Cindy Lamoureux, MLA for Tyndall Park and Interim Leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party says that the NDP is hiding its cuts to services by offloading backdoor taxes onto municipalities in a move she says is “reckless and fiscally irresponsible” in the NDP government’s first budget.
Budget 2024 shows Education Property Taxes increase by $71 million which reflect a growth in school taxes collected by school divisions.
“Weakening our revenue generation sources puts Manitoba in an irresponsible position to fund our schools, healthcare facilities and highways,” says Lamoureux. “Increases to our school divisions are simply not at the level that many school divisions have called for.”
Lamoureux says it is concerning that this government is paying three times more to service our debt than how much is spent on the entire Department of Justice alone. “Manitobans should be concerned that these are sunken costs that could be going to fund our schools and hospitals.”
Budget 2024 shows specific systemic issues that are either cut or left unaddressed (pages in the Estimates of Expenditure book):
Cuts to both the Winnipeg and Northern Child and Family Services (p. 78);
Cuts to the Mental Health and Addictions Treatment and Recovery (p. 114);
Cuts to Community Corrections (p. 127);
Cuts to crime prevention and the Victim Services Branch to support victims of domestic violence (p. 128-9);
No mention for the creation of a youth mental health strategy, which has been called for numerous times by the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth;
No mention of any creation of a strategy to reduce/eliminate Intimate Partner Violence, whereas Manitoba has some of the highest rates of IPV across the country;
No mention of support for seniors’ prescription medications or day programs.
“We saw cuts to both Winnipeg and Northern CFS in this budget. We know that foster parents are struggling to support their kids. There has been no commitment to work with authorities to increase maintenance rates to foster parents, nor has there been any mention of improving safety conditions for kids in care,” Lamoureux says.