‘And a swimming pool for everyone?’
We give you the facts about what the major parties are promising to do for you
Marlo Campbell

New Democratic Party
www.mb.ndp.ca
Running 57 candidates: 18 women, 39 men

The NDP has been in power since 1999. Under the leadership of Premier Gary Doer, the party heads into this election with 35 seats and a goal of winning a third consecutive majority government.

Health care
• The NDP has promised to hire 700 new nurses (400 for personal-care homes) and 100 new doctors over the next four years.
• The party wants to build a new Mental Health Crisis Response Centre in Winnipeg — the first of its kind in Canada — to provide care for people with mental-health problems.
• They want to build a new Women’s Hospital at HSC with more beds, private birthing rooms and an on-site, neonatal intensive-care unit. They’ll also expand the maternity ward at St. Boniface General Hospital and build a new birthing centre in South Winnipeg, staffed in part by midwives and featuring ‘doula’ services, prenatal and postpartum care, immunization clinics and mental-health services.
• They plan to expand access to the existing home-care program to another 2,000 Manitobans and help out those caring for sick or elderly family members by giving a $1,020 tax credit and low-interest loans for care-related home renovations.
• They’ll bring another MRI to the province — this one specifically for children — and they’ll expand the asthma and allergy programs currently offered through the Children’s Hospital.

The Environment
• The NDP wants to roll out WaterSmart — a water-conservation program that would mimic the existing PowerSmart energy program by offering loans, rebates and tax savings geared at upgrading private water systems and appliances.
• They’ll make Canada’s Kyoto target a provincial law, and will also create a provincial vehicle-efficiency standard and carbon-credit registry.
• They’ve promised to set aside $40 million for the eventual development of an east-west power grid, which will help us sell renewable energy to neighbouring provinces and the U.S., and they’ll continue developing alternative energy sources such as hydroelectricity, wind power, geothermal power and bio-fuels.
• They’ll give $1.8 million over three years to the Winnipeg Trails Association for the creation of 32 km of city bike trails.

Crime and safety
• They’ll hire another 100 police officers (Winnipeg will get 50), 20 more prosecutors — seven for the gang-prosecutions unit — and 50 more firefighters (20 for Winnipeg)
• They plan to ask the federal government to change current laws and sentences around auto theft and serious youth crimes.
• They’ll fund a pilot program in which 20 high-risk car thieves will be monitored through the use of electronic ankle bracelets.

Miscellaneous goodies
• They’ve pledged $60 million for the creation of community sports and recreational centres, and they’ve also committed to financially supporting a new football stadium.
• They’ll create 4,000 new apprenticeship-training spaces and offer a 60 per cent tuition rebate to new university graduates who stay in Manitoba.
• They want the 7,000 sq. km of boreal forest east of Lake Winnipeg to be a Unesco World Heritage site.
• They’ll eliminate the small-business tax by 2010.
• They’ll spend $11 million on another 2,500 newly-funded child care spaces.
• They’ll add another 1,000 lots to Manitoba’s annual cottage-lot draw.

Progressive Conservative Party
www.pcmanitoba.com
Running 56 candidates: 17 women, 39 men

The Conservatives, led by Hugh McFadyen, are looking to add to the 18 seats they currently hold (a party needs at least 29 to form a government).

Crime
• The PCs want to create a new department of public safety, responsible for policing, victims’ services and correctional services.
• They’ll hire another 222 police officers (150 for Winnipeg), add another 50 support staff and create a special unit of 32 RCMP officers to patrol highways. They’ll also hire six new judges, 25 new prosecutors and 20 support staff, and they’ll bump the courts budget by 25 per cent over two years.
• They want mandatory minimum sentences for certain offences (repeat auto theft, for example), they’ve proposed a “no plea bargains” rule for prosecutors dealing with criminal cases involving guns, and they want to amend the Legal Aid Manitoba Act so people with previous convictions for certain crimes (such as drug trafficking or participating in a criminal organization) will be denied legal-aid funding.
• They support the use of bait cars and electronic monitoring bracelets for car thieves, and they’ve promised that Manitobans who have immobilizers in their cars won’t have to pay their deductible if someone steals it (or tries to).
• They’ll spend $70 million on a new, 300-cell jail for men to ease overcrowding in existing institutions, and they’ll establish a Youth Intervention Centre to teach troubled youths and young criminals anger management and other social skills.

Taxes
• They’ll reduce the PST by 1 per cent and give cities 0.5 per cent of Manitoba’s PST revenue (Winnipeg stands to receive about $62 million annually) to spend, unrestricted, on local priorities.
• They’ll strip taxing powers from school boards by legislating a freeze on education property taxes, and they’ll reduce school taxes for home and cottage owners by 50 per cent over six years.
• They’ll eliminate the middle tax bracket by 2011 by reducing the middle incomes tax rate, and they’ll increase the basic personal-income tax-exemption amount.
• They plan to reduce the payroll tax, and they’ll eliminate the small-business tax by 2010.

Health Care
• They’ll freeze bureaucratic growth at the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and initiate a financial audit to encourage accountability.
• They’ll build a new birthing centre in Winnipeg and create a provincial midwifery training program.
• They’ll use 2 per cent of the profits from Manitoba’s liquor sales (roughly $4.8 million per year) to pay for programs and services related to Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.
• They’ll spend $16.3 million on cancer research, screening, vaccination and treatment.

Miscellaneous goodies
• They’ll commit another $6 million to create new child-care spaces and expand on existing centres.
• They’ll introduce legislation to ensure that Manitoba Hydro stays publicly owned.
• They’ll give Manitobans a 3 per cent PST rebate on the purchase of any fuel-efficient vehicle and eliminate the PST from all bike purchases.
• They’ll create a Premier’s First Nations and Aboriginal Issues Council, which will work on the issues facing aboriginal Manitobans.
• They’ll work with the private sector to bring back an NHL team.

The Liberal Party
www.manitobaliberals.ca
Running 57 candidates: 17 women, 40 men

Under the leadership of Dr. Jon Gerrard, the Liberals are the underdogs in this election. With only two seats at present, they need to win another two to qualify for official party status.

The Environment
• To save Lake Winnipeg from the damage caused by phosphorus, the Liberals want to fast-track a $200 million upgrade to Winnipeg’s waste-water treatment facility, ban phosphorus in dishwater detergents and stop farmers from spreading manure on their fields.
• They’ll expand the mandate of Manitoba Hydro so that it works with the private sector to develop and market alternative forms of energy such as wind, bio-diesel, geothermal, solar and bio-gas capture.
• They’ll spend $75 million to start building rapid transit in Winnipeg.
• They’ll remove the PST entirely from fuel-efficient vehicles and give $500 to owners who stop driving gas-guzzling beaters.
• They’ll give incentives for urban infill developments; promote high-density, mixed use development; and expand on existing wetlands-conservation programs.

Social Programs
• They’ll spend $46 million over three years to improve Child and Family Services — reducing case loads, giving more training to foster parents, screening all children in CFS’s care for medical conditions such as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, and extending the “aging out” transition period for kids leaving care.
• They’ll run Manitoba Housing facilities as tenant-owned co-operatives, and they’ll put $100 million into renovations and maintenance on existing units. They’ll also hire six investigators to follow-up on complaints about gang- and drug-related activity, and they plan to fund 24-hour on-site security and closed-circuit television monitoring in all Manitoba Housing facilities.
• They’ll increase the shelter-allowance portion of social assistance and begin indexing it annually to keep up with inflation.
• They’ll fund the hiring of 100 new child-care workers, spend $3 million on upgrading existing centres and double the provincial Child Related Income Supplement for low-income families.
• They’ll create and fund a police unit to focus on sexually exploited children.

Health care
• They’ll establish a Manitoba Patients’ Bill of Rights to guarantee timely access to medical care and they’ll create an Enforcement Office to ensure it actually happens.
• They’ve promised same-day access to family physicians, and they’ll invest in better information technology to improve the accuracy and consistency of medical records.
• They’ll bolster Manitoba’s mental-health-care system with more support for those suffering mental illness (and their families), more affordable out-patient housing, and a province-wide network focusing on research, education and care.

Miscellaneous goodies
• They’ll spend $20 million on province-wide community policing.
• They’ll make driving a stolen vehicle an offence punishable by jail time and use electronic ankle bracelets to monitor repeat auto thieves.
• They’ll hold a public inquiry into the collapse of the Crocus Investment Fund.
• They’ll make up to half the interest paid on mortgage payments tax-deductible for first-time home buyers.
• They’ll allow tuition to increase with the cost of inflation, increase core funding to universities and eliminate wait times for courses at Red River College.
• They’ll gradually phase out the payroll tax.

The Green Party
www.greenparty.mb.ca
Running 15 candidates: Six women, nine men

Founded in 1998, the Manitoba Greens are relatively new to provincial politics, but with a focus on ecological literacy, leader Andrew Basham and his party’s policies fit right in to the current debate about environmental issues.

Selected platform promises
• They’ll work toward having 100 per cent local organic food served in all Manitoba schools in 15 years.
• They’ll stop all clear-cutting and transition Manitoba’s forestry industry toward smaller-scale, selective logging practises. They’ll also immediately protect the east side of Lake Winnipeg from any industrial development.
• They’ll ban the addition of fluoride to drinking water in favour of free toothpaste in schools.
• They want all government vehicles (including lawn mowers) to meet the emissions standards set by California. They’ll also adjust MPI rates so that fees reflect kilometre usage, tax fossil fuels to cut down on wasteful driving habits, and build segregated bike lanes on busy streets to promote active transportation.
• They’ll create a Fossil-Fuel Independence Commission to figure out how to eliminate our dependence on oil and natural gas, and replace the Clean Environment Commission with a Citizens Ecological Health Assembly.
• They want Winnipeg to stop fogging for nuisance mosquitoes until scientific evidence can prove that it’s safe.
• They’ll implement a proportional-representation style of government and allow citizens to participate in budgeting processes. Green MLAs will also hold regular public meetings with constituents.
• They’ll build 300 subsidized housing units each year for five years.

The Communist Party
www.communist-party.ca
Running Six candidates: Two women, four men

Communist candidates have been elected in Manitoba before, first back in 1936 and again in 1941, and the seat was held by the party until 1958. Who knows — this could be the year that leader Darrell Rankin or one of his comrades makes it back into the Leg.

Selected platform promises
• They’ll expand our current health-care system so that dental, vision and prescription needs are completely covered and universally accessible.
• They’ll introduce a 32-hour work week (with no loss in pay), and they’ll raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour and index it to inflation.
• They’ll raise social-assistance rates so that the incomes of those on welfare would be above the poverty line.
• They’ll establish universal, quality and affordable child care.
• They want low-fare rapid transit for Winnipeg and more bike paths.
• They’ll reduce the use of antibiotics, fertilizers and pesticides on Manitoba farms and require that all genetically modified products be labelled.
• They’ll eliminate tuition fees for post-secondary education.
• They’ll support the prompt settlement of all aboriginal land claims.
• They’ll reform Manitoba’s government by switching to a proportional representation electoral system.