Premier expects lower deficit than earlier forecast

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This article was published 18/02/2019 (1891 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Progressive Conservative government will continue to whittle away at the provincial deficit when it unveils its budget on March 7.

In an interview with Bloomberg news, Premier Brian Pallister said the projected deficit for 2019-2020 will fall to less than $400 million from the $518 million forecast for the current budget year.

A provincial government official confirmed the premier’s remark on Tuesday. Neither Pallister nor Finance Minister Scott Fielding were available for interviews.

Manitoba posted summary deficits of $789 million in 2016-2017 and $695 million in 2017-2018, according to the province’s Public Accounts.

However, Manitoba’s auditor general said last fall that the government overstated the size of the 2017-2018 shortfall. Norm Ricard said if the government had followed Canadian public-sector accounting standards, the deficit would have been stated as $348 million.

Ricard said the government was wrong to exclude the Workers Compensation Board as a reporting entity. He was also critical of the way in which the province transferred $265 million from the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp. into a trust account.

The government said it respectfully disagreed with the auditor’s conclusions.

The Conservatives inherited a large deficit from the previous NDP government, and have promised to balance the province’s books by the end of a second term in office (2024).

They have also promised to cut the provincial sales tax by a percentage point during their first term — at a cost of about $300 million in lost revenue. The next general election is slated for Oct. 6, 2020.

Manitoba’s business community, while preferring that the government fast-track a return to balanced budgets, has expressed general satisfaction with the province’s fiscal performance under the Conservatives.

“We’re definitely pleased by the progress that’s being made. This was definitely one of the critical issues the new government inherited,” Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce president Loren Remillard said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Pallister told Bloomberg that he has a good working relationship with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “we tell the truth to each other.”

The premier also said he hoped the federal carbon tax that is set to take effect on April 1 is “temporary.”

Manitoba withdrew its proposed carbon tax last fall after Pallister said it became apparent to him that Ottawa would not budge on its insistence that the levy be eventually increased to $50 a tonne. Manitoba had proposed a $25 per tonne levy that would not increase. The federal tax taking effect in April starts at $20 a tonne.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca