Manitoba Federation of Labour responds to provincial budget

Tuesday, April 12, 2022

MFL News

Statement by MFL President Kevin Rebeck in response to the Stefanson government’s 2022/23 Budget:

After years of cuts and underfunding by Brian Pallister and the continued impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the public services that working families count on are facing severe staffing shortages.

Areas like health care need far more support than this budget provides to fix what this government has broken. And we are deeply concerned that this government continues to pursue a path of privatization when it comes to health care, rather than investing in building up the public system and investing in the workers who provide its services.

It is unfortunate that this government continues Pallister’s approach when it comes to reducing revenue available for government to use to fund the public services we all count on. Continuing to borrow money to fund tax cuts that disproportionately benefit wealthy property owners just doesn’t make sense.

At the same time, Manitoba’s economy is heading in the wrong direction. The latest Statistics Canada jobs numbers show that while national employment increased last month, our province lost over 4,000 jobs. And Manitoba has the worst year-over-year wage growth in the country.

Manitobans are facing higher prices at the pumps and the grocery store, and working families are struggling to keep up with the cost of living. This budget is missing a plan to boost wages and create good, family-supporting jobs across our economy.

After years of cuts and chaos from Brian Pallister, this budget misses the opportunity to reset the relationship between government and workers in our province. It’s time for this government to start working for working families.

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