The Manitoba government didn’t wear out the words “agriculture” and
“farmer” in its April 22 budget.
Critics say the province’s spending plans contain little for Manitoba
farmers.
“There was nothing in that budget for rural Manitoba – and nothing for
farmers,” said Progressive Conservative agriculture critic Jack Penner.
Stu Briese, president of the Association of Manitoba Municipalities and
a farmer, was a little kinder.
“The increased highway spending was good. The lack of action on
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education taxes on farmland was bad,” Briese said.
Manitoba finance minister Greg Sellinger said the budget “met the
challenges” in “extremely difficult” circumstances and in an
environment of uncertainty.
The balanced budget has a 2.5 percent increase in spending. Sellinger
said priorities included health, education, justice and family and
community support.
The government plans to improve crop insurance, encourage new
value-added processing opportunities and introduce innovative programs
for rural Manitoba, Sellinger said.
His budget address claimed “there is strong momentum toward continued
economic diversification in rural Manitoba.”
Drainage spending has been slightly increased, but Briese said it isn’t
enough.
“It doesn’t get it anywhere near where it needs to be.”
He pointed out that drainage spending has been substantially cut in
recent years.
“It seems they’d rather pay out crop insurance on flooded land than
spend a little on draining it properly.”
Briese liked the apparent increase in highways spending, which
Sellinger said was part of a five-year, $600 million program.
“That’s pretty important for rural Manitoba,” Briese said.
But Penner was skeptical, suspecting the money mentioned in the budget
address included both federal and provincial money that has already
been announced.
Briese was frustrated that the province has not reduced the education
share of property taxes. The province did remove the education support
levy on residential property taxes, but that was removed from farmland
by the previous government.
It will remove the levy from farm buildings, but that is a tiny
fraction of the amount most farms pay in education taxes, Penner said.
The most galling part of the budget for farmers, Penner said, was that
it ignored farmers. The government did not include agriculture in its
list of priorities.
“It means agriculture is no priority for this government,” Penner said.
