It’s traditional for people at the end of each year to both look back at the year that was as well as to look forward to the year that is to come. Often it’s a time that people look to make changes in their personal and professional lives as well.
As 2015 nears its end, Manitobans may look back at the year that was for our province as well. They will have seen that, once again, their NDP provincial government went hundreds of millions of dollars into the red and are leaving debt to the future generations of the province at a record rate. Also this year, more reports showed that our province is falling behind when it comes to many of the services that are most important to Manitobans.
A national report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) again showed that the wait times in provincial hospital emergency rooms are the worst in the entire country. Coupled with the fact that many Manitobans continue to wait much too long for many needed medical procedures and the question remains as to why it seems that under the current government we continue to pay more in taxes and get less in services.
This year there were more reports that pointed to the fact our students are not doing as well as students in other provinces in core subjects such as reading, math and science. Despite having tremendous education professionals in our schools, it is clear that the provincial education system under the NDP is not providing our children the tools they need to compete with those in other parts of Canada.
So as we look forward to 2016, Manitobans would be right to hope that there will be some type of change that will improve these and others concerns in our province. Yet, even this past week, Greg Selinger and the NDP were indicating not much would change. Just this past weekend Mr. Selinger told members of Manitoba’s media that he was looking to again increase taxes, this time through a change on income taxes. This after refusing during the past few weeks to rule out another increase to the provincial sales tax.
And even as Mr. Selinger contemplates increasing taxes yet again, he has not provided Manitobans any hope that either the finances will start to move towards being balanced or that services to Manitobans will be improved.
But while the change that Manitobans are looking for isn’t likely to come from Greg Selinger and the NDP, Manitobans themselves will have the opportunity in April of 2016 to bring about change. The provincial election will take place on April 19th of the coming year and it will be Manitobans opportunity to shape the future of our province and to bring about change for the better.
