Manitoba’s Tory government presented the province with a conservative and balanced budget last week, increasing spending by 0.2 percent and holding the line on taxes.
But finance minister Eric Stefanson said he’s pleased the province has been able to put a payment of $75 million toward its debt, the first time in 25 years.
“We are certainly winning the battle, on all fronts,” Stefanson told reporters.
The government took $100 million out of its fiscal stabilization fund to accomplish its budget.
But Stefanson said it needed to offset cuts in transfer payments from the federal government for health, education and family services.
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“It’s much too early to hold a mortgage burning party,” he said, adding the government will need to continue to budget responsibly.
Stefanson told reporters it will take the government about three years until it can look at increasing spending, cutting taxes, or paying down the debt more quickly.
The provincial debt stands around $13 billion, he said.
Selling the province’s telephone company helped pay down some debt of hospitals and personal care homes, while the rest went into the province’s stabilization fund.
Phone sale not budgetary
Stefanson said the government could have balanced the budget and made a debt payment without selling the phone service. He said the decision to sell MTS was made on its own merit, not for budgetary considerations.
The province’s budget for agriculture increased 1.3 percent to $97.725 million. No major changes were announced, other than the creation of a new agri-food research fund.
The government will spend more than $800,000 helping potato farmers set up irrigation infrastructure. Last year, the government spent about $500,000 on the project.
Stefanson also announced an increase of 1.9 percent for the rural development department, which will now have $48.8 million to spend.
The NDP agriculture critic said the government should have allocated more money to agriculture.
“It’s very much a do-nothing budget and a reduction in the amount that the government is prepared to spend on agriculture and that’s disappointing,” Rosann Wowchuk said.
