Promise tracker: Manitoba party pledges ahead of the Oct. 3 election

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This article was published 13/09/2023 (1049 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG – Manitoba voters go to the polls on Oct. 3. Here’s a look at some of the promises announced by the three major parties:

Progressive Conservatives

— Cut in half, over four years, the rate applied to the bottom personal income-tax bracket, which could save the average person earning $50,000 in annual income $1,900 per year when fully implemented in 2028.

— Remove the federally imposed carbon price on the natural gas portion of hydro bills within 10 days of being re-elected.

— Phase out the province’s payroll tax for businesses over eight years. The tax charges employers a percentage of their total annual payroll except for those with payrolls below $2 million a year, which are exempt.

— Eliminate the land transfer tax for first-time homebuyers, potentially saving them roughly $5,700 for the average home.

— Give senior homeowners, regardless of their income, the ability to defer some or all of their property taxes until they sell their homes.

— Introduce a $500 tax credit for people who use mobility aids such as walkers and wheelchairs.

— Increase the provincial income tax rebate on the first $200 given to a registered charity to 20 per cent from 10.8 per cent. Rebate contribution amounts above $200 would jump to 25 per cent from 17.4 per cent.

— Permanently cut in half rental fees for agricultural Crown lands and triple funding for adviser service districts.

— Remove the provincial sales tax on the purchase of trees and flowers.

— Balance the budget within the next term.

New Democrats

— Open four new family medical centres in Winnipeg and one in Brandon that would be staffed with a team of emergency room doctors, nurses and technologists.

— Temporarily suspend the provincial fuel tax until inflation subsides.

— Freeze hydroelectric rates for one year.

— Reopen the emergency room departments at the Victoria General, Concordia and Seven Oak General hospitals that were turned into urgent care centres in 2017.

— Build a new emergency room at the Eriksdale hospital in the Interlake region. The emergency department temporarily shut down last year due to staffing shortages but has since reopened with limited hours.

— More government contract work for bidders and workers in the province.

— Help existing medical clinics expand to offer a range of medical services including mental-health workers, social workers and pharmacists.

— Hire 600 more nurses and end mandatory overtime for all nurses.

— Committed to searching the Prairie Green landfill for the remains of slain Indigenous women Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran. Has not pledged a specific dollar amount to the search.

— Balance the budget within the next term.

Liberals

— Establish a minimum income for people over 60 and people with disabilities.

— Allocate bonus pay of between $5,000 and $10,000 for all front-line health-care workers.

— Set up a provincial business development bank so businesses could access capital more easily.

— Medicare coverage for people who need to access mental health services.

— Eliminate the top 80 per cent of education property tax rebates the government issues annually while continuing the rebates to the bottom 20 per cent of properties.

— Return an estimated $338 million in federal child benefits that the Manitoba government clawed backed from Indigenous children in the care of child and family services.

— Provide stable funding for education and create a $300-million-a-year fund to pay for climate change initiatives.

— Fund a search of the Prairie Green landfill on a 50/50 basis with the federal government with an initial commitment of $42 million.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2023.