Manitoba Tories promise PST rollback to 7% in shadow throne speech

A Progressive Conservative government in Manitoba would roll the provincial sales tax back to seven per cent during its first term, party leader Brian Pallister said, delivering his shadow throne speech on Friday.

​The PCs will also cut hospital wait times, reduce the cost of ambulance fees and accelerate the construction of new personal care home beds if they are elected in next April's election, Pallister said.

"These are just some of the key priorities we would be acting upon as your government," Pallister said. "They are not the last word on what we will do. More is to come, much more."

Reducing the size of cabinet by one-third, raising the basic exemption for income tax and restoring a requirement to have a referendum before any major tax increase were also part of Pallister's alternative throne speech, which comes three days ahead of the NDP's official one. 

Pallister says five values he believes reflect the hopes of Manitobans eager for change are: trust, compassion, common sense, inclusion and teamwork.

"Trust to bring integrity back to government, compassion to put caring at the centre of our work, common sense to ensure value, inclusion to create opportunity for all, and teamwork to partner for prosperity – these will be our guiding values should we be privileged to form government," Pallister said in a news release, adding he will also introduce a new open government bill, and promoting a new relationship with Aboriginal peoples.  

Lt.-Gov. Janice Filmon will deliver the official government throne speech, which outlines priorities for the upcoming legislative session, at about 1:30 p.m. Monday.

"This throne speech will project a strong vision for the future of Manitoba. We won't be looking just one year ahead, we'll be looking several years ahead," Premier Greg Selinger said on Thursday.

"We'll be showing where we can take the province, based on a very good record up to now. As you all know, we had some challenging times getting to where we are [but] we have the lowest unemployment rate in the country, the best job creation rate in the country.

"There will be a lot of themes in there that will allow Manitoba to be a more prosperous, inclusive place where everybody has a sense of belonging. It will have things that we can do right now and it will also have things that we want to accomplish, for sure, in the next five years."

Some of the things that can be acted on immediately will be new capital projects that haven't been announced before, Selinger added.