Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) put the icing on the year of tax and fee hikes when it was granted a premium increase for many vehicles last week. It wasn’t all bad news however because the Public Utilities Board (PUB) limited the increase to half of what MPI was looking for, capping the increase at 1%. The real bad news came in the explanation by the PUB as to why rates continue to go up.
In its report, the Public Utilities Board said that MPI’s operating costs were well in excess of inflation and that it did not appear that cost control was a significant priority for the crown corporation. This should be a significant concern to all Manitobans because it represents a pattern under Premier Greg Selinger and the NDP government.
In fact, the MPI increase is just the latest in what has been a long list of fee and tax increases in 2013. The biggest was of course the increase in the PST from 7% to 8%. That increase will cost Manitoba families on virtually everything they buy. Not long after, Manitoba Hydro increased its rates again this year and has indicated that it expects to be increasing rates every year for the next decade and beyond. And last week, the MPI rate increase was announced.
That means that if you purchase goods, use hydro or insure a vehicle, life has become more expensive for you and your family. Clearly, this will impact all Manitobans.
And the common connection in each of these increases is spending. The NDP have increased the PST because they are unable or unwilling to get their record level of spending under control. Manitoba Hydro has increased their rates, and will continue to, because the NDP have instructed them to spend billions of dollars on massive capital projects with no evidence that these expenditures are needed. And now MPI has raised its rates and the Public Utilities Board says it’s because spending is not under control.
Most Manitobans will remember it was only earlier this year that the NDP government floated the idea of having MPI pay for road repair. This from the same government that once tried to take money from MPI to fund universities. It’s clear that the NDP view Manitoba’s crown corporations as little more than a piggy bank to reach into now and again to fund more spending. And it is the consumers, Manitobans, who end up paying more.
So as 2013 nears its end Manitobans will remember it as the year that their wallets got a little thinner from new taxes and fees. And until the NDP gets its spending under control or a new government does it for them, it’s a pattern that seems likely to continue.
