Provincial government launches pre-budget public consultations

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/10/2018 (2017 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeggers got the first of two chances to have their say in the 2019 provincial budget.

It looked like they were waiting for the next event.

Manitoba Finance Minister Scott Fielding led a pre-budget public consultation that drew about a dozen members of the public Thursday night. (It happened to be 21 C, and the first day of warm weather after an unseasonably cold spell, perhaps explaining the small turnout.)

“Right now, it’s a great opportunity to hear from Manitobans about what the issues are,” the finance minister said.

“We want to hear from you about what exactly we should be making a priority,” he said, carrying on with his full presentation at the two-hour event at the St. Vital Mustangs clubhouse on the southern edge of the city, next to Perimeter Highway.

Outside, Maple Grove Park was packed with people walking dogs, and a local football match was underway beneath giant field lights. It borders one of the fastest-growing parts of Winnipeg, and is part of one of the city’s more affluent ridings.

The pre-consultation tours leading up to a provincial budget were rolled out in 2017 for the 2018 budget.

This fall’s consultations were announced in September, with locations and times released earlier this month.

Fielding was in Selkirk on Monday, Thompson on Tuesday and Brandon on Wednesday. There will be one more consultation, Oct. 25, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., at the Manitoba legislature’s Golden Boy dining room.

Among those in attendance Thursday, Pat and Pierre Chevrier said they came to listen; they plan to attend the event next week, and that’s where they’ll talk.

“I’m going to tell the minister how to save $12 million,” Pat said. The couple belong to a group pushing to delist chiropractic services from provincial medicare.

Last month, Fielding said the Progressive Conservative government was on track to balance the budget in its second mandate, and lower the provincial sales tax, as promised, before the next election.

Those remarks came after the government led by Premier Brian Pallister took some heat for the way it overstated the size of last provincial deficit by $347 million.

Manitoba’s auditor general delivered the rebuke, citing “two significant errors” in the province’s financial summary budget statement, and opened the door to political criticism the province had overstated the deficit to justify austerity measures and service cuts.

Auditor general Norm Ricard said it was wrong to exclude the Workers Compensation Board as a reporting entity in the summary budget statements, and he was critical of the way the province transferred $265 million from the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp. into a trust account.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca