With pledges to cut costs while taking care of children, Manitoba’s annual speech from the throne contained promises to boost daycare while continuing to tackle the province’s deficit.
"Our work continues to get our fiscal house in order," said Premier Brian Pallister.
The Pallister government says it will launch a new early learning and child care plan. The aim is to create new child care spaces while reducing wait times. Incentives will be offered to encourage the creation of more private spaces. A new law will be introduced to cut down on red tape faced by early childhood educators and resources will be shifted to improve numeracy and literacy.
On the child welfare front, the province wants to make it easier for legal guardians to take custody of kids in care.
"When it comes to supporting the most vulnerable members of our society we don't say no we say yes," said Pallister.
But the premier was clear, there is still more to do to get the deficit he inherited under control. The speech says more layers of senior management will be reduced, and what's being called a transformation within the public service will see provincial workers challenged to achieve better outcomes.
Details were vague but Pallister did not rule out job losses as a result.
"It's not just about changing the size of the team it's about getting the most out of your team right," said Pallister.
Critics say this will lead to more cuts in the civil service.
"It seems Mr. Pallister is continuing full speed ahead with his plan to cut jobs," said NDP Leader Wab Kinew.
"So it's another one of these mysterious things that sort of sounds like it's you know code for firing people," said Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont.
The speech also said a review will be done to reduce the duplication of services between the province and municipalities, including snow clearing and road repairs.
Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman says the speech lacked references to fixing roads and restoring transit funding.
"What we were looking for here in this speech from the throne was a sign that the government has the priorities of Winnipeggers in mind and unfortunately we did not here that today," said Bowman.
Other promises include:
- Strengthened whistleblower legislation to include school boards.
- Peer support in ERs to assist mental health patients.
- Creating a cabinet committee to end gender based violence.
- More measures to protect non-smokers with marijuana legalization coming
"Always looking at the public health and safety mostly of our children but certainly of everyone who chooses not to," said Justice Minister Heather Stefanson.
