View From the Legislature

Over the past few weeks, the NDP have been using procedural tactics to prevent a vote in the Manitoba Legislature on what is known as the Budget Implementation and Tax Statutes Amendment (BITSA) bill. While the budget speech was voted on several weeks ago, every year an accompanying bill must be introduced that implements the various tax and other financial changes. That bill is known as BITSA.

Within the current BITSA bill that is before the Manitoba Legislature is the reduction of the provincial sales tax from 8% to 7% which takes effect on July 1. This was an election promise that our party made in the 2016 election. It returns the PST to the level that it was before the former NDP government increased it in 2013 despite their promise not to. Since our government committed to reduce the PST on July 1, the NDP have spent weeks talking about why they believe this is a bad idea.

As a result, they have been stalling the BITSA bill and refusing to allow it to come to a vote. By doing so, they are demonstrating that they have not heard the message that should have been made clear to them in the last provincial election; Manitobans are paying more than their share in taxes and deserve a break. In addition to speaking against the PST reduction however, the NDP have been very public about their disagreement with another part of the BITSA bill.

Currently, Manitoba has among the most generous public financing systems for political parties in Canada. This starts when an individual donates to the political party of their choice and receives 75% of that donation back for the first several hundred dollars they give. That is significantly higher than for any other charitable donation. On top of that, during an election, candidates and political parties receive 50% back of what they spend on eligible election expenses (for such things as signs and advertising). This additional rebate subsidy is significantly higher than most other provinces.

Within the BITSA bill was a provision to eliminate this 50% election expense rebate. There would still be significant public support for political parties through the tax credit for those who want to donate, but the elimination of the rebate subsidy would bring us more in line with other provinces.

By doing all they could to delay the BITSA bill from passing, the NDP choose to fight against a tax break for Manitobans while fighting to keep more public dollars for their political party. This continues a trend for the NDP which when it was in government introduced what was known as the Vote Tax (another subsidy designed to give more public tax dollars to political parties) at the same time that it was increasing taxes on Manitobans.

Compared to the rest of Canada, Manitobans pay higher taxes and provide some of the highest subsidies to political parties. Reducing both is a responsible thing to do. Manitoba’s NDP seems to have the exact opposite priorities.