Each of us, whether in business or in our personal lives, need to set priorities and go about managing our finances in the best way possible. If we don’t, we soon find that there isn’t enough money left to meet basic needs.
Unfortunately, none of these realities seem to apply to the provincial NDP government under the leadership of Greg Selinger. The past two weeks have demonstrated that they struggle with establishing priorities and that they are content simply to take more money from taxpayers to pay for poor decisions.
A great deal of public debate over the past two weeks has centered around a new football stadium in Winnipeg. Every political party and many football fans (which I am one) agrees that it would be nice to see the current stadium replaced but the question is at what cost? Former Premier Gary Doer had negotiated a deal prior to his departure that would have seen the vast majority of the cost of a new stadium come from private funding. That was a deal that was supported by the Progressive Conservative Party because it was a good deal for taxpayers. However, Mr. Selinger shredded that deal two weeks ago and replaced it with one that sees $105 million from taxpayers on the line, through government grants and loans. Mr. Selinger assures us that if the loans go bad, as most people expect they will, he can make up the difference by taking it from revenue that would otherwise go to schools and education.
Mr. Selinger followed that announcement up with a further announcement that he would be canceling a planned addictions facility that was announced to much fanfare 2 years ago. The government also announced that it was boosting the fees for camping, on top of the increased cost for basic water and hydro services as a result of NDP mismanagement.
The NDP government also confirmed that it intends to put a tax on the selling and trading of quota in the supply management system in our agriculture sector. This tax would be the first of its kind in Canada and threatens to put upward pressure on the price of milk and eggs. This tax is nothing more than the NDP government’s way of finding money, at the expense of farmers and consumers, to pay for their poor management and their bad decisions.
These bad decisions are on top of their stubborn refusal to listen to the advice of Manitoba Hydro and build the new hydro transmission line on the east side of Lake Winnipeg instead of the west side which would save $640 million for the province.
Setting priorities and managing finances is something that every family and every business needs to do. Unfortunately, the NDP government seems to think that they are immune to this reality and can simply rely on consumers, farmers, and all Manitobans to bail them out for the bad decisions that they make.
