Manitoba leaving COVID-19 money on the table

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/02/2021 (1326 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new report finds that Manitoba does not have plans to spend federal money now when it’s urgently needed during COVID-19. Manitoba has fiscal room to do more to provide needed funding and stimulate our local economy. 

Canada has earmarked $374 billion between federal and provincial governments in direct COVID-19 emergency spending. The equivalent of $9,400 a person worth of supports are in place in Manitoba. Of that total, $8,400 a person is federal money, with the provincial government making up the remaining 11 per cent.  

Support for individuals, at $3,400 a person in Manitoba, is almost entirely federally funded by the CERB, EI and CRB — in other words, it’s on the federal tab. It is fitting the federal government take a lead role during this crisis, given historically low interest rates and a manageable debt-to-GDP ratio. But many provinces, including Manitoba, are sitting on unspent funds and not fulfilling cost-matching requirements. 

We’re in the middle of a global pandemic. Sitting on unspent money makes no sense. Manitoba should immediately commit to invest in the following vital areas: 

Long-term care: Long-term care has been at the epicentre of COVID-19 — 57 per cent of the province’s COVID-19 deaths have occurred in residential facilities. Manitoba had no ready plan to use this $31.6 million of federal long-term care funds.  

Provincial long-term care operating funding has been frozen in Manitoba for 10 years and there remains an estimated $6 million in capital upgrades required per facility. For years, unions representing long-term care workers have been raising concerns about the problems of short-staffing in LTC. Short staffing and a lack of preparedness at two privately run homes left more than 80 residents dead and required emergency-service responses.  

Since these outbreaks, the province has only announced $7.7 million dollars, or approximately $50,000 per facility, as a response — a drop in the bucket. Manitoba’s lack of leadership means federal funds are sitting, waiting to be used, with no public plan to date. 

Low-wage essential workers: Manitoba did not  access the full federal amount available for the federal low-wage essential worker top-up. This application-based program was rolled out in Manitoba under the name “Manitoba Risk Recognition Program” last June; it provided up to $1,377 to workers in health, social services, retail, transportation and more exposed to COVID-19. Workers had a month to apply for the benefit.  

Manitoba left $10.5 million on the table for the long-term care top-up, which would have covered more than 7,000 more workers. 

Municipalities and transit: The federal Safe Restart Agreement signed by Premier Brian Pallister requires 50-50 cost sharing for municipal supports and transit funding. Manitoba is not honouring this agreement; the federal government is paying 100 per cent for this support.  

A total of $72.6 million of federal dollars was divided among Manitoba’s municipalities, on a per-capita basis, and $33.4 million was earmarked specifically for five municipalities with public transit systems. Mayor Brian Bowman noted at the time that Alberta and Ontario had matched with provincial funding.

Winnipeg’s October financial statement shows the city is anticipating a $32.4 million dollar deficit in 2020-21. By law, the city is not permitted to run a deficit, yet the provincial government remains silent.   

Schools and child care: Manitoba is only contributing 28 per cent of funding for COVID-19-related school and child-care needs; the remainder is from federal funds. More investments are sorely needed.  

The province channeled $18 million of federal dollars to the Manitoba and Winnipeg chambers of commerce to start family home child-care centers, a move heavily critiqued by the not-for-profit child-care sector, which had been calling for reverses to operating fund freezes and increased funding due to COVID-19. 

Housing and homelessness: Manitoba did not did not take advantage of the federal rapid-housing initiative; unlike other provinces, Manitoba did not buy existing buildings to convert to emergency housing.  

The Rapid Housing Initiative has two streams — Winnipeg and an application-based stream to the RHI. Manitoba could do as B.C. has done to purchase housing for those in tent cities using RHI money. Manitoba has not acted, despite increasing numbers of homeless clustering in bus shelters in -20 C weather and community outcries for emergency warming centres in empty buildings.

In order to maximize the impact of the stimulus, Manitoba needs to step up to the plate, cost-match and use the fiscal capacity it has to ensure a just recovery for all.  

David Macdonald is the author of Picking up the Tab: A complete accounting of federal and provincial COVID-19 measures in 2020 and senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives — National. Molly McCracken is the Manitoba director of CCPA.