WINNIPEG -- The Manitoba government wants to reset the province’s balanced budget legislation as it looks to try to balance the budget following the pandemic.
The government introduced Bill 48, which would make changes to the Fiscal Responsibility and Taxpayer Protection Act.
If the changes go ahead, it would reset the baseline deficit from the current $524 million target to what the province reports in the 2020-21 public accounts.
The province said it wants to balance the budget by the end of 2028-29.
"We think the eight-year phase out of the deficit is a very doable and realistic approach and also allows us to kind of get past the pandemic in so many different ways. But does provide some flexibility," said Scott Fielding, who is the minister of finance.
To balance the budget, the province said the annual deficit would be an eighth of the deficit reported in the previous year.
Fielding said this change is being proposed due to the costs from the pandemic.
"The unexpected costs of the pandemic and decreased revenues are driving our deficit. Given the uncertainty surrounding how long the pandemic will last and how much it will damage our economy, we are resetting our balanced budget legislation and charting a cautious and realistic path forward," Fielding added in a news release.
The province is expected to release its updated projections in the spring as part of its 2021 budget announcement.
Both the provincial NDP and Liberal opposition say the bill is just a way for the Pallister government to keep its own salaries at current levels without having to take a cut.
