NDP’s First Year in Office Defined by Dysfunction
WINNIPEG — As Wab Kinew’s NDP government marks its first anniversary, Manitobans are let down by diminished economic growth, escalating healthcare delays, decreased public safety, and dysfunctional leadership.
“On all fronts, the NDP are not as advertised,” said Wayne Ewasko, Leader of the Official Opposition. “All Manitobans have to do is ask themselves: Am I better off today than I was a year ago? Is life more affordable? Do I feel safer in my community?”
The cost of living crisis has only worsened under Kinew’s NDP, as even their one supposed affordability measure has proven to be ineffective: 69% of Manitobans say they have noticed an increase in gas prices over the last year. Kinew also promised in December to crack down on grocers if food costs did not go down, but close to 90% of Manitobans have seen prices increase for produce, meat, and dairy.
A little over a year ago during a leadership debate, Wab Kinew promised to tackle bail reform at the provincial level within his first 100 days. Now 365 days later, there has been no change and Manitobans are feeling even less safe in their communities, with a majority saying that they are worried about crime and public safety. Among Winnipeggers, 66% believe crime is worse now in Manitoba’s capital than one year ago.
The NDP ran on “fixing” healthcare, but one year later, Manitobans are waiting longer for care. Nearly 90% of Manitobans believe that the province’s healthcare system is not of good quality, a significant increase from June 2023.
“Instead of focusing on improving life for Manitobans, Kinew’s NDP spent the last year making life better for themselves, leveraging government resources to boost their popularity,” said Ewasko. “Our PC team will continue to hold them to account and shine a light on their failures as they rake in hundreds of millions in new taxes, double the taxpayer-funded political subsidy for their party, force workers to unionize, and hike the gas tax and your Hydro bills at the cabinet table.”
“Unfortunately, the NDP spent their first year putting politics and popularity over people and progress.”
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Ongoing Cost of NDP Dysfunction
Finance
Finance and Hydro, under NDP minister Adrien Sala:
- Increased provincial property taxes across the province, as high as 17% in some areas.
- Enabled some of the highest food inflation in the country, above the national average.
- Failed to lower food prices as promised.
- Ushered in a $1.9-billion deficit, the largest non-pandemic deficit in Manitoba history.
- Drove up debt servicing costs by over $2 billion, taking spending capacity away from areas like healthcare and social services. Debt servicing is larger than most government departments.
- Ramming through legislation to hike the gas tax and Hydro bills at the cabinet table.
- Doubling taxpayer-funded political subsidies for the NDP.
- Increased Manitoba’s dependency on federal transfers, which are now set to make the highest share of provincial revenues in 30 years.
- Cut capital spending by more than $1 billion (40%).
- Decreased housing affordability. Among Winnipeggers, 68% say it is less affordable to buy or rent a place to live than it was a year ago.
- Failed to freeze Hydro rates as promised.
- Have not released an actual plan to urgently increase Hydro capacity by 2030.
Healthcare
Health, Seniors and Long-term Care, under NDP minister Uzoma Asagwara and NDP MLA Carla Compton:
- Decreased Manitoba’s surgical and diagnostic capacity as one of their first moves in government, leading to 1,300 surgeries cancelled in their first three months.
- Hid surgical wait times data until being called out.
- Seen wait times for Winnipeg ERs rise by nearly an hour since the NDP took office.
- Refuse to listen to thousands of Manitobans demanding an MRI machine in Portage la Prairie.
- Continue to re-announce capital projects, recruitment initiatives, and other policies of the previous PC government, for lack of real plans of their own.
- Increased taxes and housing costs for doctors and healthcare workers.
- Cut the PC-initiated international healthcare worker recruitment program.
- Leveraged a year-long “listening tour” to travel the province and boost their own images, without publicly releasing any data collected.
- Cut the construction of several personal care homes across Manitoba, while delaying others, adding to project costs and causing stress for seniors waiting longer and longer.
- Offered no real plan to recruit, retain, and train healthcare workers, only misleading hiring targets that the NDP have pursued by collecting fruit from trees planted by the previous PC government.
Education
Education and Early Childhood learning, under NDP minister Nello Altomare
- Cut the construction of nine new schools and hundreds of daycare spaces across Manitoba.
- Overcrowded classrooms are leading to hallway education, a new term coined in Manitoba under Wab Kinew’s NDP.
- Admitted to school divisions that education is not in the NDP government’s top priorities
- Broke promise to deliver on $10 summer daycare.
- Provided two out of every three Manitoba school divisions base funding increases less than inflation this year, with ten divisions getting 1% or less.
Justice
Justice and MPI, under NDP minister Matt Wiebe:
- Failed to increase public safety, with crime rates only getting worse. Among Winnipeggers, 66% believe crime is worse now in Manitoba’s capital than one year ago.
- Set the stage for businesses to shutter around the province, with several closing up or moving out in Wab Kinew’s own constituency due to crime.
- Failed to call on Justin Trudeau to enact bail reform.
- Made several budget cuts to the Justice department.
- Introduced an ineffective and inaccessible security rebate.
- Fumbled a surplus at MPI, who is now asking the Public Utilities Board to approve a 3% rate increase combined with a $10 premium.
- Failed to speak up in defence of defence attorneys; this failure is ongoing.