Manitoba Agriculture’s budget has been cut by 4.2 percent in a provincial budget that increased overall spending by 5.2 percent.
In her first budget as finance minister, Rosann Wowchuk announced March 23 that the government will change its balanced budget legislation so that it can run a $545 million deficit in the upcoming year.
“I’m proud of this budget,” Wowchuk told a meeting of businesspeople and municipal government representatives in Brandon the morning after budget day.
She said the province had to run a deficit because the country is coming out of the worst recession since the Second World War. She said she didn’t want to repeat mistakes made during a recession in the 1990s, when the Manitoba government cut the budget too sharply and prolonged economic hardship in the province.
Instead, Wowchuk increased government funding for what she called the front line services of health care, education and justice.
However, half of the government departments will see budget cuts, including agriculture.
Manitoba Agriculture’s budget will drop to $215.5 million in 2010-11 from the estimated $224.9 million that was spent in 2009-10.
“It’s always a tough decision to make cuts,” she said. “The department works out how they can work within the existing budgets to deliver the programs. That was the amount they said they could live with.”
The cuts include a $5.4 million reduction in Manitoba’s contribution to AgriInvest, the federal-provincial safety net program.
Keystone Agricultural Producers president Ian Wishart said the cuts were larger than expected.
“We’ll be looking to make sure it has a minimal impact on services to producers, but it’s bound to have some,” he said.
