Westman MPs will vote against budget

Westman’s two Conservative MPs will not support the current version of the federal budget that was tabled on Tuesday.

Brandon-Souris MP Grant Jackson and Riding Mountain MP Dan Mazier cited major concerns over the $78.3-billion proposed deficit. The Conservatives, along with the Bloc Québécois, can propose amendments this week.

“This is the last thing that Canadians were promised, and certainly not what they were hoping to be delivered on,” Jackson said about Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first budget.

MPs will vote on the budget later this month, likely when they return to Ottawa after the Remembrance Day break.

“I’ll be voting against this budget for sure,” Jackson said. “If Mark Carney had even attempted to keep his election promises, maybe we’d have a more difficult decision to make, but driving up the deficit to 78 billion (dollars) like this is not at all what he campaigned on. It’s not what voters elected me to support.”

Carney’s budget focuses on infrastructure and new tax opportunities for business. The minority Liberals need support from other parties or for some MPs to abstain from voting for the budget to pass. Failure to pass the budget would likely trigger an election.

Mazier said the deficit is an “eye-watering” amount of debt “that’s putting a load on Canadians for generations.”

“The budget is just a train wreck of overspending and not really satisfying any kind of Canadian needs, as far as getting life affordable in Canada,” he said.

Mazier said he wanted to see the government reduce spending on consultants.

“This is all in the government’s control. They can make an affordable budget. They knew what we were asking for, and they missed the mark,” he said, adding the Liberals “control their destiny.”

The only thing the budget accomplishes for people in Riding Mountain, he said, is making people’s wallets thinner.

“The way that the budget looks now — we cannot support that debt,” he said.

Jackson said he expected a deficit closer to the $40-billion mark, and would have liked to see more savings in the public-service sector.

There is “no reason” why there can’t be more cuts to the federal service, he said.

The budget says the government will cut 40,000 public service jobs (or 10 per cent) over the next three years.

“There is no reason why there couldn’t have been deeper savings found there,” Jackson said. He added that the Liberals forgot about western Manitoba in its budget and that “there’s not a lot of good” in the document.

Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett said while he hasn’t had the time to go over the 406-page budget, the investment in infrastructure is a good thing.

“Anything that goes towards infrastructure is good news for us. Recognizing that you’ve … got to kind of reach back into the ’40s and ’60s when we built our communities, that we may be doing that again with these big projects, that’s not a bad thing,” Fawcett said.

He added that he can’t say he was surprised by anything in the budget, which shows a plan to spend $115.2 billion in federal infrastructure investments over the next five years.

While that is a big number, Fawcett said, it likely still isn’t enough, as cities across the country are trying to maintain and improve their infrastructure.

Fawcett said the $81.8-billion investment in Canada’s Armed Forces is also a positive for the city due to the proximity of CFB Shilo.

Investments like large infrastructure projects take time, and that doesn’t help Canadians who are feeling financial pressure right now, Brandon University political science Prof. Kelly Saunders said.

“Investing in the economy, finding new trading partners, finding new markets for business, defence spending, capital infrastructure — that is going to take years and decades to kind of work its way through. You don’t just stimulate the economy overnight,” Saunders said.

She said the budget is designed to “stimulate the economy” and “increase competitiveness,” which makes sense when the country is dealing with a “sluggish economy.”

“I see some good things that are necessary that we should have been doing all along, namely investing more in our economy,” Saunders said. “But at the same time, I don’t know if it’s going to be enough in the short term to reduce some of the short-term struggles folks are having.”

While the Liberals don’t currently have the votes to pass the budget, the party came one vote closer on Tuesday. Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont — elected as a Conservative in 2019, 2021 and 2025 — crossed the aisle to become a Liberal MP.

Saunders said the move not only hurts d’Entremont’s chances of re-election, but is also a blow to the Conservatives, especially as Leader Pierre Poilievre faces a leadership review next year, unless voters head to the polls early.

Saunders predicted the budget will pass, as both the seven NDP MPs and one Green MP have said they will take time to make a decision. The leaders of the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois have both said their parties won’t support the budget.

“It’s pretty high-stakes poker being played right now,” Saunders said. “I would be really surprised if this budget doesn’t pass, because the Liberals are so close to getting it done. And let’s face it, it’s really not in anyone’s best interest at the end of the day to force an election right now.”

» alambert@brandonsun.com