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MANITOBA VOTES 2007

Features Election Promises Wendy Sawatzky for CBC Online News | Updated May 18, 2007 Lower taxes. Better roads. More doctors, more police officers, more money in your pocket … the pledges and promises are thick on the ground this election campaign. If you're having trouble keeping track of who's vowed to do what, here's a review of what the three major parties have said they'd do if voters choose them to lead the province on May 22. The NDP have promised to… The PCs have pledged to… The LIBERALS have vowed to…

The NDP have promised to… Spend $1.5 million to help rural and northern school divisions provide additional support for students with learning disabilities. Build a new centre for children with special needs and disabilities, to replace the existing Rehabilitation Centre for Children. Build a new ACCESS health centre in west Winnipeg to provide primary health care as well as a range of other social, employment and community programs. Not undertake hydroelectric development on the east side of Lake Winnipeg. Build a new heavy equipment training centre at Red River College at a cost of $15 million, which was already provided for in the province's 2007 budget. Establish a new capital improvement fund of $250,000 per year over four years for Indian and Métis Friendship Centres across Manitoba. Provide new funding for 2,500 child-care spaces over two years. Set up a $1 million training and recruitment fund for early childhood educators. Increase operating grants to day cares to fund a six-per-cent salary increase for workers — three per cent in each of 2008 and 2009. Expand a community-based intravenous therapy site at the ACCESS Transcona site in east Winnipeg, allowing 130 patients requiring IV antibiotic treatment to receive it there, rather than at an emergency room. Create as many as 16 new libraries through $10,000 start-up grants — six on First Nations and up to 10 others. The changes would ensure 95 per cent of Manitobans have access to libraries, up from 83 per cent now. Provide books to parents of each newborn in Manitoba through the Reading for Life early literacy program.

Spend $3.6 million to renovate the Ste. Anne Hospital to increase operating space and double the number of surgeries and diagnostic tests performed each year, to 320 and 360, respectively. Spend $2 million to upgrade parks and campgrounds, by providing more electrical campsites and more yurts, extending 911 service to Duck Mountain and Hecla, and renovating buildings to be more energy and water efficient, including new design features such as solar-heated showers, low-flow water fixtures and green building materials. Provide $500,000 in new funding to the Film and Television Production Equity Investment program run by Manitoba Film and Sound, and $100,000 to the National Screen Institute for the New Voices and Storytellers aboriginal film training programs. Provide $200,000 in new funding to Manitoba Film and Sound and the Manitoba Audio Recording Industry Association for touring and marketing support for local recording artists. Double support for the Urban Arts Program to $400,000 annually to support music, theatre, performing and visual arts programming in cities. Introduce legislation creating a new protected areas designation, which would encourage communities on the east side of Lake Winnipeg to implement their land-use plan and continue working toward the creation of a UNESCO World Heritage site, while permanently protecting Poplar-Nanowin Rivers Park Reserve. Make 1,000 new cottage lots available to Manitobans. Expand the province's home-care program to ensure 2,000 more people can live independently in their own homes. Introduce a $1,020 tax credit for family caregivers and provide low-interest loans for needed renovations to assist families who want to care for their loved ones. Create 1,100 new long-term care spaces in Winnipeg and more than 650 spaces in rural and northern Manitoba through the "aging in place" plan. Increase the number of active apprenticeship training spaces by 4,000 over the next four years. Introduce a new, 40 per cent tax credit (worth $2 million) for the new media sector, including video games, computer animation, web development, visual effects, and music and sound processing. Double the uptake in Manitoba’s Co-operative Education Tax Credit, which supports employers who hire students. Build a $40-million centre of excellence for maternal care at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, providing more beds in all areas. Build a $3.5-million birthing centre in south Winnipeg, including a community-birthing centre run by the Women's Health Clinic, with midwives and doula services. Spend $2 million to renovate and expand the maternity ward at St. Boniface General Hospital. Spend $40 million from the province's $54-million share in the ecoTrust fund to support initial planning and development of an east-west hydroelectric grid. Eliminate the small business tax by 2010, in co-operating with the federal government. Set up a new MRI machine at Children's Hospital in Winnipeg, dedicated to children's care. Establish a new clinic at Children's Hospital to expand the province's asthma and allergy program. Modernize the cardiac catherization lab at Children's Hospital to include "the latest equipment used in detecting kids' heart problems." Establish a five per cent mandate for biodiesel by 2010 for school buses, government fleet vehicles, agricultural vehicles and the trucking industry. Create a $1-million biodiesel development fund to support additional biodiesel projects. Create a $500,000 community wind power fund to help communities set up monitors to determine local wind strength. Create a new provincewide Farmers Eco-Fund to support producers who implement practices such as wetland preservation. Reduce education taxes on farmland by 70 per cent in 2008, 75 per cent in 2009 and 80 per cent in 2010. Increase the conditional grants to 15 from 10 for vets who commit to practise in rural Manitoba. Add 50 new firefighters: 20 more for Winnipeg, four more each in Brandon, Thompson and Portage la Prairie, and

18 more forest firefighters. Double the training funding for municipalities that rely on volunteer fire departments. Hire 100 new doctors over the next four years. Add 10 new spaces at the U of M School of Medicine, increasing the number of spaces to 110, from 100. Also add 10 new spaces to the International Medical Graduate program, increasing the total spaces to 35 from 25. Provide rural and northern doctors with a “guaranteed getaway” by establishing a dedicated, $1-million support fund to fill vacancies when doctors need relief. Introduce new scholarships for aboriginal medical students at the U of M. The annual scholarships would provide $7,000 each to six aboriginal students. Provide $1.8 million over three years to the Winnipeg Trails Association (WTA) to help develop 32 kilometres of trail across Winnipeg, including portions that make up the Manitoba stretch of the Trans-Canada Trail. Hire dedicated pharmacists for 10 ERs - seven in Winnipeg and one in each of Brandon, Thompson and Selkirk - to help doctors and nurses better deal with the large number of medication-related ER visits. Establish a free-standing Mental Health Crisis Response Centre next to Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre to provide specialized care for up to 10,000 mental-health patients who visit traditional ERs each year. Add five clinical assistant positions to Grace Hospital’s emergency room in a pilot project to better support ER doctors. Establish community teaching sites at Grace, Seven Oaks, Concordia and Victoria General hospitals for a new ER program being established at the University of Manitoba. Increase the number of ER doctor training seats to 13 from five. Add 20 new workplace safety and health inspectors, bringing the total to 74, and dedicate one of the inspectors to rural Manitoba. Buy a new, state-of-the-art Amphibex ice-breaking machine. Introduce a WaterSmart program that would eliminate the PST on Energy Star water-saving appliances, provide rebates for consumers who buy low-flow bathroom fixtures, provide loans for the improvement of private water or waste systems, and provide rebates for Energy Star dishwashers, front-load washers and tankless water heaters. Hire 100 new police officers: 50 for Winnipeg, five for Brandon, 30 RCMP to serve rural Manitoba, and 15 for First Nations communities. Hire 20 new prosecutors. Double the size of the Turnabout program for youth who can’t be charged under the Young Offenders Act. Double funding to $60 million over four years for community-based sports and recreation facilities, including giving the Southdale Recreation Association one-third of the funding for a new recreation centre. Join the private sector-led team that’s leading the charge to build or redevelop the football stadium. Add 700 new nurses and nurse practitioners over the next four years, including 250 nurses for personal care homes. Hire 100 new health care aides and 50 new front-line professionals — such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists, clinical dieticians and others — to work in personal care homes. Increase nurse training by adding 100 new spaces at training institutes around the province. Add seven new seats at the graduate school at the University of Manitoba School of Nursing to increase the number of qualified professional instructors. Introduce legislation that would ensure Manitoba meets its Kyoto targets by 2012. Reduce Manitoba Hydro’s use of coal. Create a vehicle efficiency standard, to be recommended by a vehicle advisory board, which would include incentives to deal with older vehicles. Require the capture of emissions from large landfills. Establish a new code for efficiency for new buildings. Develop a plan to switch off-grid communities to renewable energy. Provide incentives for farmers to undertake projects that reduce emissions.

Launch a First Sports program to provide community centres and recreation associations with grants of $6,500 to fund team uniforms, sporting gear, and groundskeeping and icekeeping equipment. Invest at least an additional $2.4 million (for a total investment of at least $3.2 million) in a new health and fitness centre in Brandon. Increase the education property tax credit by $300: to $525 in 2007, $625 in 2008 and $700 in 2009. Provide annual funding increases to school divisions above the rate of economic growth to help the province reach the 80-per-cent mark for education funding. Provide annual grants and proposed budgets to school division earlier in the budgeting process, to allow them better up-front planning.

The Conservatives have pledged to… Guarantee that pensions for retired teachers receive a cost-of-living adjustment that is two-thirds of the annual increase to the consumer price index. Amend the Teachers' Pensions Act to ensure a permanent seat for a retired teacher on the Teachers Retirement Allowances Fund board. Redevelop Winnipeg's downtown through a long-term plan that includes rapid transit, bike trails, more lump-sum funding for municipalities and financial incentives for redevelopment. Explore the idea of turning the South Point Douglas area into a hip urban village to be called "The Point," with affordable housing, a community boardwalk to The Forks and an urban park with a beach and marina on a manmade lake. Keep costs for new sewage treatment systems down by focusing on removing phosphorous, instead of both phosphorous and nitrogen. Revamp the province's funding arrangement with municipalities and the federal government on major environmental projects. The party envisions a 40-35-25 split for federal, provincial and municipal funding, respectively, which would lessen the financial burden on municipalities. Set up a science council to offer advice on long-term strategies for the health of Lake Winnipeg. Provide matching grants to help rural communities phase out the use of propane- or diesel-powered ice-cleaning equipment in favor of cleaner alternatives, such as electrically powered machinery. Supplement existing Manitoba Hydro low-interest loan incentives to help communities convert recreation centres and arenas to geothermal heating and cooling. Appoint a task force, within 30 days of taking office, to examine challenges facing post-secondary institutions and determine what investments and reforms are needed to turn them around. The task force will report back with recommendations by March 2008. Double funding to the Manitoba Scholarship and Bursary Initiative to $10 million per year. Allow professional and graduate post-secondary faculties to increase their fees following a student referendum in support of a fee increase. Continue to move forward on post-secondary expansion projects already planned and underway, including the relocation of Assiniboine Community College and the expansion of University College of the North. Establish a "caring for cancer 2020" task force, chaired by the health minister and including oncologists, health professionals, cancer survivors and CancerCare Manitoba officials, to prepare a cancer-care strategy and implementation plan by March 2008. Double the number of Manitobans screened for colorectal cancer. Increase funding by $10 million to CancerCare Manitoba for cancer drugs, particularly Avastin. Spend $1 million on a digital mammography machine, including staffing costs. Provide $250,000 for "A Port in the Storm," a charity that plans to provide accommodations for rural Manitobans receiving cancer treatments in Winnipeg. Fund the HPV vaccination program, as already planned. Spend $4 million on the Manitoba Health Research Council's research strategy.

Create a $5 million family physician fund, to be used to increase hours for family practices and walk-in clinics. Double the bonuses paid by the specialist recruitment fund in an attempt to address a shortage of emergency-room doctors. The fund provides $15,000 to specialists recruited to Manitoba from outside the province, according to an April 2006 report. Double number of nurse practitioners in Manitoba from 30 to a minimum of 60. Establish "acute admission units" in Winnipeg hospitals, beginning with the Grace and Victoria Hospitals. Establish additional Program of Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) teams in Winnipeg and Brandon to support people with mental illnesses. Grant self-regulation to the profession of paramedicine in Manitoba, expand the scope of practice for paramedics, and address delays in ambulance offloading. Implement an emergency room wait-time monitoring program, first at the Grace Hospital, to publicly report on wait times. Under the plan, patients and their families would know how long they should expect to wait based on their case assessments. Increase the payroll tax exemption threshold to $2 million, up from $1.25 million, by 2011. Eliminate the small business income tax by 2010. Eliminate the corporation capital tax by 2010. Reduce the general corporate income tax rate to 12 per cent in 2009. Cut "red tape" by 25 per cent in four years, to save Manitoba businesses $75 million annually. Develop a Manitoba Hydro electricity transmission line from northern Manitoba along the east side of Lake Winnipeg, using a transparent planning process that includes consultation with affected communities. Introduce legislation that would require regulated professions in Manitoba to implement processes that recognize immigrants' credentials based on equivalent education, training and skill levels. The processes would clearly identify education and skill requirements, application steps and expected time and cost to process applications. Develop an internship program to provide new immigrants with Manitoba work experience. Replace some of the conditional grants that municipalities receive from the province with one-half a percentage point of the provincial sales tax, to be used the way civic officials see fit. Charge no Manitoba Public Insurance deductibles for theft or attempted theft of vehicles with approved immobilizers. End Manitoba Public Insurance accident benefits for car thieves. Amend the Legal Aid Act to deny legal aid to people who have been previously convicted of charges including participating in a criminal organization and drug trafficking, and charges related to the proceeds of crime. Strengthen legal aid's audit union to allow it to trace gang assets. Provide 25 officers to the city's organized crime unit. Hire 25 probation and bail officers to conduct round-the-clock checks to make sure their charges are obeying the conditions of their release Require hospitals to report all gun and stab wounds to police. Label gang activity a "public nuisance" to give police more power to shut it down. Allow community impact statements to be used in gang- and gun-related cases. Hire two judges to deal quickly with gang- and gun-related offences. Build a partnership with the private sector to help bring an NHL franchise to Winnipeg, and provide capital and operating support to such a team, possibly through government bonds, lotteries, and/or a players' tax. Cut school property taxes by 50 per cent for home and cottage owners over six years, and by 2009 for seniors. Eliminate school taxes on farmland by 2009. Legislate a freeze of all education taxes, including those on commercial properties, to strip school boards of their ability to raise taxes. Create a Premier’s First Nations and Aboriginal Issues Council to examine the social and economic health of First Nations and aboriginal people in Manitoba. McFadyen said he would "personally chair all council meetings."

Increase the basic personal tax exemption by $600, eliminate the middle tax bracket, and lower the new lowincome tax rate to 10.5 per cent, all by 2011. Index tax brackets and some tax credits to inflation to eliminate "bracket creep," starting in 2010. Put the Portage District Regional Hospital back on the province's list of future capital projects. Establish an Agricultural Centre of Excellence, cost-shared with the federal government and the private sector, to bring together experts on grains and oilseeds, and commit up to $20 million toward the estimated $73 million cost of the centre. Create a Value-Added Secretariat to promote Manitoba’s emerging bio-economy. Revise the lending and insurance formulas under the Young Farmer Program in a new Beginning Farmers Program. Add a rural component to the province's immigration policy. Dedicate two per cent of profits from the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission to expand prevention, diagnosis and treatment of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Based on 2006 figures, about $4.8 million would be diverted to the "Fresh Future" fund annually. Provide funding to reopen or create 100 new residential drug treatment beds, focusing on underserved regions, including Brandon and the North. Establish a youth intervention centre to provide troubled youth with structured, supervised programs that would teach them responsibility, anger management and give them social and employment skills. Construct a state-of-the-art birthing centre, a midwifery training program, and a provincewide perinatal program. Abolish the $2-per-head cattle tax. Provide a rebate equivalent to a three-percentage-point reduction of the provincial sales tax on the purchase of fuelefficient vehicles. Set up at least one emissions testing station to allow Manitobans to determine the impact of their cars on the environment. Introduce a "legacy act" that would require unanimous consent of all 57 members of the Manitoba legislature on any bill related to the sale of Manitoba Hydro. Control bureaucratic growth at the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority by auditing the authority's books and holding bureaucratic spending to 3 per cent of the overall budget. Reduce the provincial sales tax by one percentage point. Spend up to $3 million to support the creation of a covered fourplex soccer facility in south Winnipeg. Begin consultations to allow Brandon greater control over its own affairs, including land-use decisions, tax exemptions for economic growth, business improvement zones and licences. Build a 300-cell, $70-million jail for men, with specialized programming for convicts battling addictions. Reinstate a funding agreement between the Province of Manitoba and the Manitoba Jockey Club (MJC), guaranteeing 75 per cent of net VLT revenues will be returned to the MJC and be reinvested into Assiniboia Downs. Establish a "schools of excellence" program under which schools meeting certain criteria - in areas such as student performance, special-needs programming, attendance, community service, parent councils - would be eligible to receive additional provincial funding from a $10-million fund. Establish a College of Professional Teachers, responsible for teachers’ education standards, licensing and oversight, which will be cost neutral for teachers. Implement standards tests and three stages during kindergarten to Grade 12 math and language arts programs. Results of standards tests will be worth no more than 10 per cent of a student's final grade. Results for individual students will be available to parents, and summary results will be used by administrators; otherwise, results will not be published. Establish a provincewide report card system with clear, measurable criteria. Strengthen the "schools of choice" policy by ensuring resources follow the student to their school of choice, giving schools more incentive to attract students to their classrooms. Eliminate the provincial sales tax from purchases of bicycles. Spend $3 million over the next five years towards the City of Winnipeg’s plan to create a network of bike paths.

Create a new Department of Public Safety - separate from the Department of Justice – that would focus on policing, public safety programs, public security measures, victims' services, correctional services and rehabilitative opportunities for offenders. Require all provincial court judge nominees to face an interview process, in full public view, before they’re hired. The interview, conducted publicly by a legislative committee, would test their qualifications, views on law and on the role of judges. Include representatives from both police and victims’ organizations in the process to nominate provincial court judges. Hire six new judges and two case managers. Increase the budget to the courts by 25 per cent over the first two years of a Tory mandate. Add 150 new uniformed officers for the City of Winnipeg over four years. Hire 10 new police officers for Brandon, particularly to combat gang issues in the city. Add 30 new officers to the RCMP. Hire 50 new support staff and criminal analysts. Create a special "crime corridor" unit to complement the RCMP consisting of 32 specially trained sheriffs to patrol Manitoba's deadliest highways. Require all government fleet vehicles to use biofuels. Provide low-interest loans to assist in the development of biodiesel production facilities. Maintain the fuel tax exemptions on biofuel products. Create a Police College and Recruitment Centre to train municipal bylaw enforcement officers, special constables, sheriffs, municipal policing, as well as private security and resource officers. Use special constables in schools under the direction of a Safe Schools Police Unit. The officers would have specific training in emergency preparedness and conflict resolution. Conduct a review of the Provincial Police Act to incorporate minimum training standards for police and special constables. Allow cameras in courtrooms. Implement a guaranteed increase in unit funding to child-care centres of two per cent annually for each of the next five years. Invest $3 million over two years for new child-care spaces. Invest $3 million in capital funding for the expansion and creation of child care facilities. Hire 25 new prosecutors and "beef up" salaries.

The Liberals have vowed to… Make the installation of low-flow faucets and toilets mandatory in new construction. Implement a ban on winter spreading of human and animal waste. Set up a fund to help small- and medium-sized businesses with startup costs and research on new products and services. Reduce personal income taxes to help Manitoba companies attract workers. Increase research and development investments to bring Manitoba up to or above the Canadian average. Legislate an enforceable "patients' bill of rights" to guarantee timely access to health care, as set by a medical standards quality council. Authorize an an enforcement office with the ability to send patients to other jurisdictions for immediate care if they don't receive treatment within a mandated time. Remove "bracket creep" from the provincial Pharmacare deductible system to ensure drug costs remain affordable.

Work to reduce wait times for cataract surgery from the 15-week average currently experienced in Winnipeg. Speed up the drug-approval process. Double the funds available to low-income seniors under the Shelter Allowance For Elderly Renters (SAFER) program, an increase of $1.7 million. Increase the funds available to low-income seniors under the 55 PLUS income supplement program by 50 per cent and streamline the program’s application process, at a cost of $2.2 million. Commit to fair cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) to the pension plans of retired teachers and retired health-care workers. Expand Community Youth Justice Committees across the province. Use electronic GPS ankle bracelets to track offenders. Deter car thieves by banning repeat offenders from receiving a driver’s licence for life. Create a "network of care" to support people with mental illnesses and mental disabilities, with affordable outpatient housing, social and employment assistance, and assertive community treatment. Overhaul the Manitoba Mental Health Act. Improve emergency room resources to deal with mental-health crises and provide enhanced initial assessment training for ER nurses and doctors. Improve mental-health education in Manitoba schools and emphasize mental wellness through diet, exercise, sunlight, and community support. Spend up to $2.5 million to implement the economic development measures outlined in the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce’s report "Selling Winnipeg to the World." Reinstate up-front grants and bursaries for stay-in-Manitoba students, and create a bursary fund for low-income students to ensure that no student is barred from access to post-secondary education for financial reasons. Provide free transit passes for university students. Increase core funding to universities and community colleges, investing in new technology, libraries and infrastructure. Limit annual increases in tuition, ancillary fees, and other campus fees to the annual rate of inflation for all postsecondary students, including graduate and international students. Create a blame-free reporting system in the medical field, and establish a provincial Medical Procedure Improvement Team to ensure action is taken to prevent recurrences of medical errors and critical incidents. Invest in new information technology and electronic networks to improve provincial consistency in patient records and communication between family physicians and acute and long-term care facilities. Legislate an Apology Act modeled on that of British Columbia that will help reduce the pressure on health-care workers to deny or hide medical errors and critical incidents for fear of legal repercussions. Create best practice networks among family physicians to improve procedures and reduce errors. Create province-wide multidisciplinary specialist care teams to set province-wide best practices and standards for preventing health problems and for care. Make it easier and faster for new Manitobans to gain accreditation in their trained occupations. Build an alternative water treatment facility for the City of Winnipeg that would save taxpayers $600 million over the NDP's plan. Ban phosphorous from dishwasher detergents in Manitoba. Put an environmental levy on cosmetic fertilizers, with the money spent on cleaning up Manitoba lakes. Commit additional provincial funding for improved transit to downtown Brandon based on discussions with the City of Brandon and Brandon Transit in the first 90 days of a Liberal government. Increase transit ridership by further reducing fares for seniors and post-secondary students. Explore the option of working with the City of Brandon, Brandon University, Assiniboine Community College (ACC), Brandon Chamber of Commerce, and Westman businesses to turn the former ACC site into a business incubator. Provide an additional $3 million to child-care facilities to hire 100 new child-care workers.

Spend $3.2 million to give every existing child-care worker in Manitoba a $1,000 raise in annual salary. Provide a $3 million facility upgrade and renovation fund for physical improvements to child care sites across the province. Double the provincial Child Related Income Supplement for low income families from $30 per month to $60 per month. Screen all children who enter Child and Family Services care for fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and other medical conditions in order to adapt the fostering so the child receives the best care possible. Enhancing the training and remuneration for certified foster parents. Extending the "aging out" of children in care from 16-18 to 16-21 using an improved transitional period where care is gradually reduced and not immediately cut-off. Implement a Foster Child Tutoring and Mentoring Program to help increase foster childrens’ chances for successful completion of high school. Measure outcomes for children in care on an ongoing basis and use the information to facilitate continuous improvements to the foster care system. Expand Manitoba Hydro's mandate to include co-operative work with the province’s private sector to develop other forms of energy such as wind, bio-diesel, geo-thermal and solar. Establish a public commission into the future of Manitoba Hydro to conduct a grassroots public review of the future direction of Manitoba Hydro and how the public utility can best serve Manitobans in the future. Screen all government appointments to Manitoba Hydro’s board of directors by a review committee of the Manitoba legislature to ensure the highest-quality people are selected as board members. Expand Western Manitoba’s successful Alternate Land Use Services (ALUS) pilot program provincewide within four years.The ALUS program currently pays farmers in the rural municipality of Blanchard for maintaining or enhancing lands that provide environmental services, including water, wildlife conservation and carbon dioxide sequestration. Provide a partial subsidy for testing biodiesel quality. Establish a provincewide specialist network for bone and joint care that reports directly to the province. The network would set provincial standards for care, and co-ordinate call and operating schedules throughout Manitoba. Create a dedicated police unit to help protect sexually exploited children in Manitoba. Provide 24-hour on-site security patrols and fully working closed-circuit television monitoring for all Manitoba Housing facilities. Provide funding for optional meal, exercise and health programs for Manitoba Housing tenants. Hire six new investigators under the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act to crack down on drug dealing and gang-related activity in publicly subsidized housing complexes. Make up to half the interest on mortgage payments tax deductible for first-time homeowners. End the wait lists to get into Red River College. Commit $75 million in immediate provincial funding for high-speed transit, including the option of light rail, based on discussions with the City of Winnipeg, in the first 90 days of a Liberal government. Increase transit ridership, starting in the first year with free transit passes on weekends for seniors and postsecondary students and reduced fares for seniors and post-secondary students on weekdays. Require large industrial hog plants and other malodorous operations to be located outside of municipal limits. Direct new Manitoba Housing facilities be built using a mixed-income co-operative model with both publicly subsidized units and open-market-value units available to co-operative residents. Give Manitoba Housing tenants the option of using their housing allowance under social assistance to "buy in" to co-operative housing as a resident-owner. Increase provincial investment in the renovation and preventative maintenance of existing Manitoba Housing facilities to $100 million for those facilities that establish a business plan to move towards greater tenant management and/or co-operative ownership. Guarantee same-day access to a family doctor. Work with family doctors to develop a provincewide electronic medical communication network for medical records.

Develop a provincewide application of the Seine River School Division’s senior year apprenticeship program model. Implement a customized "Pathways to Education" program for the high schools that have the top 10 dropout rates in the province. Ensure Advanced Placement programs are available to students in every school division. Move toward having the provincial government fund 80 per cent of the cost of public education, with the remaining 20 per cent coming from school taxes on property — a change from the 60-40 split currently in effect. Make Manitoba a "have" province — so that it does not receive federal equalization payments — by 2020. Phase out the payroll tax over the term of a Liberal government. Establish an Enterprise Incubator Fund that would assist small and medium-sized businesses with initial start-up costs while minimizing risk to the public accounts. Call a public inquiry into the collapse of the Crocus Investment Fund.

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More Manitoba Votes Headlines » NDP wins historic 3rd majority in Manitoba Manitoba NDP Leader Gary Doer has led his party to a historic third majority government in the province's 39th general election, taking 36 of 57 seats. PCs win 19 seats, lose ground from 2003 The Progressive Conservatives won 19 out of 57 ridings Tuesday — a drop of one seat from 2003. Liberals hold 2 seats Voters denied the Liberals official party status on Tuesday, although the party held its two existing seats. Greens make slight gains The Green party's dreams of a breakthrough quickly wilted on Tuesday night. 16 cabinet ministers re-elected, one loses nailbiter Sixteen members of Premier Gary Doer's former NDP cabinet in Manitoba were re-elected Tuesday, but Trade Minister Scott Smith lost the riding of Brandon West in a squeaker. more »

Manitoba Votes Features

FEATUREElection Promises The pledges and promises are thick on the ground this election campaign.

FEATUREThree's A Charm?

Winning a third majority government ain't easy.

FEATUREBy the Numbers Statistics on voter turnout and election history

INTERACTIVESeats of Power Interactive view of the legislative assembly

CBC ARCHIVESDuff to Doer Friendly Rivalries: Manitoba Elections, 1966 to 1999

YOUR VIEWJoin our election discussion Send us your comments.

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