NDP long overdue for cabinet shuffle

Opinion

What exactly does it take to get shuffled out of the Kinew government’s cabinet?

We ask this question because there are a few ministers with rather hefty portfolios who have been causing the NDP considerable embarrassment over the last few months, with either notable public gaffes or poor handling of their portfolios.

Let’s start with Finance Minister Adrien Sala, who has clung to the vain hope that his government will somehow be able to balance the province’s fiscal books before the next provincial election — this in spite of growing evidence to the contrary.

Earlier this year, we wrote in this space that the NDP’s reckless 2023 provincial election campaign promise to balance the books was all but impossible to achieve — something that was already obvious as early as March 2024 when that year’s budget was published.

And that was before the ill wind of Trumpian tariffs blew through the provincial economy, which have only succeeded in ramping up the economic headwinds facing Manitoba’s agricultural and manufacturing sectors.

Apparently, we are not alone in our less-than-rosy assessment of the province’s financial situation. Though the Kinew government has predicted a $327-million deficit for the 2026-27 fiscal year, credit-rating agency Moody’s is forecasting a deficit of $900 million, according to The Canadian Press, which is driven in large part by ongoing trade uncertainty and tariffs imposed by the United States and China.

“This scenario is moderately weaker than the province’s budget projection given our view of a longer-lasting period of trade uncertainty that will weaken revenues,” Moody’s officials wrote in a recent credit opinion report.

According to CP, Moody’s has also forecasted a deficit in the current fiscal year of $1.9 billion — somewhat higher than the government’s initial pre-tariff budget prediction in the spring, but matching a second set of budget numbers that were based on the potential impact of tariffs.

If the real numbers suggest to Moody’s a less optimistic view of Manitoba’s economy, on what basis is Sala still promising a balanced budget? And upon whose back will it fall if they achieve it? Education? Agriculture? Health?

Or more likely Manitoba taxpayers — the same old bottomless well that Moody’s suggested was open to the NDP.

Meanwhile, we’ve got another minister who has been forced — once again — to issue a public apology in the space of two months.

Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine apologized on Friday for sharing an Instagram post in the wake of the assassination of U.S. hard-right activist Charlie Kirk earlier this week. The U.S.-based post that Fontaine shared on Thursday stated: “Charlie Kirk was a racist, xenophobic, transphobic, islamophobic, sexist, white nationalist mouthpiece who made millions of dollars inciting hatred in this country.” The post also stated: “I extend no sympathy for people like that.”

Her actions were at odds with those of Premier Wab Kinew himself, who on Wednesday condemned Kirk’s murder, calling it “a very, very, chilling disturbing act.”

As our sister paper, the Winnipeg Free Press, reported yesterday, an interviewer on CJOB read the post Fontaine shared on Instagram aloud to Kinew on Friday morning.

“That’s awful,” the premier said, after commenting earlier in the broadcast about the assassination, saying, “That could be me.”

And he’s right — anyone who runs for higher office may unfortunately have a target on their back from political enemies, whether metaphorically or otherwise. Yet violence and the taking of human life is never an answer to political disagreement.

There is no justification for a senior minister in the Kinew government to be so cavalier about what they post online when it comes to assassination — or homicides of any sort, really.

Less than two months earlier, Fontaine was already forced to apologize for insensitive comments about a translator for the hearing impaired that she made to a staffer while debriefing her speech at a gala celebrating Indigenous women graduates.

And yet, even though she continues to embarrass the Kinew government, Kinew has once again told media he will not remove Fontaine from cabinet.

Then there’s Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara, who announced earlier this week that two Winnipeg police officers will be stationed at the Health Sciences Centre around the clock due to rising concerns about violence at the facility.

According to a CBC report, the WPS officers will be at the hospital’s emergency department to support security guards and safety officers, starting this fall. The announcement came with $1.6 million in new dedicated annual provincial funding for the officers and $750,000 for five new weapon-detection scanners that will be installed at the hospital’s main public entrances.

While this announcement was a rather large change to the hospital’s safety operations, it also has significant implications for the Winnipeg Police Department. Those “two” officer positions will involve far more than merely two officers, when you take into account shift work, holidays, sick days and so forth. It’s worth asking where these new resources will come from. What’s more troubling, however, is that Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham didn’t even know about the announcement beforehand.

It boggles the mind that a provincial government would decide to make an announcement with such a large price tag and not have consulted the affected municipal government ahead of time.

It’s also worth noting that under this minister and government, emergency room and urgent care wait times in Winnipeg have been worsening since 2023 — recent WRHA data from July has proven this much. This in spite of the party’s promise to “fix health care” if they took the reins of government.

And yet the minister — along with the rest of cabinet, really — continues to try and pin the failures of this government on the last one.

Two years in, and the NDP government is clearly in dire need of a cabinet shuffle. But Manitobans have a right to ask what it will take for that to happen.