Budget Speech - 2001
(April 18/2001)
I am very, very proud to rise today to speak in favour of the Budget, in favour of a positive, growing Manitoba with a very positive vision for all Manitobans. I am proud to be part of a government in which all citizens are represented. The seniors, those on fixed incomes, youth, children, families, farmers, people in rural Manitoba, people in the city, people in northern Manitoba, business people and, yes, indeed, even corporations. All races, all ages are represented by our Government and are considered by our Government. We are not a government for the few. We are a government for all Manitobans, no matter what or where they are.
We are also optimists. We believe in building again. I am very pleased to see that in Manitoba the population is actually increasing. After 10 years of decreasing population, the population is getting larger. I am very proud of the fact that we ranked fourth out of all provinces for expected growth, and that is from The Globe and Mail. They say we have a very, very strong, vibrant economy, and it is a broad based economy, not just on the vagaries of the price of oil, but it goes up. We have a strong economy that is broad based and deals with multi areas of economic well-being.
We are also working very hard every day to improve the quality of life. We are a party that listens. We are a government that listens. I was proud to be part of a party that actually has budget consultations throughout the province, in all areas of the province. I was a participant in many of those consultations.
We had graduated licenses, where we went out to the people and listened to them before we had made up our minds. We actually got information from the people, from all regions of people so that we could look and listen and deliver a program that would make sense for all Manitobans. I am proud to be part of the Government that actually has a disability white paper to look after those who are disabled, who gives them a chance to improve their quality of life.
We have a quote here from Franklin Roosevelt. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much. It is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. I am proud to be part of a government that does deliver enough to all Manitobans, those in need as well as those who are the average Manitobans.
I will start talking now about some of the things that we have done and that I am proud of for our Government. First, education. We are looking after our children. We are focusing on the future of Manitoba, and, of course, children are our future. We have had a $47-million increase of funding to education. That is a huge commitment to the future. We have had a 10% decrease in post-secondary tuition costs last year, and again a freeze this year. So, therefore, we are making education more affordable.
We have a commitment to spend $100 million dollars in capital funding. The members opposite often talk about making long-term plans and good management decisions. It is not good management to let your infrastructure deteriorate. It is not good management to have your buildings become such a state of disrepair that it costs more to fix them. It is good to continue with planned maintenance. It is good to continue with planned replacement and fix the buildings before it becomes dangerous and before they require huge capital spending, and we are doing that.
I am very pleased that we are looking after establishing bursary programs so that people have access to education. It should not be a society where only people with money have access to education. We need a society where all people, regardless of income, have access to education, and I am proud to be part of a government that has established a bursary program that was not even considered by the previous government.
I am proud to be part of a government that deals with children with special needs. We did not just get a special needs review paper done by the Department of Education. What we did is we are starting to act upon it. We are starting to implement a lot of its proposals and its suggestions. We have increased the number of people attending college. College jobs are the jobs that do the bricks and the mortar. They are the computer technicians. They are the trades people, the apprenticeship people, and these are the jobs that really make a difference in our society.
I am very pleased that one of the areas of the largest increase in the education budget is special ed. Then the next one of the larger ones is also the apprenticeship, and that is planning for the future. The previous government ignored apprenticeship programs. We are trying to bring them back so that we actually have the people, the electricians, the plumbers, the cooks, et cetera, that will help our economy exist in the future. We need to do this before the average age of the journey people become past the retirement age, and we are not able to reclaim those skills.
I am really happy with our Red River campus initiative downtown Winnipeg, first, by the fact that we are setting up a number of new programs and courses and initiatives. What those are, they are the technological, they are the next generation of economic well-being for our province. More importantly, we are also starting to focus on the rejuvenation of a downtown Winnipeg, and that is necessary. We need to spend some time on developing our inner city. That is not just for the inner-city residents, for all residents, because it does make a difference for all people because, if we allow the property tax assessment to drop in the inner city, we will not have the money to run the city infrastructure and all people's taxes will have to go up. That way, if our Government works hard to develop infrastructure and the tax base in the inner city and we rejuvenate the inner city that has been languished by the previous government, then what happens is we will, in fact, improve everything, the tax base in our city for all citizens.
One of the most telling commitments that I know of from the previous governments, they attend bursary meetings and say: What are you doing? What have you done as far as tuition, as far as helping the students? Well, I would like to go through some of the support for schools from the previous government: In 1993-94, there was a negative 2 percent from the previous government; '94-95, negative 2.6; '95-96, zero; '96-97, negative 2; '97-98, zero; '98-99, finally we have a positive number or a positive commitment of money to the public school education by the previous government, and that was a measly 2.2 percent. I am pleased to be part of a government that has increased education funding by 2.6 percent or $19.8 million last year and 3.8 percent, a 29.7% increase this year. In other words, we have increased education funding more in the last two years than the whole decade, and I am pleased to be part of that government.
The other thing that I am happy about is that we are spending money into areas that will create large economic growth in our province in the future. An example is the money that we are investing in Manitoba's future such as Stevenson Aviation. We have gone from $1.4-million funding for Stevenson Aviation to $2.36 million. What that means is that we will have the trades so that we can continue to expand our aviation industry. We have a great foothold with companies like Boeing, Standard Aero, Air Canada, et cetera, which create huge employment opportunities. We can be the maintenance base for all of North America. I am pleased that we have the opportunity to tie education in long-term planning to economic activities and employment opportunities, so that we can continue to plan for the future and make our province a wonderful place to live for the long term.
Let us talk a minute about health care. Health care is a huge issue. What have we done in health care? We have expanded the BN program; we have implemented an RN program, implemented an LPN program. We have almost tripled the number of nurses in training right now, and that is in only 18 months. The previous government talks about long-term planning. We are actually doing the long-term planning to make sure that we have the people there to make the health care system work. If we had continued on the past course we would have been down the road to disaster.
The new diagnostic equipment. We have announced new diagnostic equipment worth about $20 million, but we first had to do the renovations to have the buildings fit them. We had to have qualified people. Then we have to order the equipment. We are doing it right by doing proper long-term planning and replacing the equipment that should have been replaced many years ago. Within 18 months we are replacing it, and I would like to see what we are doing in the future there so that we can get the waiting lists down to a reasonable level. But we have started, and I am proud of an 18-month legacy where we have decreased the waiting lists, not the 10-year legacy of neglect that has previously occurred.
I am also happy to see that we have a lot of incentives to keeping doctors in northern Manitoba, also increasing the number of doctors entering the medical school, and allowing them some tax savings through incorporation and through other ways of making them feel positive in Manitoba and be able to have a good practice in Manitoba.
We also established new emergency vehicles. The previous government, they say that they represent all Manitobans. We, in our first 18 months, bought about 80 ambulances and medical vehicles to move people to the hospitals from the emergency sites. We also beefed up the Winnipeg site. What is nice about that is that we have then started to have a transportation system that works. We do not have to wait hours and hours for ambulances. We have new ambulances in rural Manitoba, in northern Manitoba, and we have better equipment there so that people can do their job. I am pleased about that.
We also have better co-ordination of emergency rooms. The former government starts talking about management. What we have done is we have co-ordination so that the emergency vehicles do not necessarily go to the closest hospital; they go to the hospital that has available space, so people are looked after appropriately. That is a very good management tool to use vacancies and to use the existing staff without creating new.
The other thing that I would like to demonstrate is our commitment to child and family. We start talking about our increases. Some of our increases are to children's special schools, child care, child protection and support, community living, programs to deal with adults with mental disabilities getting rehabilitation and becoming vocationally able to go into the community. These are programs that allow people to have dignity and have real jobs and maintain real jobs. That is something I am proud of. We should not just ignore people with disabilities. We should not ignore those people on the fringes of society. We should be able to provide the support to allow them to become positive contributing parts of society.
Some of the economics. The members opposite often talk about economics. Let us talk about economics. First Hydro. This is a corporation that many years ago the members opposite-you keep on saying we are raiding Hydro-this is a government opposite, when they were in power, started off back-door taxing, and by back-door taxing I am talking about having a tax on water rates. They did not do it by putting it out in the Hydro report or whatever; it was in the back, the appendices of the Budget documents and of the Hydro. We, on the other hand, are saying that we are using Hydro for the benefits of all Manitobans while still providing one of the lowest hydro rates in North America. Not only that, we are also using Hydro for the economic benefit for all. We are exporting Hydro and making money there. We are also bringing in businesses that need good, stable, low-priced hydro rates for economics. So we are hoping to attract investment in Manitoba, and that is a positive, forward, long-thinking process.
We are also investing in the new economy. I notice the members opposite, their major economic focus seemed to be in telemarketers. Yes, telemarketers are important. Yes, all segments of our society are important, but we are trying to look for higher value-added jobs, places like Vansco, Air Canada, jobs like this where what you want to do is get high value-added so that we can compare.
The tax burden is shared by far better when you expand the tax base, you expand the pie so you have people earning higher incomes. If they earn high incomes and they have a higher value-added, then what happens is the tax base is shared evenly among people and then people can have their rates dropped without a drop in services.
So what we are doing is we are not decreasing the pie, we are expanding the pie. There is proof on how we expand the pie. First, more people are moving to Manitoba. Second, the vacancy rate has decreased. So people are not moving out of Manitoba. In fact, they are moving into Manitoba. There are a lot of new buildings being built. It is the first time in decades that we have seen cranes down in Winnipeg. There is economic activity all through the province. Buildings are being built. Factories are being built. Infrastructure is being built. It is a nice pleasure to see, because we are expanding the pie, not contracting it.
Other things that I am proud of, we are finally addressing issues in the environment. I think it was horrendous when the previous government started to charge for drinking water. Drinking water is something that should be tested, chiefly so that people can have safe drinking water. When the previous government privatized drinking water, what they said was that those who can afford can have safe drinking water, and those who cannot, do not deserve to have safe drinking water. That was a shame. I am proud of being part of a government that is providing subsidies for those to test water so that people can be given not a privilege of having safe drinking water, but the right to be having safe drinking water and knowing that it is safe.
I also applaud the Government for the ecological tax credit to preserve wetlands. Those who are aware know that the wetlands are very important not only to act as a filter, but also for the whole creation of oxygen, et cetera. I am proud that we are actually creating a tax credit so people can take marginal land out of production and make it so that it is environmentally safe.
Let us talk about some of our long-term planning. The members opposite talk about the lack of planning. Mr. Speaker, $25 million worth of flood protection for long term is good long-term planning; $40 million to hopefully leverage federal and civic contributions will be wonderful long-term flood planning for the floodway; $1 million to drainage. The previous government cut drainage to all of rural Manitoba, and what we hope to do with this million dollars is start addressing some of the long-term problems in there.
The Healthy Child Initiative and our recent announcement of prenatal support will be long-term planning for all Manitobans. What happens is that all studies have shown that it is essential to have good nutrition and good care in the prenatal period. I applaud the Minister of Family Services (Mr. Sale) for his work in developing this new prenatal supplement. I would applaud all those on the Healthy Child Initiative for working to create a better environment for kids to be raised and brought up in Manitoba. The funding for child care of an increase of 7.7 percent will increase the wages of those working in the industry, increase the number of spaces and increase the number of special needs kids that can be assisted in that.
By creating recreation programs, you are preventing people from having to go to jail. It is cheaper and more effective to prevent than punish. I am happy to see that we are a part of an optimistic government, a government that cares about kids, to provide them positive alternatives to getting into gangs, et cetera. We do not want to adopt the point where we hire more police, more jails, et cetera. Let us open the gyms, let us open the recreation facilities, so that kids have a positive place to go.
Let us talk long-term planning as far as finance. The previous government had a balanced budget. How did they create it? They sold an asset. They sold MTS and then they took the money from that sale and put it into the daily spending. That is like selling your house, paying off your debts and paying all your expenses and then at the end of a few years having nothing. Well, that is just backwards financial planning.
What we did was we enhanced the balanced budget legislation. Not only are we paying the debt, and we are paying the debt at $96 million, not $75 million but we are also addressing the long-term pension liability. Now, as a financial planner, I know that if you take the money and you invest it and you invest it well, you will actually earn a return of greater than 6 percent which we pay for our debt. What will happen is that you will address the long-term pension liability. If we had not addressed the long-term pension liability that would have exceeded our debt within a few decades and then we would have gone broke. What we have done is we have addressed the long-term pension liability, we addressed the balanced budget legislation so that you cannot sell an asset and live off the interest for a few years, and we also addressed the whole idea of paying down the debt in an intelligent manner, and I am proud to be part of that. You do not sell an asset for a short-term gain.
Another thing, taxes. We are part of a government that has increased the property tax credit from $250 to $400. This will enable seniors to stay in their houses longer. It will enable people on fixed incomes to be able to afford to live in their homes. By tying that together with home care, people can live in a better environment longer and be very comfortable, and we need to do that. This $400 contribution actually cut taxes in Winnipeg on average 6 percent in the city tax and 9.4 percent in the rest of the province, and that is a huge start on property tax. We actually had tax cuts in excess of $29 million this year.
We have also cut 4000 from tax rolls, and I am proud to say that we have started working on small business taxes, cut them from 7 percent to 6 percent and by 2002 to 5 percent. We have also increased the categories where it is considered a small business from $200,000 income to $300,000, so the threshold will help more small businesses thrive.
We are also, I am proud to say, the first government since the Second World War to cut corporate taxes. The members opposite talk about not being responsible. They had an opportunity to cut corporate taxes; they chose not to. We are helping all Manitobans by cutting small business, middle-income, low-income and corporate taxes as well as property taxes. I am proud of that.
As far as hydro, we are using it and I am very pleased that we are using it for the benefit of all Manitobans. We are introducing legislation to make sure that it is not sold for a short-term gain, and it will be used for all Manitobans. We look back at MTS and in the case of MTS we were told that the rates will not go up. We were told that this is a corporation that would not do well.
Well, the only people who did well are the people who bought shares on the IPO, on the initial public offering, and made huge profits on them and now all Manitobans, those on fixed incomes, et cetera, are suffering from the short vision of the previous government.
I am also pleased to be part of a government that has provided money for agriculture and is also focussing on agriculture and assisting and pushing the federal government to do that. So, Mr. Speaker, I close by saying thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to represent the people of Assiniboia.
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