Provincial Liberals want to start business development bank

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/03/2018 (2226 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Liberal leader Dougald Lamont is pitching a provincial business development bank as a major plank in the Liberals’ economic platform for the 2020 provincial election.

Unlike other means of encouraging growth, a business development bank can be done at the provincial level, Lamont said at the Manitoba Chambers’ leaders breakfast series.

“The province can do it on its own, you don’t have to go cap in hand to the federal government, to Bay Street, to Wall Street,” he said.

Lamont said Premier Brian Pallister is cutting spending while completely ignoring the province’s need to grow.

“This is what austerity is, and why it doesn’t work. Cutting taxes to Alberta and Saskatchewan levels won’t bring us their oil. If the Manitoba private sector is too small, which I think it is, if all you do is cut the public sector, you still have a small private sector,” he said.

Lamont told the business crowd the Liberals believe the pressure on Manitoba Hydro’s finances would be reduced if the province stopped picking the Crown corporation’s pocket to pump up its own books.

The province takes $380 million a year from Hydro for taxes and fees for renting water to power hydro-electric dams, Lamont said.

“This is a hidden tax,” he said. “Embrace honest accounting, stop taking money from Hydro and we can avoid a debt crisis.”

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca