Every spring in Manitoba the provincial government brings forward a budget. It’s a detailed document that outlines how much a government plans to spend in specific programs and departments. It is the best indicator of the current financial health of a province and details the plans for the coming year.

And while the budget gets publicly disclosed in spring, the work of preparing the budget begins much earlier, usually in the previous September. Even when there are spring elections, the tradition in Manitoba has been to bring forward a budget. That’s because it’s important that there be a budget in place for the operation of government but also to provide information to Manitobans about expenditures.

For these reasons it was a shock this past week when NDP Premier Greg Selinger told reporters that his government would not bring forward the new provincial budget prior to the election which is to occur on April 19th. Instead, Mr. Selinger indicated that his government would bring forward a “fiscal update” which will not provide details of expenditures. Not in decades in Manitoba, and perhaps not ever, has a provincial government brought in an “update” instead of a budget.

This is especially concerning considering Mr. Selinger and the NDP government went on an unprecedented spending spree over the past few months. In fact, since Boxing Day the NDP have made approximately $750 million in new spending announcements. For many of these announcements, when the question arose about how these promises would be paid for, the NDP responded that they would be part of the budget process. But now it turns out that there will be no budget.

So Manitobans are left to wonder what the true state of the Manitoba finances are. It seems probable that if they were good the NDP would be happy to release them. But since they are hiding them the news likely isn’t very good. As for the $750 million in new promises, it also seems likely that since the NDP won’t release a budget that they were never really budgeted for, meaning they either plan to raise taxes again to pay for them or never intended to keep the promises at all. It would require the NDP to raise the PST to more than 10% to pay for these unbudgeted promises.

And it means that after the election, if Manitobans vote for a change in government, there is going to have to be a complete examination of the provincial books to determine where things are really at and where savings can be found. That would have been an important process regardless, but now because there isn’t a spring budget it will be especially critical. And if Manitobans decide to not vote for change this spring, then its clear the result will be even higher taxes, more debt and more broken promises.

The fact that the NDP refuse to release the budget is not good for Manitoba, but it is making the choice even more clear for Manitobans.