Tories likely to position party as caring with Manitoba budget focused on health care, affordability: analyst
CBC
With polling numbers trailing behind the NDP, expect Manitoba's Tories to present as a caring government with the release Tuesday of its next spending plan, one political analyst is saying.
Christopher Adams anticipates the government will use its 2022 budget to demonstrate it is looking after Manitobans from all walks of life.
"They want people to feel that senior citizens are cared for in this province. They want to know that their kids are safe going to school. They want to know that inflation is not going to be eating away at their pocketbook," said Adams, adjunct professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba.
The province has signalled its upcoming budget will pour money into health care and protect Manitobans against soaring prices caused by inflation.
It will be Heather Stefanson's first budget as premier. It's expected she will shy away from the austerity that influenced the yearly financial plans of her predecessor, Brian Pallister, Adams said. Stefanson has already said she may have to slow down plans to balance the budget.
"The reason is that right now the PCs have to win back many people in the province to their side," Adams said, referring to polling numbers that suggest the Tories have been bleeding support.
The pandemic sunk the Tories' fortunes among Manitobans and clearly illustrated the shortcomings of the province's health-care system.
At one point, Manitoba was forced to transfer dozens of patients out of province because its intensive care units had run out of room.
Stefanson's government has repeatedly teased over the past week it will pump additional money into its health-care system. In particular, Stefanson said her government would prioritize slashing the growing surgery and diagnostic backlog. On Monday, she called it her government's top priority.
Over the past week, the Tories announced $15 million in new funding to support long-term care homes over the next year. The "pre-budget announcement" appears to address a criticism of last year's provincial spending plan, which included virtually no new money for personal care homes, despite such facilities being the site of the pandemic's deadliest outbreaks.
And on Monday, Finance Minister Cameron Friesen pledged more money to support immigration and settlement services.
NDP Leader Wab Kinew isn't convinced the government will deliver on what it promises.
"Every year the PCs come out with their budget and they make big announcements and then every year they keep right on with their plan to cut health care and make life worse in Manitoba," he said.
"At this point, [I'm] a little skeptical, little jaded. And I think like most Manitobans, we know we need better."
Shopping local may be the desire, but affordability might decide where shoppers spend their money this Christmas season.
As classes across New Brunswick pause for the holidays, it’s not yet clear which schools are making a dent in chronic absenteeism — a stubborn post-pandemic trend that mostly afflicts the high school cohort, especially in the Anglophone West school district.
CBC Quebec has launched its Make the Season Kind campaign. It's our annual campaign that focuses on food insecurity, while also celebrating kindness, generosity and community spirit around the province.
Premier Wab Kinew says Manitoba will hold a public inquiry as soon as 2026 into the former Progressive Conservative government’s post-election efforts to approve an environmental licence for sand-mining company Sio Silica.
Premier Scott Moe has led the Saskatchewan Party through two straight elections, winning majority governments each time.
Eight weeks after adding a GM BrightDrop van to the fleet of his plumbing and heating business, Marty Salliss has no complaints, only praise.
Nearly half of Alberta’s Grade 6 students failed the provincewide math test in 2024, three years after the province started rolling out its new elementary school curriculum.
Toronto could get new cars on the road whose drivers will never get frustrated by gridlock — because the cars would be driving themselves.
Amidst a cost-of-living crisis, some London-area organizations say they have noticed a decline in donations this holiday season.
Prominent northern leaders have been touting the Arctic economic and security corridor as a "nation-building" project that will bring economic benefits to the two territories it straddles, but others are split on how much good will come out of it.
When the federal government tabled its 2025 budget last month, it included a proposal that tax fraud experts say is long overdue — if also a belated acknowledgement that the Canada Revenue Agency has been repeatedly duped into paying out untold millions in bogus tax refunds to scammers.
Talking with an AI chatbot can successfully convince people to change their votes and could affect the outcome of future elections, according to a new study.
While some are writing wishlists for Santa Claus, a group of Newfoundland and Labrador youth are writing their wishlist for the provincial government.