Manitoba continues to struggle from pandemic, taxation policy
A ‘prosperity report’ based on key economic indicators shows Manitoba is struggling to deal not just with the impact of the pandemic turmoil, but with tax policies that hurt individual’s pocket books.
The sixth edition of the Manitoba Prosperity Report, compiled for the Manitoba Employers Council, found this province finished behind Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia in family taxes.
But taxation was just one of a number of economic indicators measured where Manitoba placed last.
“Improvements have occurred, however Manitoba continued to struggle in several areas,” the report released recently says. “In 11 of 33 indicators as compared to our closest neighbours, Manitoba finished at the bottom and in 6 of the other indicators, second last.
Manitoba finished last in several key areas, such as:
- GDP per-capita;
- Interprovincial migration;
- Family taxes;
- Average weekly earnings
“Manitobans have the lowest wages and the highest personal income taxes amongst all five provinces.
An individual earning $50,000 in employment income would save over $1,000 in income taxes alone if
they lived in Saskatchewan. For the other provinces the differential is even greater, reaching almost
$2,300 in British Columbia,” the report noted.
The report makes recommendations to the provincial government to deal with the economic issues, including the impact of Covid-19 shut-down. They include:
- Reduce the province’s debt load and eliminate the deficit;
- Reverse interprovincial migration losses;
- Increase post-secondary graduation rates;
- Increase rates of entrepreneurship;
- Further reduce red tape;
- Reduce personal income taxes through rate reductions and increasing tax brackets;
- Reduce and eventually eliminate the payroll tax
The Manitoba Employers Council (MEC), established in 1980, represents 24,000 individual employers and employer associations who collectively represent over 300,000 Manitoba jobs.
MEC represents Manitoba employers in employment matters such as labour relations, human resource
management, employment standards, workers compensation, and workplace safety and health.
