The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Manitoba's preliminary year-end quarterly report shows a positive balance of $6 million for 2003-04, commits another $96 million towards eliminating the province's debt and pension liability, and is in compliance with balanced budget legislation. Over the past four fiscal years, the government has committed $384 million to debt and pension liability repayment. This has helped reduce Manitoba's debt-to-GDP ratio, which has fallen to 16.4 per cent in 2003-04, from 20.3 per cent in 1999-2000. It is projected to fall further to 15.8 per cent in 2004-05. "A commitment to improving our debt-to-GDP ratio is one of the reasons Manitoba has received two credit rating upgrades in the past year," Finance Minister Greg Selinger said yesterday. "These upgrades are important as they allow us to do more with the resources we have, which is essential when dealing with fiscal challenges such as the BSE crisis, last year's drought and the ongoing cost pressures in health care." The fourth quarter report projects a $127 million draw from the Fiscal Stabilization Fund (FSF) in 2003-04, a modest improvement from the $143 million draw projected in the third quarter. Budget 2004 projects no draw from the FSF in 2004-05. See 'Difficult' P.# Con't from P.# There's no question 2003 was a difficult year for most provinces, including Manitoba," Selinger said. "The impact of BSE was devastating on our agricultural community and this struggle continues today. This hardship was compounded by severe drought in some regions. "Manitoba also faced one of the worst forest fire seasons in history, as well as higher health care costs and reduced permanent federal funding for health. Later in the year, we were also pressured by a reduction in equalization payments. However, strong efforts across government have brought us to year-end showing slight improvements over third-quarter projections." The fourth quarter report noted total revenue of $7.3 billion was down a modest $8.3 million from projections in Budget 2003. Revenues related to water flows decreased by $28.6 million due to dry or drought conditions, while Manitoba Lotteries revenue was down $24.1 million due to the impact of the smoking ban. These decreases were mostly offset by revenues related to Manitoba's improving economy. The report also indicates expenditures were more unpredictable in 2003. Of the total expenditure increase, $71.1 million was related to the exceptional costs of dealing with the BSE crisis and fighting forest fires. A provision in balanced budget legislation has excluded these extraordinary disaster-related costs in determining the year-end positive balance. The remaining $74.1 million, or 1.0 per cent, in increased costs includes $30.2 million for health, $8.9 million for election costs, and $10.5 million for agriculture support programming.7/23/2004
