Manitoba’s farm and rural leaders looked at the provincial government’s spring budget and shrugged.
There were no real surprises, most said.
“This was a very careful budget,” said Stu Briese, president of the Association of Manitoba Municipalities.
Keystone Agricultural Producers president Weldon Newton wondered for a while if he had missed the part that contained exciting announcements for farmers, but accepted in the end that the coming year won’t be much different from this year.
“There wasn’t a whole lot in it for Manitoba farmers,” said Newton.
Read Also
USDA’s August corn yield estimates are bearish
The yield estimates for wheat and soybeans were neutral to bullish, but these were largely a sideshow when compared with corn.
“There really was nothing new.”
But there were some disappointments because the government failed to act on so many simmering issues, leaders said.
“We were disappointed there wasn’t more (for farmers struggling with tuberculosis controls),” said Manitoba Cattle Producers Association president Betty Green.
“We had really hoped for some commitment.”
Green said the cattle producers association had asked the provincial government to pay “mustering fees” to cattle producers who have to gather their livestock and hold them for testing.
Briese said the government did little about education taxes, the single biggest issue for rural Manitoba.
“Every year we get more of a shift onto property taxes,” said Briese.
Recently the province announced a gradual phase-out of the education support levy, a tax raised from municipalities and transferred to the provincial government for education funding. But Briese said that merely pushes more cost onto property taxpayers who will have to make up the difference.
Green said producers need a break from ever-increasing education taxes on land.
“The way education is being funded is not sustainable,” she said.
“The reliance is more and more on property taxes and less on the provincial government and that’s just not acceptable.”
Briese said his group is going to try to make the education tax problem an election issue.
“We’re going to turn the heat up on that one,” he said.
“It’s got to be addressed.”
Briese said there were small gains for rural areas in the budget. He was pleased to see additional funding for drainage and conservation districts, but worried the money would be spread too thinly because more districts have recently been created.
He was also happy to see 13 percent more funding for rural and northern libraries.
