Excerpts
The Manitoba budget, set to be delivered Tuesday, will include more money for child care and a smaller deficit, Finance Minister Adrien Sala said Friday.
The spending plan is to include funding for a 2.9 per cent wage increase for early childhood education workers and 2,000 new child-care spaces, Sala told reporters at a media photo opportunity.
He handed out sneakers to seven children at a child-care centre in his St. James constituency — his spin on the tradition of the finance minister buying new shoes for budget day.
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Wage growth for child-care workers
Jodie Kehl, executive director of the Manitoba Child Care Association, says she is encouraged by the continued wage growth, which the province says will cost more than $14 million.
She wants the province to expand the wage grid to include the support positions now in the sector, ranging from inclusion support workers to pedagogical leaders.
Sala added the 2,000 child-care spaces being promised are in addition to the 6,000 spaces the government said late last year it had already committed to building.
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NDP hints at new budget
The government has dropped broad hints in recent days at new spending in the budget for nurse training, cardiac care, police and corrections officers.
Sala said the NDP government can afford the new spending and still produce a balanced budget before the next election, slated for October 2027.
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Manitoba has run deficits in every year but two since 2009.
The forecast deficit for the current fiscal year, which ends at the end of March, has jumped to $1.6 billion from the $794 million predicted last spring. The increase was driven largely by the cost of fighting wildfires last summer and lower revenues at Crown-owned Manitoba Hydro.
The economic uncertainty caused by U.S. tariffs has added to concerns about government revenues. TD, in a forecast this week, said Manitoba is among the provinces hit hardest by the trade friction, and activity in Manitoba's manufacturing sector is expected to be subdued.
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