Come clean on PST claim

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/08/2023 (1040 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you have spent any time on social media over the past few months, you have probably seen the advertisement that warns Manitobans that Wab Kinew’s NDP would raise the PST rate to 10 per cent if they win the upcoming provincial election.

You have probably also read news reports of Premier Heather Stefanson making the same claim in speeches and in the Legislative Assembly. In May, she was questioned about the accusation at a Manitoba Chambers of Commerce meeting. Her responses were less than convincing.

“I’m not making anything up,” she responded. “How are they planning to pay for all their increases in social services, in health care and all their increases in expenditure?” she claimed. “In the past, what they’ve done is they’ve used the PST to do that.”

“We know that they have stated in the past they wouldn’t raise taxes, they wouldn’t raise the PST,” she said.“We knew at that time they were floating (a) nine per cent (increase). We’re now hearing that it could be as high as 10 per cent.”

When pressed, she refused to say who she was hearing that from, and instead replied that the accusation is “a calculation based on some of the promises that they’ve made so far and obviously, looking into the future, I’m sure they’ll make more promises along the way.”

It appears that Stefanson first claimed that the NDP would hike the PST to 10 per cent on April 15, during a speech at the Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party’s annual general meeting. Speaking to the media after the speech, she accused the NDP of “getting away with” failing to explain how it would raise the money required to pay for its promises without raising taxes.

“If they’re not going to do that, they should tell Manitobans,” she said.

In fact, the NDP have repeatedly done exactly that. Just this week, Kinew said that “I want to say clearly and unequivocally that the Manitoba NDP under my leadership will never raise the PST,” he said. “When the PST was raised 10 years ago, I criticized it then.”

“The reason why I don’t like raising a tax like the PST is because it hits middle- and lower-income people the most,” he added.

Kinew has done what the premier demanded. He has told Manitobans that a government under his leadership would never raise the PST. He couldn’t make it any clearer, and yet the Tory attack ads continue.

What we now have is a “she said, he said” dispute between the two people vying to be our premier for the next four years. Now that Kinew has issued a clear denial, however, the premier has the obligation to produce the evidence — the proof — upon which her accusation is based, something she has refused to do up to now.

If that proof exists, Stefanson will have caught Kinew in a lie and his credibility will be seriously impaired. If, on the other hand, she does not produce persuasive evidence that Kinew planned to implement a 10 per cent PST increase — or any increase, for that matter — the honour of the office she holds requires that she formally withdraw the accusation and apologize to Kinew.

There are many important issues to debate during this election campaign, including the current state of our health care, justice and education systems. We should be talking about the future of Manitoba Hydro and how we address the crime and addictions issues that are afflicting our communities.

Instead of focusing on those critical issues, the Tories appear to be trying to distract voters with a baseless, bogus accusation.

Under the circumstances, an old phrase comes to mind: “put up or shut up.” It’s your move, Madam Premier.