The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – Manitoba has been tracking the party’s commitments, conducting analysis and is part of many dedicated community social and environmental justice groups putting forward evidence-based ideas this election. Here is a summary of our work and the work we’re proud to be a part of in the 2023 Manitoba Election. 

Healthcare

Healthcare and Austerity in Manitoba video: watch our new video featuring Niall Harney, the Errol Black Chair in Labour Issues. Thank you to Katherine Burley,  Ian Hudson, and Robert Chernomas for the analysis that informed this video “A Made in Manitoba Crisis”. 

Here is our analysis of the two leading parties’ commitments on healthcare. 

CCPA MB is proud to be a member of the Manitoba Health Coalition and hosted Thomas Linner to speak on September 21st. Please review the MHC’s Public Health Care Voter Guide.

What’s the problem with proposed tax cuts? 

This election featured a number of regressive promises to cut taxes in ways that would grow income inequality. Notably, the PCs proposed cutting $1.2 billion in taxes, raising serious questions about how a PC provincial government would cover revenue losses without large cuts to services or infrastructure investment. This analysis unpacks the financial impacts of the regressive PC income tax cuts “Is this a Tax Cut Election” and was used in this op-ed that ran in the Brandon Sun “Tax Cuts Won’t Be Sustinable”. This analysis was covered in the Winnipeg Free Press on September 8th “Parties Tax Cuts Threaten Services”. 

Also please see “PC Tax Cuts Don’t Add Up” by Research Associate and University of Manitoba Economics and Labour Studies professor Jesse Hajer in the Winnipeg Free Press on Oct 2nd. 

Privatization

The Manitoba PCs have promised to expand liquor sales to private grocery stores. A 2016 CCPA report, Balancing Convenience with Social Responsibility: Liquor Regulation in Manitoba by Greg Flanagan, provides evidence-based research on the social cost of expanded access to liquor.

Evidence from another CCPA report, also by Flanagan “Sobering Result: The Alberta Liquor Retailing Industry Ten Years after Privatization” highlights how Alberta’s decision to privatize its liquor retailing industry has been a serious policy mistake for the government, both socially and financially. 

Did you know that alcohol costs the health care and criminal systems more than the revenue brought in from alcohol sales? This is called the “alcohol deficit”. The latest data shows Manitoba has an alcohol deficit of -$114/person. Alberta, the province with the highest level of privatization of alcohol, has the highest alcohol deficit of -$316/person (Sherk, 2020). 

Make Poverty History Manitoba

CCPA MB is proud to be a member of MPHM and supported the all-candidate debate on poverty on September 17th. MPHM has created a Platform Analysis and Debate Recap document, based on an analysis of party platforms in reference to MPHM’s Demands for Action. 

Housing

CCPA Manitoba is proud to be a member of the Right to Housing Coalition. The Manitoba Research Alliance via the SSHRC partnership grant hosted by the CCPA has put forward a social housing action plan for Manitoba that pulls together solutions based on decades of research and consultation. The coalition is calling on all political parties in the 2023 provincial election to commit to implementing a social housing action plan that features the following five key pillars. 

Housing and Seniors 

Housing issues affect people of all ages, including seniors, and the newly formed Seniors Working Group for the Right to Housing Coalition (R2H) has taken up the call to advocate for seniors housing. Read this analysis by Lynne Fernandez and Erika Wiebe here: We Need to Talk About Social Housing for Seniors.

Climate  

CCPA MB proudly supports the Consider Climate campaign, which is hosted by the Climate Action Team. This article by CBC “Young voters disappointed by lack of concrete climate plans in Manitoba election,” highlights the campaign and the disappointment by young voters that climate and the environment have not taken a higher priority during the election 

Consider Climate asked each party what they would do on climate – you can read about it here. 

Youth voting

“For young Manitobans able to vote for the first time in a provincial election, those who have had the opportunity to vote before but have chosen not to, and for those who have voted before but are unsure if they will again, voting is an opportunity to make your voice heard by speaking up on issues that are important to you. “, writes Sean Lett. For more please read Young Manitobans Need to Use Our Vote this Election 

Impacts of Austerity on Manitoba Public Services 

CCPA Manitoba is proud to be partnering with the editors of “Public Service in Tough Times: Working Under Austerity in Manitoba, 2016-2022” Jennifer Keith, Jesse Hajer and Ian Hudson. This book will be out in early 2024, however, we’re lucky to get a “sneak peak” of the chapters via chapter summaries, the following of which was published in the Winnipeg Free Press or Brandon Sun this fall in the lead-up to the election:

The delusion of austerity: Manitoba’s public service

by Shreya Ghimire, Karine Levasseur, Andrea Rounce

September 21, 2023 | Brandon Sun

Child care also an austerity victim

by Susan Prentice, Jesse Hajer

August 29, 2023 | Free Press

Manitoba can’t afford cuts to parks, environmental protection

by Mark Hudson

August 15, 2023 |  Free Press

Cutting straight to the bone: Austerity and Manitoba crown corporations

by Niall Harney, Lynne Fernandez

August 5, 2023 | Free Press

A Made in Manitoba Crisis

by Katherine Burley, Robert Chernomas, Ian Hudson

July 15, 2023 | Free Press

Manitoba Government Cuts Undermine Safety and Justice

by Elizabeth Comack, Amelia Curran

July 5, 2023 | Free Press

More analysis of the impacts of austerity will be published in the weeks to come. 
Please get out and vote on October 3rd! Information on how to do so can be found at Elections Manitoba. And watch for more from our office in response to the commitments of the soon-to be elected new Manitoba government.