Manitoba Finance Minister Adrien Sala delivers Budget 2026 at the legislature in Winnipeg on Tuesday. The budget includes a number of eye-catching promises to taxpayers.David Lipnowski/The Canadian Press
The Manitoba government has tabled its third budget in the red, projecting a $498-million deficit, as the province plans to spend significantly toward improving health care and offering tax cuts.
Describing it as a “progressive budget focused on helping the average Manitoban,” Finance Minister Adrien Sala said Tuesday’s plan for the 2026-27 fiscal year promises a slew of affordability measures to lower the cost of living. It also provides a path, he said, to bolster the provincial economy amidst increased geopolitical tensions and an inflationary environment.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, whose NDP government was elected in late 2023, had pledged repeatedly to balance the province’s budget, but his government has missed that target each year.
The forecast deficit for the 2025-26 fiscal year, ending next week, has now ballooned from $794-million predicted last spring to $1.67-billion, which Mr. Sala said is largely owing to the cost of fighting a record-breaking wildfire season last summer.
In 2026-27, overall revenue is projected to be $606-million lower than the 2025-26 period, with the province expecting to recover its deficit with about $5-billion in federal transfers, around 70 per cent more than Manitoba received five years ago.
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Still, pointing to a slide comparing Manitoba’s deficit to other provinces that have recently tabled budgets, Mr. Sala told reporters his government is “proud to deliver the lowest possible ratio” for deficit to gross domestic product in Canada.
Mr. Sala said, “looking across the country, there is no place I’d rather be today than Manitoba.”
So far this year, provincial governments have struggled to balance their budgets, with several projecting significant deficits in the coming year, including Quebec at $8.6-billion, Alberta at $9.4-billion and British Columbia at $13.3-billion.
In Ottawa, projections from the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer indicate the federal government is also not expected to balance its budget until 2040.
Mr. Sala said his NDP government is “fixing the messes left behind” by the Progressive Conservatives, and still plans to produce a balanced budget for the 2027-28 fiscal year, before next year’s October election.
Mr. Sala speaks to the media about Budget 2026. Manitoba has run deficits in every year but two since 2009.David Lipnowski/The Canadian Press
“There is no quick fix for seven years of cuts,” Mr. Sala said in his speech at the Manitoba Legislature, as he explained why Tuesday’s budget is projecting expenses to increase by 5.6 per cent from last year to reach $1.5-billion.
The largest portion of the province’s expenses will go toward health care, with spending for that department increasing by almost $1-billion from last year.
That includes $60.6-million for a new cancer-care centre; $36.5-million to expand electronic medical records in the province; $31.9-million to build a new emergency department at Winnipeg’s Victoria Hospital; $22.1-million to restore a cardiac centre at Winnipeg’s St. Boniface Hospital; and $5.2-million for a new Manitoba menopause clinic.
The province is also earmarking spending of about $223-million to recruit more doctors to Manitoba, with at least $6.3-million of that funding going toward adding more doctors in rural areas. Mr. Sala said details of the plan would be announced in the coming weeks.
Manitoba, where the Progressive Conservatives were in power from 2016 to 2023, has run deficits in every year but two since 2009.
Among the budget’s most eye-catching promises to taxpayers is the removal of the provincial sales tax from all food sold in grocery stores starting July 1. That includes items such as rotisserie chickens, soda, chips, prepared meals like salads, and even prenatal vitamins.
Mr. Sala said Manitoba is also putting aside some money, though he declined to cite a specific amount, toward free transit for children and youth from kindergarten to Grade 12, whom he called “the next, exciting generation of bus riders across the province.”
Manitoba PC Party Leader Obby Khan said the NDP can’t keep blaming the former government.
“They are three years in,” added Lauren Stone, PC finance critic, in a scrum with reporters. “This is their third budget, this deficit is theirs, and there is a load. They need to control their spending.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Sala said Manitoba is also budgeting another $10-million in provincial funding toward the expansion of the Port of Churchill in the Hudson Bay region, a trade corridor that he touted would let ships “reach Europe and India faster than the Port of Vancouver” upon completion.
Last year, after U.S. President Donald Trump launched a global trade war that has since dominated Canadian economic policy, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the expansion project. Together, the provincial and federal governments committed $262.5-million in November to co-ordinate efforts toward the planning and design of a strategy for the port.
“Manitoba’s economy is strong,” Mr. Sala told the legislature, pointing to venture capital investment increasing from $4-million in 2024 to $127-million in 2025.
“There’s more work to do, but we’ll get it done.”
Editor’s note: Based on incorrect information provided by Manitoba government officials during a media budget lockup, a previous version of this article said the province is projecting a deficit of $1.67-billion in the budget tabled Tuesday. Manitoba is projecting a deficit of $498-million for 2026-27, and says its 2025-26 deficit will reach $1.67-billion, the latter of which it had initially forecast to be $794-million last year.