Manitoba Budget: Organizations React | CTV News

Backlash is pouring in for the NDP government’s new budget for Manitoba.

The budget, tabled Tuesday afternoon, focuses on improving health care and the cost of living in Manitoba, and also includes an extension of the fuel tax freeze put in place in January.

The Manitoba Association of Health Professionals (MAHCP) said the budget recognizes the role allied health professionals such as paramedics play in the health care system, but wanted to see more short-term investment to help fill vacancies.

“Manitoba is still depleting allied health professionals due to chronic understaffing and excessive workload and overtime. We hope that the funding increases we heard about today can begin to change that,” chairman Jason Linklater said in a statement.

Linklater said his organization wants to see specific recruitment and retention incentives for specialist areas in high demand, such as paramedics and rural diagnostics.

Finance Minister Adrien Sala has promised the government will hire 1,000 new health workers this year, spending $310 million to add 100 new doctors, 210 nurses, 90 paramedics and 600 medical assistants in Manitoba.

The Manitoba Nurses Union said it’s encouraging to see the path the government is on, but added they want to see more efforts to help retain nurses.

“There is a lot of work to be done, we know it will take time, but we are also hearing from our members that patience is wearing thin,” said MNU President Darlene Jackson. “Government and employers must be focused on implementing approaches to retain nurses in our system. Without this, inadequate staffing and burnout will continue to be major problems.”

Canadian Taxpayers Federation

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation chimed in and praised the province for extending its fuel tax holiday for another three months.

“This expansion of the gas tax credit means more savings for families when they need it most,” CTF Prairie Director Gage Haubrich said in a statement. “It’s great to see the government listening to Manitoba taxpayers and helping them by continuing to make life more affordable.”

Haubrich said he is concerned about the province’s deficit, which will total $796 million this year.

“Despite receiving record amounts of money from Manitobans, the government still can’t balance the budget,” Haubrich said. “The government is walking away from the debt can and wasting nearly $200 million a month on interest payments.”

Manitoba Federation of Labour

The Manitoba Federation of Labor has received praise for the budget’s focus on building the public service.

“The previous PC government left public services in Manitoba in dire straits, and we know that repairing the damage from the PC years will take more than a budget. But this budget’s investments to hire 1,000 new health workers will make a real difference,” MFL president Kevin Rebeck said in a statement.

Rebeck said she wants to see additional focus on childcare spaces.

“While this budget improves childcare affordability for working families who are lucky enough to have a place, much more needs to be done to address the massive shortage of childcare spaces in our province,” he said. “The government needs to focus on training early childhood educators and paying them a fair wage to have any real hope of opening the 20,000 additional childcare places promised in the federal deal.”