ABOVE: Manitoba Budget 2014 highlights
WINNIPEG – A Manitoba budget with little new in it banks on fewer costly emergencies over the next fiscal year and only edges the province toward ending deficit spending.
The 2014-15 provincial budget released Thursday holds no new taxes and promises increased spending on education, family services and infrastructure, with most new spending – for items such as smaller class sizes and road work – already having been announced.
“This is a budget that invests in jobs and education,” Finance Minister Jennifer Howard told media at a news conference before the budget was released publicly.
She highlighted increased spending on apprenticeships and improved funding for on-the-job training, including an improved tax credit for employers who take on apprentices.
Other new items were a pledge that another $5.5 million would be spent on daycare spaces, although the number of spaces wasn’t revealed, a promised minimum wage increase, again with no number attached, and more funding for affordable housing and improved housing benefits for those on social assistance.
The budget forecasts a $75-million reduction in the deficit to $357 million, from the 2013-14 forecast deficit of $432 million.
That means the province will need to steeply increase the rate at which it reduces the deficit in order to meet its goal of eliminating the deficit by 2016-17, but Howard defended that goal.
“I believe that we are on track to get there,” she said.
The province is betting on less emergency spending in 2014-15, with approximately $30 million less being set aside in contingency funds for emergencies or unpredictable costs such as severance pay.
And while there are no new taxes and limited fee increases, the lack of increases in tax brackets means inflation will leave people will less real money to spend, said tax specialist Evelyn Jacks, president of the Knowledge Bureau.
“We’re looking at bracket creep for everyone across the board,” she said. “There are no planned increases to the tax brackets.”
Those whose wages increase as inflation increases will find themselves paying more taxes because all of that increase will be taxed at higher rates, Jacks explained.
Many of the spending increases have already been announced, such as infrastructure money and education funding for reduced class sizes.
A school-tax credit for seniors promised in the 2013-14 budget was scaled back – the full $50 million credit will now be brought in over three years instead of two, with an extra $235 being added to the current $700 credit. Seniors will have to apply for the rebate online, provincial officials said.
Howard also promised more responsible spending, with freezes or decreases to nine operating budgets:
- Aboriginal and Northern Affairs
- Agriculture, Food and Rural Development
- Civil Service Commission
- Conservation and Water Stewardship
- Finance
- Housing and Community Development
- Labour and Immigration
- Mineral Resources
- Multiculturalism and Literacy
Increases in spending within departments will have to be made up in other areas, she said.
There are some increased fees in the budget, including a $5 hike to hunting licences.
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