Pallister hints at deficit reduction, hike in health care spending for upcoming budget

Manitoba’s premier says the upcoming budget, to be released Thursday, will continue to tackle the province’s deficit.

Premier Brian Pallister said Sunday that fixing the province’s finances was his first priority.

“Our debt service cost, the interest on that debt, this year coming up, is going to be over a billion dollars. Just that, the interest,” he said.

“So the good news is this budget we’re going to continue to make progress at fixing the finances, we’ve also been making good progress on things like reducing wait times in health care, wait times for emergency, wait times for hips, knees, wait times for getting into a personal care home and … we’re getting better results for the money.”

Pallister wouldn’t say if a PST reduction would come in this year’s budget, but did say all levels of government have to remember “there’s only one pocket.”

“It’s a pocket that all these governments have to get their resources from and it’s a pocket that’s pretty well worn.”

Share this on X Click to share quote on X: "It's a pocket that all these governments have to get their resources from and it's a pocket that's pretty well worn."

The city of Winnipeg’s budget dropped on Friday, and while property taxes will not rise more than 2.33 per cent, spending for roads is down almost $30 million to make up what the city calls a funding shortfall from the province.

Get breaking National news

Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won't miss a trending story.

Sign up for breaking National newsletter Get Started

By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Pallister said it won’t always be that way.

“The mayor and council know that, and they are working with us here provincially, with the federal government, with an emerging infrastructure strategy for the coming decade.

Share this on X Click to share quote on X: "The mayor and council know that, and they are working with us here provincially, with the federal government, with an emerging infrastructure strategy for the coming decade.

“And that’s going to make a lot of resources available to us on a shared basis to get back to investing in infrastructure, which we need to do. That’s on the horizon.”

As for the relationship between Mayor Brian Bowman and the province, Pallister said that is something he doesn’t want to work out in the media.

“I have ministers who are responsible for the relationships for the close to 200 municipal governments that we have. I respect the work that our ministers have to do and the mayor has to do. We’ll let them do their work and have their meetings as much as possible.”

After the budget, the next thing to worry about is possible flooding along the Red River this spring, said Pallister, noting that it’s the municipalities that are on the front line.

The province released its flood forecast Feb. 28, saying there’s a heightened risk of flooding on the Red River due to flood waters from the U.S. and ice jams along the river.

It is a nervous time, and what we need of course is everybody to encourage Mother Nature to co-operate,” said Pallister.

“We need a slow melt, we need it to melt during the day here in the next few weeks and we need it to freeze a little at night to slow the release of that water so we don’t have an onslaught.

“I’ll be visiting and talking to the municipalities on the affected areas, it’s going to be the kind of year where we just have to keep our fingers crossed and do our best to prepare.”

WATCH: Manitoba flood forecast warns of potential ice jams

1:13 Manitoba flood forecast warns of potential ice jams