More Beefs Than Bouquets For Manitoba Budget '08?

Mixed reactions today to Manitoba's 9th consecutive balanced provincial budget, but the cries of opposition are coming mainly from business and finance lobby groups rather than its everyday Joe.

While the usual accusations of excessive spending came from Hugh McFadyen's conservatives, opposition from Winnipeg's Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian Federation of Business, and the Taxpayers Federation were highly publicized in a bizarre and slanted CBC article that minimized legitimate comments from representatives of Charity Winnipeg Harvest and the University of Manitoba.

While the budget is relatively unextraordinary and community groups have good reason to be unsatisfied, those who benefit most from this status quo are in fact business elites and Canada's wealthy - which is why opposition from the chambers of commerce and business federations to a modest budget is predictable, but also curious.

Grasping for an effective opposition to the budget, the lobby groups are resorting to a classically conservative tactic - attack Canada's Equalization Program.

Adrienne Batra, Manitoba representative of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said "without equalization payments, the province wouldn't be able to pay its bills. Never in Manitoba's history have we relied so heavily on the prosperity of our neighbours to the east and west," she said.

Manitobans should be suspicious to see an organization that claims to represent the interests of everyday Canadians resort to abusing our common misunderstanding of this very important program.

Equalization is one of the least well understood mechanisms of our financial system. These payments are designed to "equalize" the provinces capacity for providing essential services to their citizens. Without them, maratime provinces and Canada's territories could not possibly maintain the high quality of public service that Canadians expect - and should expect, from their government. Even Alberta has been a recipient of equalization payments.

This is done all over the world and on a smaller scale in our own cities and provinces - likewise citizens of the nation share the responsibility for making sure our kid's schools are well-funded and safe, our hospitals are able to treat us, our roads are maintained and that we have clean water to drink.

These are the benefits of living in a prosperous, developed society.

It's sad to see such slanted reporting from CBC on an important issue that should really be a source of pride for Canadians - that we prosper through development and supporting our communities no matter where they are in Canada.

The statements made by chambers of commerce, business federations, and the federation of tax-payers are NOT representative of public opinion and the actual support people envision for their public infrastructure. Their responsibility is to the business and finance community - the Canadian Federation of Tax-Payers in particular is notorious for championing devolution of government and tax breaks for the rich. Their position of authority on this issue has been manufactured only through repitition and the simple fact that they describe themselves as a "Canadian Federation".

The response to this budget by these particular groups is typical - even if they had gotten their tax breaks and corporate handouts they would very likely still oppose, simply because they oppose any government that considers fairness a priority and redistribution of wealth a valuable tool for getting there. It's too bad they're on the wrong side of public opinion and many would say, the wrong side of history as well.

You can't build a society by propping up your wealthy and leaving scraps instead of opportunity for the poor.