, doctors, hospital staff, caregivers and patients take warning.
Mr. Pallister’s first year in office has been largely a ho-hum affair, marked by a cautious legislative agenda, a few unrealized fiscal goals, the occasional bit of sleight-of-hand bookkeeping, a poorly-chosen “race war” comment on night hunting in the southwest, and a largely unnecessary kerfuffle over the premier’s Costa Rican vacation schedule.
Manitoba budget to focus on restraint
2 minute read Preview Monday, Apr. 10, 2017WINNIPEG - Manitoba Finance Minister Cameron Friesen left the door open to privatizing government services and reducing tax credits as he outlined in broad strokes his priorities for the provincial budget coming on Tuesday.
Friesen said the government is determined to chip away at an $846-million deficit left by the former NDP government and warned that big changes are needed.
"This government has made it really clear that we value an approach that is based on results," Friesen said Monday when asked whether some services might be privatized.
"We need to get the best value possible for Manitobans, and that means doing things differently, understanding that current approaches are broken. They are not working."
Fiscal panel’s report reinforces Pallister’s austerity march
4 minute read Preview Monday, Apr. 10, 2017Major transfer to Manitoba in budget
3 minute read Preview Monday, Apr. 10, 2017Budget survey strengthens sense of civic duty
3 minute read Preview Monday, Apr. 10, 2017Ominous clouds on budget horizon
3 minute read Preview Monday, Apr. 10, 2017Pallister government’s popularity holding firm: poll
3 minute read Preview Sunday, Apr. 9, 2017Brandon braces for budget
6 minute read Preview Thursday, Apr. 6, 2017Awaiting the big budget reveal
4 minute read Preview Thursday, Apr. 6, 2017Several folks in Manitoba’s public sector getting a collective case of the jitters as the date April 11 creeps ever closer. This, of course, is the date that Manitoba’s Pallister government unveils its 2017-18 budget plan in the legislature.
Without question, public sector workers and non-profit groups are wary of this coming budget, as rumours of provincial budget cutbacks continue to circulate in the media and from the lips of union leaders and opposition MLAs.
And this is not without reason. The province has cancelled many infrastructure projects outright, in the Tory drive to balance the books. More than $1 billion in health-care infrastructure projects were axed in February, including a $300-million new centre for CancerCare Manitoba.
The Progressive Conservatives also abruptly pulled the plug on two projects that required provincial capital funding — one a new gymnasium at Kelvin High School, and the other a sports field at Dakota Collegiate.
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