Manitoba’s NDP government is being accused of underspending on emergencies as a massive wildfire burns in the province.
Wayne Ewasko, interim leader of the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives, pressed Premier Wab Kinew to explain why the province’s 2024 budget set aside $50 million for emergency expenditures, only half of what the Progressive Conservatives did the year before.
He also pointed to comments by Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Cathy Merrick in April, calling the province’s budgetary cut to emergency management funds an “extremely dangerous and ill-advised decision” with serious implications for rural First Nations.
“How does this premier expect Manitoba to fight more fires with less funds?” Ewasko asked during Monday’s question period.
Kinew called Ewasko’s claim “misinformation.”
“He knows full well … that this is an on-demand service. When it comes to a wildfire response, any resource that is necessary will go out the door to help Manitobans,” Kinew said in question period.
The province’s third quarter financial report showed that only $29 million of the $100 million set aside by the previous PC government in the 2023-24 budget had been spent.
The argument comes after the entire population of Cranberry Portage evacuated Saturday as a massive blaze burned toward the northwestern Manitoba community, devouring trees on thousands of hectares of land.
That fire is about 31,500 hectares (or 77,838 acres) in size, the province said Sunday.
Kinew is scheduled to tour nearby areas Tuesday, including Flin Flon, Bakers Narrows and The Pas.
He told reporters after question period that the $50 million in this year’s provincial budget for emergency management is in line with the historic average.
“Whatever sum is required to fight these fires is going to go out the door,” he said.
“The budget document has a placeholder number there, but every year that number responds to what the situation is on the ground.”
Ewasko says if that’s true, it means the NDP isn’t treating the budgetary process seriously.
“It shows that their budgeting process obviously has some major flaws in it,” he told reporters after question period.