The Manitoba government announced that it was facing down a ballooning deficit, with the release of its second quarter fiscal report for the year.
The forecasted deficit sits at $1.6 billion, a number that the new NDP government said went up from what was initially forecasted by the former government. The first quarterly report issued on July 28 by the conservative government, led by former premier Heather Stefanson, put the province’s deficit at $363 million.
The sudden increase, according to finance minister Adrien Sala, is a result of “reckless spending and mismanagement,” along with dishonesty from the previous government about the “province’s fiscal health.”
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Sala noted that the number is hard to believe — especially for a lot of Manitobans.
“It’s hard for us to believe that the previous government didn’t know the trajectory of that deficit,” said Sala.
He further added that there was a failure to account for cost pressures, inflation and expenditures. All of this, Sala said, amounted to a massive variance in the reported revenue of key provincial services.
The government has called this the worst non-pandemic deficit in provincial history.
Provincial opposition
Speaking to reporters inside the legislative building on Tuesday, Stefanson said the second quarterly report was released too early. She said that more information about the status of the province’s fiscal health needs to be looked at before a forecast is made, stating that a report like this would normally come out between Christmas and New Year’s.
“I would suggest they’re playing politics,” said Stefanson, referring to the accusations by the current provincial government.
“They’re trying to inflate the numbers.”
As for the claims made by Sala regarding why the number may seem higher, Stefanson said all of them were false. But with the numbers as they are, she noted that the current government is just going to have to manage and “figure it out.”
“We managed through COVID, droughts, disasters, fires, and everything else. That’s why we budgeted for those things. There were contingencies in place to ensure there was money in place there,” she said.
Stefanson added that the previous administration left the current with an audited report and in good financial position.
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