·         Providing $297 million in new tax cuts including $119 million in personal income tax reductions, $49 million in education property tax relief and $93 million in business tax cuts.

·         Increasing the Education Property Tax Credit by $125 to $525 this year, saving Manitobans an additional $40 million annually.

·         Reducing farmland education taxes by $29 million by increasing the rebate to 65 per cent in 2007, up from 60 per cent in 2006 and the first step in a four-year plan to cut these taxes by 80 per cent.

·         Reducing personal income taxes by $119 million with tax cuts for all Manitobans, plus a plan to cut middle income taxes by 10 per cent over four years.

·         Reducing the middle income tax rate to 12.75 per cent and raising the income threshold to $66,000 (effective Jan. 1, 2008), the first step in a multi-year plan to increase the threshold to $70,000.

·         Lowering the first income tax rate to 10.5 per cent over four years and raising the income threshold to $35,000, starting January 2009.

·         Increasing the basic personal amount by $200 and increasing the spousal amount and eligible dependant amount by 24 per cent to match basic personal amount, providing extra relief for single income households and removing 6,000 low-income earners from the tax rolls.

·         Matching the federal pension income-splitting tax changes, saving pensioners an estimated $11 million each year.

 

·         Lowering business taxes by $93 million with new tax reductions.

·         Reducing the small business tax to two per cent in 2008 and one per cent in 2009—ensuring it stays among the lowest in Canada.  

·         Increasing the payroll tax threshold to $1.25 million, a 25 per cent increase, exempting 200 employers from the tax, while reducing it for 600 others. Less than five per cent of Manitoba employers pay this tax.

·         Reducing the general corporation income tax rate again to 13 per cent as of July 1, 2008, and 12 per cent as of July 1, 2009, from a Canadian high of 17 per cent in 1999.

·         Phasing out the general corporation capital tax beginning with a 20 per cent reduction
Jan. 1, 2008, and eliminating it by 2011.

·         Saving Manitobans $879 million by 2010 in personal income, property and business tax reductions compared to 1999.

 

·         Budget 2007 is the eighth balanced budget and the first summary budget in Manitoba’s history that fully reflects generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). 

·         This is the first government in 50 years to balance eight straight budgets.

·         It projects a summary surplus of $175 million while paying down debt and pension liabilities.

·         It makes a payment of $110 million to reduce debt and pay for pension liabilities, bringing the total payment over eight years to $814 million, the largest multi-year debt repayment ever in Manitoba.

·         It projects a balance of $477 million in the Fiscal Stabilization Fund at the end of 2006-07, drawing only the federal funds allocated for health wait-times reductions ($37 million) in 2007-08.

·         All tax changes effective after Dec. 31, 2008, are subject to balanced budget requirements.

 

·         Committing to a $104-million, multi-year plan for safe, secure and affordable housing with support from the federal Housing Trust, to focus on housing needs for Aboriginals, seniors, the inner city and northern Manitoba.

·         Implementing a Children’s Fitness Tax Credit to provide up to $132 in federal-provincial tax savings to help with the cost of registering children in physical activity programs.

·         Launching Rewarding Work, a four-year plan to help people achieve employment and higher incomes. 

·         Increasing by $25 the employment supports for single people, childless couples and people with disabilities.

·         Providing a new Manitoba Child Benefit for low-income working families with children.  

·         Introducing a new Manitoba benefit to complement the recently-announced federal Working Income Tax Benefit which supports low income families making the transition to work.

·         Providing more than $48 million in new resources for child protection services.

·         Providing new funding of more than $9.5 million for immigration, with support from the federal government for settlement services, language training, labour market integration, and ethno-cultural and anti-racism initiatives.

·         Expanding the Healthy Baby program.

·         Enhancing positive parenting programs and supporting parent-child coalitions.

·         Providing more than $7.5 million for provincial programming related to fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

·         Investing more than $14 million in early learning and child care to backfill the withdrawal of federal funds.  

·         Replacing handi-transit vehicles with support from the federal Public Transit Capital Trust.

·         Providing $2 million annually to increase the income supplement for those age 55 and older for low-income seniors.

·         Providing more resources for community agencies that support women and children who experience family violence.

·         Funding of $18 million more for supported living for persons with disabilities.

·         Adding $1.8 million for children’s special services.

 

·         Increasing the investment in highways by 50 per cent, bringing the annual investment close to $400 million as outlined in the five-year, $2-billion provincial plan.

·         Purchasing up to 21 additional snowplows to assist with sanding and snow removal on Manitoba’s 19,000 kilometres of highways.

·         Investing $33 million for infrastructure through cost-shared agreements with municipalities and the federal government for projects such as Winnipeg’s waste-water and treatment upgrade, a new wellness facility in Swan River and YM/YWCA facilities in Brandon and Winnipeg.

·         Securing a 50-50 funding partnership with the federal government for the ongoing expansion of the Red River Floodway.

  

·         Installing a new leading-edge, non-invasive cancer knife – the first in Canada – to treat cancers in all parts of the body.

·         Investing more to reduce wait times for quality-of-life procedures such as hip and knee surgeries and diagnostic tests.

·         Funding a new state-of-the-art cardiac centre at St. Boniface General Hospital

·         Continuing to train more health-care professionals by expanding to 100 the faculty of medicine class, adding 25 spaces for the licensing program for international medical graduates, adding 50 new technologists training seats and supporting 3,000 nurses in training. 

·         Providing $3 million in new funding for physician specialist training and training for key medical positions including emergency room doctors, oncologists and pediatricians.

·         Supporting a new Manitoba Firefighters Burn Unit at the Health Sciences Centre.

·         Building a new personal care home in Neepawa.

·         Constructing a new, permanent hospital to replace the existing building in Selkirk.

·         Building a new ACCESS centre in northwest Winnipeg.

·         Funding two new teen clinics in rural and northern Manitoba.

·         Providing new resources for a suicide prevention framework.

·         Providing $2.5 million in new funding to address sexually-transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS through a provincial strategy.

 

·         Introducing a new 10 per cent Green Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit to encourage new and expanded manufacturing in Manitoba’s renewable energy sectors.

·         Continuing support to build hydro for the future with a renewed power sale to Wisconsin Public Service Corporation.

·         Investing more than $10 million in additional funds to support water protection initiatives, improve water management and flood protection, and implement the recommendations of the Lake Winnipeg Stewardship Board.

·         Providing support for new climate change legislation that will set out goals to reduce greenhouse gases while contributing to economic development and protecting the environment.

·         Paying a $2,000 rebate to support Manitobans who buy hybrid electric vehicles.

·         Supporting the provision of loans of up to $20,000 by Manitoba Hydro to encourage the installation of geothermal heat pumps and offering a reduced interest rate of 4.9 per cent for the first five years of borrowing.

·         Restoring 50-50 funding partnership with $12.6 million in capital funding (with support of the federal Public Transit Capital Trust) to support affordable and accessible transit systems in Winnipeg, Brandon, Thompson and Flin Flon.

·         Supporting First Nations’ efforts to secure a UNESCO world heritage designation for the east side of Lake Winnipeg and to develop resource management boards for sustainable land and resource training.

 

·         Providing a $30.3-million increase for public schools, the largest increase in almost 20 years.

·         Committing to a new plan to increase provincial funding to 80 per cent of total public schools education expenditures.

 ·         Implementing the 60 per cent tax rebate on tuition fees for all post-secondary graduates who live and work in Manitoba.

·         Maintaining the 10 per cent tuition reduction for the eighth year in a row.

·         Enriching support to universities and colleges by providing an average funding increase of seven per cent.

·         Funding to support Aboriginal academic achievement, special needs education, supports for newcomers and for French as a second language.

·         Supporting the University College of the North and ACCESS programs.

·         Providing $2 million for Manitoba graduate scholarships.

·         Investing $8.2 million for Manitoba bursaries to help make education accessible.

·         Providing $2 million for key training and skills priorities including apprenticeship training and other critical skills shortages.

 

·         fighting crime with 30 additional police officers, and providing additional support for police in schools and after-school programming for kids

·         Doubling support to $800,000 for the Manitoba Integrated Organized Crime Task Force to tackle gang activity and drug-trafficking.

·         Committing new funds to the province’s crystal meth strategy.

·         Creating a specialized unit to handle child exploitation cases including a dedicated Crown attorney.

·         Expanding Neighbourhoods Alive! to five more communities: Dauphin, Flin Flon, The Pas, Portage la Prairie and Selkirk.

·         Expanding the Lighthouses program to 50 sites around the province.

·         Expanding the Turnabout Program for children under 12 who come into conflict with the law.

·         Providing more support to help shut down drug, sniff and prostitution houses.

·         Extending the successful Front End Project that helps the courts handle domestic violence cases quicker, to apply to youth matters and non-domestic violence cases.

·         Supporting the renewal of the Manitoba Museum.

·         Funding capital improvements at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

·         Matching the private funds raised by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet for new ballet creations.

·         Funding new public libraries in Selkirk, the RM of Swan River and the RM of Alexander.

·         Creating a new holiday in February.

·         Funding for more workplace safety and health officers.

·         Expanding facilities at Birds Hill campground.

 

·         Increasing funding support for Winnipeg by 18.3 per cent or $29.1 million, which includes $21 million for road improvements, part of a two-year commitment to invest $50 million in Winnipeg roads and bike routes.

·         Providing funding for 14 additional police officers including five for the Stolen Auto Unit to deal with repeat offenders.

·         Funding for three additional Winnipeg police officers for the School Resource Officer Program at Gordon Bell, Hugh John Macdonald, Kelvin, Grant Park and Churchill schools and surrounding areas.