Opposition scrutinizes priorities as a new government takes control of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba
These days you can drive across parts of rural Manitoba without blowing a tire.
That’s something the recently defeated Progressive Conservative party is proud to leave as one of its legacies from its 2016-23 time in power.
“We got some highways done,” Doyle Piwniuk, the final PC transportation minister and MLA for Turtle Mountain, said in an interview in his office in the legislature.
Piwniuk said one thing his party will do in opposition is keep an eye on the new NDP government’s highways spending. That’ll be easy to judge, he said, because the PC government created a five-year infrastructure budget, which has four years left to run.
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“In the next four years of their mandate, if they ever move any of these projects, we’ll identify that and then we’ll see how much they move into their own constituencies.”
Manitoba is split on urban-rural lines, with the NDP holding most of the seats in Winnipeg and the north, while almost all of rural and farm-country areas is represented by the PC party.
That has often created bad blood between the two parties and the areas they don’t represent, and has led to allegations of tit-for-tat cuts to spending in some areas and preferential spending in others. The two parties have also staked out differing positions on the economy and government services, in a traditionally left-right style, with the PCs tending to focus on economy-first initiatives and the NDP on services-first steps.
The new legislative session sees Premier Wab Kinew’s government focus on repairing the perceived damage to the provincial health-care system that occurred during the PC years.
Piwniuk said the PC focus on the economic underpinnings will continue, because that’s what he believes creates the tax revenue that pays for government services without running deficits or raising taxes.
“We created a lot of revenue for the province,” said Piwniuk about infrastructure spending and in attracting major agricultural processors to the province.
“Winnipeg has to remember how it got here. They’re a regional centre for a very robust agricultural industry.”
The Kinew government has already tamped down expectations for greatly increased spending, noting tight financial conditions in provincial revenues despite the PC government reporting an almost $300 million surplus in 2023. However, it is proceeding with increased healthcare spending and an early 2024 gas tax holiday, it announced in the recent speech from the throne.
It has made no announcements of major spending beyond those areas.
Piwniuk said he hopes the agricultural and rural regions of Manitoba don’t see a drop in infrastructure investment under the NDP, because that’s what he believes was the recipe for the PC government’s success in expanding the economy while balancing the books.
“Grow the economy. Grow the revenue, without raising taxes,” said Piwniuk.
“If you don’t raise the revenue, how do you pay for all these services?”
