March 23, 2010
Budget 2010 Highlights
· Manitoba’s five-year economic plan helps the province continue to weather the worldwide economic recession while positioning Manitoba for growth and prosperity in the years ahead.
· Budget 2010 projects a summary shortfall of $545 million, which includes core government departments, Crown corporations and pension obligations. A payment of $96 million will be made to start paying down principle and interest on the debt incurred as a result of the economic downturn.
· Over the course of the five-year plan, the deficit will be eliminated and the province will return to balance by Budget 2014.
· Independent forecasters are projecting economic growth of 2.5 per cent this year and three per cent next year for Manitoba.
1. Invest in Vital Front-line Services
Continue to improve health care, education, training, policing and supports for families.
Education and Training
· Provide a funding increase of almost three per cent for public schools.
· Provide post-secondary institutions with a 4.5 per cent operating increase.
· Increase apprenticeship training support by $2 million.
· Continue support for Rebound, a program that helps low-income people learn new skills that lead to jobs.
· Allow for tuition fee increases of five per cent at universities and by $150 a year at colleges, which still keep Manitoba’s tuition rates below 1999 levels and at the third-lowest rate in the country.
· Provide additional resources for the Bright Futures fund to encourage at-risk students to complete high school and attend university or college and more support for ACCESS programs.
· Create a new grant for students who need additional financial support to attend school.
· Provide new mining training facilities in Flin Flon.
Supports for Families
· Add hundreds of new child-care spaces across the province.
· Create a pension plan for child-care workers.
· Provide additional funding and support for vulnerable Manitobans.
· Dedicate resources to ongoing programs through the new Winnipeg Regeneration Strategy, which will replace the Winnipeg Partnership Agreement which is coming to an end.
· Create new investments in addictions services and the prevention of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
Health
· Provide additional funding to train more doctors and nurses.
· Improve emergency health-care services and upgrade the emergency department at the Health Sciences Centre.
· Limit increases to pharmacare deductibles to the rate of inflation and continue covering all eligible drug costs above deductibles.
· Continue building a regional cancer centre and upgrading the Westman Lab in Brandon.
· Construct a new mental-health crisis response centre and proceed with plans for the new women’s hospital in Winnipeg.
· Increase the tobacco tax rate by two cents per cigarette to further deter smoking.
· Consolidate specialized services for children and youth with disabilities.
Public Safety and Community
· Provide operating funds for a police helicopter in Winnipeg.
· Create a police commission and an independent investigation unit.
· Provide more resources for corrections and nine full-time prosecutor positions.
· Add five more Lighthouses youth drop-in programs.
· Purchase four new water bombers over the next three years.
· Fund new police officer positions in Winnipeg and Brandon.
· Support the Winnipeg Police Service’s cadet program.
· Provide $3 million over four years to help develop and support potential Olympic athletes.
· Support rural and northern communities and municipalities by increasing unconditional operating funding.
2. Manage Government Spending
Responsibly limit spending to ensure Manitobans’ priorities come first.
· Limit core government spending growth to an annual average of less than two per cent over the five-year plan.
· Decrease the budgets of one-half of all government departments in 2010-11 to focus on priority areas of Manitobans.
· Direct 90 per cent of new spending to health, education and training, and justice.
· Reduce the pay of cabinet ministers by 20 per cent and propose to freeze the wages of members of the legislative assembly and senior government staff.
· Negotiate a pause in public sector wage increases.
· Delay enhancements to the Education Property Tax Credit, the Farmland School Tax Rebate, and the reductions to the general corporate income tax rate and personal income taxes to help maintain revenue for front-line services.
· Create a new Health Innovation Network to improve the delivery of health-care services.
3. Restore Balance
Reduce the deficit and return to surplus by Budget 2014.
· Eliminate the deficit over the five-year plan and return to surplus by Budget 2014.
· Use the $800-million rainy day fund (Fiscal Stabilization Account) to keep paying down the provincial debt, dedicating $600 million in debt and interest payments to pay down debt incurred as a result of the economic downturn.
· Introduce legislation to restore balance over five years.
· Support an economic summit that will be hosted by the Premier’s Economic Advisory Council.
· Acknowledge Manitoba’s 2009-10 projected shortfall is 1.1 per cent of GDP, the smallest shortfall in Canada.
· Benefit from the expectation that Manitoba’s debt servicing costs will require six cents of each dollar, down from 13 cents in 1999.
4. Stimulate Economic Growth
Build and upgrade infrastructure to create jobs and invest in innovation to secure a prosperous future.
· Invest $1.8 billion in infrastructure spending, a 90 per cent increase over 2008, that will create 29,000 direct and indirect jobs.
· Provide nearly $600 million for highways including PTH 75 south, the Trans-Canada Highway east, PTH 2 and PTH 6 north.
· Build CentrePort Canada Way including construction of an overpass at CPR’s main line and an interchange at the Perimeter Highway.
· Provide $148 million to replace and repair bridges including the bridge at St. Adolphe.
· Begin building an all-weather east side road and invest in winter roads.
· Provide another $30 million to Canada-Manitoba infrastructure programs, bringing the provincial total to $72 million in this budget.
· Construct new schools in La Broquerie, Winkler and Steinbach.
· Construct a tourism interpretive centre near Hollow Water First Nation and provide more support for tourism opportunities on the east side.
· Add 1,500 new social housing units over the next five years, upgrade existing units and involve people in social housing in the construction and renovation projects to develop skills and community pride.
· Increase the operating and capital investments in social housing by close to 10 per cent.
· Partner with the federal government to expand park services including expanding trails, new playgrounds, campground upgrades, and water treatment and waste-water systems.
· Expand the campgrounds at Asessippi, Winnipeg Beach and Wellman Lake.
· Continue support for the Manitoba Research Innovation Fund to support areas such as science and health research projects.
· Introduce a new grant to support local production of biodiesel fuels.
· Provide funds to reduce methane released from landfills in Brandon and Winnipeg.
· Support programs that reduce water and energy bills for families.
· Introduce a new WaterSmart conservation program.
· Support farmers hard-hit by flooding in the north Interlake area.
· Invest in restoring Delta Marsh and Netley Libau Marsh.
· Provide more support for flood forecasting equipment and operations and strengthening flood‑fighting abilities.
· Provide more support for municipalities.
· Provide funds for the redevelopment of the Disraeli Freeway and infrastructure work to pave the way for IKEA in Winnipeg.
· Provide more funds for public transit and ambulance services in Winnipeg and work with the city on community infrastructure revitalization.
· Expand the Waste Reduction and Recycle Support Levy on smaller landfills to promote recycling.
· Provide funds for the stabilization of the Display Building at the Keystone Centre in Brandon.
5. Maintain Affordability
Keep Manitoba as one of the most affordable places to live, work and raise a family.
· Provide $723 million in tax relief for Manitoba families since 1999, with no increase in the sales tax or personal tax rates.
· Provide $422 million in tax relief for Manitoba businesses since 1999 including the elimination of the small business tax and the general corporation capital tax.
· Provide incentive grants to once again encourage school divisions to hold the line on property taxes.
· Enhance the research and development tax credit for companies working with research institutes.
· Provide college and university students with earlier access to part of the Tuition Fee Income Tax Rebate while they are still in school.
· Provide a tax credit for co-operative enterprise development.
· Offset fertility treatment costs through a tax credit.
· Eliminate the provincial sales tax on shredded tires used in municipal road construction.
· Expand the fitness tax credit.
· Extend the Film and Video Production Tax Credit to 2014 and enhance the existing tax credit based on film and video production costs for labour, goods and services provided in Manitoba.
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