Last week the NDP government said publicly that it supported having Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) get into the business of paying for road repairs with the insurance premiums of Manitoba drivers.
That was hardly a surprise since there is little that the NDP doesn’t think that Manitoba drivers should pay for with their annual insurance dues. After all, this is the same government that tried to shuffle $20 million from Manitoba Public Insurance over to our universities. No doubt our universities need to be supported, but why would that money come from the insurance premiums that Manitobans pay to MPI?
The NDP also wasn’t shy about using MPI premiums to purchase a downtown Winnipeg shopping mall for $80 million. And, even after the provincial government had provided millions of dollars for the Human Rights Museum, the NDP directed that all crown corporations, including Manitoba Public Insurance, donate another $1 million each to the new museum.
So it was little surprise that the NDP would support MPI premiums being used to build roads. And it was likely more than a coincidence that it came in a year when the NDP is cutting government investment into roads and highways. In this years budget documents, the NDP indicate that they are reducing the road budget by $16 million. So, while the response that I have received from local residents regarding MPI premiums being used for road construction has been overwhelmingly negative, any thought that it might result in more road improvement is incorrect. All it would do is backfill a budget hole being left by a government that hasn’t been able to manage its resources.
The reality is that the NDP are looking around at all of our crown corporations and trying to get money from them. And that means that the rates you pay, whether for hydro or car insurance, are impacted. It’s not enough that the government increased taxes this spring by some $300 million, they are also negatively impacting the amount you have to pay for services like hydro and auto insurance.
In fact the latest scheme by the NDP government to use MPI premiums to fund things other than insurance wasn’t born out of good management or best practices. It was born out of desperation. Despite governing during a decade of record revenue and unprecedented transfers from Ottawa, the cupboards are empty.
Greg Selinger is running record deficits and he is looking for more money from Manitobans both through direct taxation and through crown corporations. And to the NDP, that means your insurance premiums are going to be used to buy malls, build museums, fix roads and fund education. It’s the NDP way.
