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Budget 2023 Passes, Work Underway to Implement Historic Financial Support for Manitobans

Budget 2023, Historic Help for Manitobans, the Manitoba government’s plan to help Manitobans make ends meet, has passed, delivering major tax reductions as well as investments in services to create new opportunities for all Manitobans, Finance Minister Cliff Cullen announced today.

“Manitobans have faced unprecedented challenges over the last three years, and our government has taken action to help families through the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic impacts of the war in Ukraine, supply chain disruptions, inflation and high-interest rates,” said Cullen. “I am pleased that by passing the Appropriation Act, 2023, we can now get down to the most important work of all–implementing Budget 2023 to provide historic help for Manitobans that will shape the future of the province for generations to come.”

New measures in Budget 2023 include $311 million in tax relief through an increase to the Basic Personal Amount that will take effect July 1 and $160 million in relief by increasing income tax bracket thresholds. Combined this will save taxpayers up to $1,399 per person, the minister noted, adding that lower income Manitobans will pay 23 per cent less in provincial income tax compared to what would have been the case without the historic action taken in Budget 2023. In addition, the Manitoba government increased the School Tax Rebate this year to 50 per cent on farm and residential properties.

Budget 2023, introduced on March 7, provides further historic help for Manitobans including:

• investments in safer streets including more than $100 million to address challenges of violent crime and homelessness across Manitoba, $9.4 million for 1,000 new treatment spaces for providers of substance use and addictions treatment services across Manitoba, and $1 million to support expansion of crisis stabilization unit beds and telepsychiatry services to expand access to Manitobans living in rural and remote communities.
• increased health-care funding of $668 million, bringing the total health-care budget to $7.9 billion, including $130 million to reduce the diagnostic and surgical backlog, a $200-million investment through the Health Human Resource Action Plan, and a $120-million infusion to the Pharmacare program, including extending coverage for insulin pumps for eligible adults with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.
• $1.2 billion in multi-year capital investments in rural hospitals and other health infrastructure, in addition to renovations in Winnipeg to St. Boniface Hospital, Grace Hospital, CancerCare Manitoba and Health Sciences Centre.
• more funding for other government services including $100 million in new funding for school divisions, $268.5 million in capital expenditures to build, renovate and expand more schools, $76.1 million to reduce regulated parent fees for child care to $10 per day, a $47 million increase in total municipal operating funding, more than $81 million to Community Living and Children’s disABILITY Services agencies for a funded average wage of $19 per hour, $50 million for the Arts, Culture and Sport in Community Fund and $10 million to support a new Parks Capital Plan.
• further investments to spur economic development opportunities, generate well-paying jobs and strengthen the Manitoba government’s fiscal resilience including more than $2.5 billion in trade-enabling highway infrastructure over the next five years, up to $160.4 million on an ongoing basis for cost-shared investments in municipal capital projects, including water and wastewater projects, $147.6 million over two years in the Hudson Bay rail line to the Port of Churchill, an additional $50-million contribution to the Venture Capital Fund to grow businesses in Manitoba, and $2 million for the expansion of the Newcomer Community Integration Support Program.