Manitoba’s 2025 budget comes amid an ongoing trade war with the United States, and the continuing uncertainty over U.S. president Donald Trump’s tariffs looms large on the province’s financial plan.
In his second budget as finance minister, Adrien Sala called the U.S. threats to Canada’s sovereignty and economy “a tax on working people.”
“This budget comes at a critical time in Manitoba’s history, and it rises to the occasion with a historic investment in capital projects,” Sala said, referring to the province’s plan as ‘Trump-proofing” Manitoba’s economy.
“We didn’t start this trade war, but we are not backing down.”
In his speech, the finance minister said the trade war will affect businesses as well as regular people on either side of the border, and clarified that the response to U.S. threats isn’t a fight with Americans writ large, but with their president in particular.
In response to tariffs, the province said it has created a contingency budget to help businesses work with new markets, and providing hundreds of millions of support dollars, also with the goal of helping workers develop new skills while under the economic threat of tariffs.
The tariff response — assuming the U.S. follows through with the ‘worst-case’ scenario of 25 per cent tariffs across the board — offers millions in a number of categories: up to $100 million in targeted supports to help businesses pivot, and the same amount for Manitoba business loans, support for farmers and producers, and for programs to support families.
Additional funding of up to $50 million is earmarked for post-secondary institutions, aimed at re-training Manitoba workers, plus $10 million in student aid grants and $25 million in student loans for workers training in new careers.
Tax deferrals will also be available for Manitoba businesses.
The province said Thursday that a worst-case tariff scenario could lead to a reduction in trade by a whopping $1.4 billion, which would reduce Manitoba’s GDP by $3.6 billion — an impact similar to the 2009 recession. Incomes in Manitoba are also estimated to drop by $1,420 per capita under the tariff scenario.
Sala said the province has cancelled a multi-million dollar contract with a U.S. firm based in Texas, which has historically handled items like park passes.
Manitoba is also tweaking its rebate for electric vehicles — continuing the popular program while cancelling rebates for vehicles made by Tesla, the company owned by Trump adviser Elon Musk — as well as EVs manufactured in China.
“It’s part of our government’s commitment to be ‘elbows up’,” Sala said.
The current situation, the finance minister said, is testing Canada’s strongest partnership in a way never before seen.
“No longer will Manitobans and Canadians allow forces outside our control determine our future,” he said.
“No longer will we let our future rest in someone else’s hands. We have to build it ourselves.”
The province said efforts to have a balanced budget by 2027-28 remain the goal, but potential use of tariff contingency plans could affect that.
Craig Whitman, a grandfather who lives just outside of Winnipeg, told 680 CJOB he was encouraged by his first perusal of the budget, but said he would have liked to see more focus on interprovincial trade — something he’s seen happening in other provinces.
“When they first started talking about tariffs and interprovincial trade barriers — I don’t see anything that says we’re going to drop them,” he said. “I don’t see any move toward that.
“It’s imperative that we do to make the country a stronger place to stand up to the United States.”
Overall, Whitman said, he’d like to see more transparency as to where, specifically, dollars are going when the province indicates it will fund education and trade and other key issues.
“You have to careful where that money goes. It’s great they’re giving money to hospitals and health care and education, but where is that money going?
“Looking at the numbers it’s a little better than it was before, but it’s still going in the wrong direction. My grandchildren are going to be paying for this.”
The trade war isn’t the only focus in the 2025 budget. The provincial government also intends to continue its efforts to rebuild Manitoba’s health care system — something that was a major emphasis in last year’s budget, the current NDP government’s first since their election in 2023.
Among the health-related items in the budget are a total of $770 million in new dollars to continue recruiting and retaining front-line health workers, as well $40 million specifically intended for workers caring for seniors.
Numerous renovations and building projects are also in the cards, including the planned Health Care Centre of Excellence in Winnipeg’s downtown, new emergency rooms in Eriksdale and at the Victoria Hospital, renovations to the ER at the Children’s hospital, a new CancerCare Manitoba headquarters, a mobile MRI unit for northern Manitoba, and personal care homes in Arborg, Lac du Bonnet, and Transcona.
The budget also lays out plans to fund the inclusion of Plan B in Manitoba’s free birth control program, funding to protect the Women’s Health Clinic’s safe abortion services, and an investment in health care for Manitobans going through menopause and perimenopause.
“I think this signals our government’s commitment to women’s health and supporting women here in Manitoba,” Sala said.
“This is an important time, maybe more important than ever to support women in this area.”
Health care remains a major concern for individual Manitobans as well.
Sarah Jane Martin, Winnipeg mother of a six-month-old, told 680 CJOB health care is top of mind, especially with a young child.
“The thing that I’m most concerned about is health care,” Martin said.
“If something goes wrong, there’s a crisis, you have to go to the ER… and with how congested the ER, is the wait times, sometimes it makes more sense to drive several hours to a rural hospital.”
Martin said she’s encouraged to hear about some of the province’s health-related development plans, particularly the new ER at Victoria Hospital, which will hopefully alleviate some of the congestion.
“I’m really happy to see there’s going to be an expansion of services,” she said.
“Especially post-COVID, someone coughing strikes a chord that it didn’t used to.”
Other highlights of the budget include numerous infrastructure investments, including $414 million toward the second phase of the North End water treatment plant in Winnipeg, as well as more than $800 million for both Manitoba Hydro and transportation infrastructure.
An additional $36.4 million is set to further develop the Port of Churchill over the next couple of years, plus development of northern rail lines.
On the education front, the budget calls for the creation of 11 new schools in the province over the next three years, including projects in Brandon, Radisson, West St. Paul, and a number in Winnipeg, including a new school in the Division Scolaire Franco-Manitobaine in the St. Boniface area.
And in honour of late education minister Nello Altomare, the creation of ‘Nello’s Law’ — aimed at ensuring kids across the province don’t go to school on an empty stomach, and at legislating the universal school food program so it becomes permanent and can’t be cut by future governments.
In order to boost in-province tourism, Manitoba is also making all provincial parks free to enter for the year, as well as providing $4.5 million to Travel Manitoba for efforts to market the province to potential visitors.
