Embed Doc
Copy Link
Readcast
Collections

CommentGo Back

Download



News



Sports



Entertainment



Radio



My Region

MANITOBA VOTES 2007

Features

Election Promises

Wendy Sawatzky for CBC Online News | Updated May 18, 2007Lower taxes. Better roads. More doctors, more police officers, more money in your pocket …the pledges and promises are thick on the ground this election campaign.If you're having trouble keeping track of who's vowed to do what, here's a review of what thethree major parties have said they'd do if voters choose them to lead the province on May 22.The NDP have promised to… The PCs have pledged to… The LIBERALS have vowed to…

The NDP have promised to…

Spend $1.5 million to help rural and northern school divisions provide additional support for students with learningdisabilities.Build a new centre for children with special needs and disabilities, to replace the existing Rehabilitation Centre for Children.Build a new ACCESS health centre in west Winnipeg to provide primary health care as well as a range of other social, employment and community programs. Not undertake hydroelectric development on the east side of Lake Winnipeg.Build a new heavy equipment training centre at Red River College at a cost of $15 million, which was already provided for in the province's 2007 budget.Establish a new capital improvement fund of $250,000 per year over four years for Indian and Métis FriendshipCentres across Manitoba.Provide new funding for 2,500 child-care spaces over two years.Set up a $1 million training and recruitment fund for early childhood educators.Increase operating grants to day cares to fund a six-per-cent salary increase for workers — three per cent in each of 2008 and 2009.Expand a community-based intravenous therapy site at the ACCESS Transcona site in east Winnipeg, allowing 130 patients requiring IV antibiotic treatment to receive it there, rather than at an emergency room.Create as many as 16 new libraries through $10,000 start-up grants — six on First Nations and up to 10 others. Thechanges would ensure 95 per cent of Manitobans have access to libraries, up from 83 per cent now.Provide books to parents of each newborn in Manitoba through the Reading for Life early literacy program.

Spend $3.6 million to renovate the Ste. Anne Hospital to increase operating space and double the number of surgeries and diagnostic tests performed each year, to 320 and 360, respectively.Spend $2 million to upgrade parks and campgrounds, by providing more electrical campsites and more yurts,extending 911 service to Duck Mountain and Hecla, and renovating buildings to be more energy and water efficient, including new design features such as solar-heated showers, low-flow water fixtures and green buildingmaterials.Provide $500,000 in new funding to the Film and Television Production Equity Investment program run byManitoba Film and Sound, and $100,000 to the National Screen Institute for the New Voices and Storytellersaboriginal film training programs.Provide $200,000 in new funding to Manitoba Film and Sound and the Manitoba Audio Recording IndustryAssociation for touring and marketing support for local recording artists.Double support for the Urban Arts Program to $400,000 annually to support music, theatre, performing and visualarts programming in cities.Introduce legislation creating a new protected areas designation, which would encourage communities on the eastside of Lake Winnipeg to implement their land-use plan and continue working toward the creation of a UNESCOWorld Heritage site, while permanently protecting Poplar-Nanowin Rivers Park Reserve.Make 1,000 new cottage lots available to Manitobans.Expand the province's home-care program to ensure 2,000 more people can live independently in their own homes.Introduce a $1,020 tax credit for family caregivers and provide low-interest loans for needed renovations to assistfamilies who want to care for their loved ones.Create 1,100 new long-term care spaces in Winnipeg and more than 650 spaces in rural and northern Manitobathrough the "aging in place" plan.Increase the number of active apprenticeship training spaces by 4,000 over the next four years.Introduce a new, 40 per cent tax credit (worth $2 million) for the new media sector, including video games,computer animation, web development, visual effects, and music and sound processing.Double the uptake in Manitoba’s Co-operative Education Tax Credit, which supports employers who hire students.Build a $40-million centre of excellence for maternal care at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, providingmore beds in all areas.Build a $3.5-million birthing centre in south Winnipeg, including a community-birthing centre run by the Women'sHealth Clinic, with midwives and doula services.Spend $2 million to renovate and expand the maternity ward at St. Boniface General Hospital.Spend $40 million from the province's $54-million share in the ecoTrust fund to support initial planning anddevelopment of an east-west hydroelectric grid.Eliminate the small business tax by 2010, in co-operating with the federal government.Set up a new MRI machine at Children's Hospital in Winnipeg, dedicated to children's care.Establish a new clinic at Children's Hospital to expand the province's asthma and allergy program.Modernize the cardiac catherization lab at Children's Hospital to include "the latest equipment used in detectingkids' heart problems."Establish a five per cent mandate for biodiesel by 2010 for school buses, government fleet vehicles, agriculturalvehicles and the trucking industry.Create a $1-million biodiesel development fund to support additional biodiesel projects.Create a $500,000 community wind power fund to help communities set up monitors to determine local windstrength.Create a new provincewide Farmers Eco-Fund to support producers who implement practices such as wetland preservation.Reduce education taxes on farmland by 70 per cent in 2008, 75 per cent in 2009 and 80 per cent in 2010.Increase the conditional grants to 15 from 10 for vets who commit to practise in rural Manitoba.Add 50 new firefighters: 20 more for Winnipeg, four more each in Brandon, Thompson and Portage la Prairie, and

18 more forest firefighters.Double the training funding for municipalities that rely on volunteer fire departments.Hire 100 new doctors over the next four years.Add 10 new spaces at the U of M School of Medicine, increasing the number of spaces to 110, from 100. Also add10 new spaces to the International Medical Graduate program, increasing the total spaces to 35 from 25.Provide rural and northern doctors with a “guaranteed getaway” by establishing a dedicated, $1-million supportfund to fill vacancies when doctors need relief.Introduce new scholarships for aboriginal medical students at the U of M. The annual scholarships would provide$7,000 each to six aboriginal students.Provide $1.8 million over three years to the Winnipeg Trails Association (WTA) to help develop 32 kilometres of trail across Winnipeg, including portions that make up the Manitoba stretch of the Trans-Canada Trail.Hire dedicated pharmacists for 10 ERs - seven in Winnipeg and one in each of Brandon, Thompson and Selkirk - tohelp doctors and nurses better deal with the large number of medication-related ER visits.Establish a free-standing Mental Health Crisis Response Centre next to Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre to provide specialized care for up to 10,000 mental-health patients who visit traditional ERs each year.Add five clinical assistant positions to Grace Hospital’s emergency room in a pilot project to better support ER doctors.Establish community teaching sites at Grace, Seven Oaks, Concordia and Victoria General hospitals for a new ER program being established at the University of Manitoba.Increase the number of ER doctor training seats to 13 from five.Add 20 new workplace safety and health inspectors, bringing the total to 74, and dedicate one of the inspectors torural Manitoba.Buy a new, state-of-the-art Amphibex ice-breaking machine.Introduce a WaterSmart program that would eliminate the PST on Energy Star water-saving appliances, providerebates for consumers who buy low-flow bathroom fixtures, provide loans for the improvement of private water or waste systems, and provide rebates for Energy Star dishwashers, front-load washers and tankless water heaters.Hire 100 new police officers: 50 for Winnipeg, five for Brandon, 30 RCMP to serve rural Manitoba, and 15 for First Nations communities.Hire 20 new prosecutors.Double the size of the Turnabout program for youth who can’t be charged under the Young Offenders Act.Double funding to $60 million over four years for community-based sports and recreation facilities, includinggiving the Southdale Recreation Association one-third of the funding for a new recreation centre.Join the private sector-led team that’s leading the charge to build or redevelop the football stadium.Add 700 new nurses and nurse practitioners over the next four years, including 250 nurses for personal care homes.Hire 100 new health care aides and 50 new front-line professionals — such as physiotherapists, occupationaltherapists, clinical dieticians and others — to work in personal care homes.Increase nurse training by adding 100 new spaces at training institutes around the province.Add seven new seats at the graduate school at the University of Manitoba School of Nursing to increase thenumber of qualified professional instructors.Introduce legislation that would ensure Manitoba meets its Kyoto targets by 2012.Reduce Manitoba Hydro’s use of coal.Create a vehicle efficiency standard, to be recommended by a vehicle advisory board, which would includeincentives to deal with older vehicles.Require the capture of emissions from large landfills.Establish a new code for efficiency for new buildings.Develop a plan to switch off-grid communities to renewable energy.Provide incentives for farmers to undertake projects that reduce emissions.