Policy
Universal Basic Income
The Manitoba Greens would create and implement a Universal Basic Income program within two years.
This UBI would eliminate all existing means-tested provincial assistance programs, excluding Rent Assist.
In the first two years of the program, the UBI would be given to all those on existing assistance programs, and to those facing housing insecurity.
By year 3, we would open it up to all citizen, residents of Manitoba.
The UBI would be an opt-in, taxable guaranteed income.
Between $60-75k/year for families and $40-48.5k for individuals, the net benefit scales to $0 post-tax. The income tax threshold amount would be tied to CPI for inflation in addition to the benefit.
Open to all Manitoba residents over 18, or independant minors over 16.
How Many People would be theoretically eligible? 1089215 eligible adults
Benefit Amount(s) Max $1760/mo per individual.
180k people would have a net tax increase. Top 17% of wage earners in Manitoba.
Universal Child Benefit
Open to all children in Manitoba, under the age of 18. Independent minors receiving UBI cannot also receive the UCB.
$412.50/mo per child. Opt-in, Taxed as income on guardian’s taxes.
The benefit is tied to CPI & increases with inflation.
~300k monthly recipients.
Almost 20% of children in Manitoba live in low-income households LIM-AT (Stats Can)
Climate Action
System Change NOT Climate Change
The Government of Manitoba and the Federal Government need to work together to end our consumption of fossil fuels as soon as reasonably possible.
The provincial government should mandate rigorous environmental impact assessments of all projects that may cause significant environmental impacts or are of particular public interest.
Eliminate fossil fuel subsidies in Manitoba; this includes but is not limited to, simplifying the Manitoba Petroleum Fiscal Regime (MPFR) to apply royalties and taxes for every barrel of oil and every cubic metre of natural gas produced in Manitoba, removing incentives for oil and gas exploration within the Province, and eliminating the financial supports for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) within the Province.
Remove the exemption for fuel under the Fuel Tax Act, and apply PST to all fuels;
Ban hydraulic fracturing, aka fracking.
Ban silica sand mines.
Cancel all new oil exploration projects.
Phase out existing oil and gas operations so that they continue declining to terminate at the end of 2035.
We need to reform the Environment Act
We should also appoint Independent Scientific Experts to assess each resource extraction application and ongoing extraction to see if they are being operated to the benefit of Manitobans not American Corporations.
As your MLA, I will stand against ANY new resource extraction efforts in Manitoba
Education Reform
Education is the greatest way to engage in upward mobility.
Citizens Assembly on Educational Reform
While our traditional education system has served us well for two centuries, the rapid emergence and continuous evolution of new technologies necessitate the creation of a more advanced system that prepares students adequately for the future, lest we face a significant deficit in skills.
Engage with leading experts in the field of education to gather insights and opinions on innovative approaches.
Conduct extensive consultations with the residents of our province to ascertain their preferences and expectations regarding education.
To establish ourselves as a leading province in Canada for primary and secondary education, we must draw inspiration from successful models such as those in Finland, Korea, and China. By adopting the best practices from these systems, we can optimize our education system to deliver outstanding student outcomes.
Notably, other provinces in Canada have largely reduced funding for education, resulting in a lack of competitive educational offerings. Therefore, we have a unique opportunity to differentiate ourselves by investing in and enhancing our educational infrastructure.
Our efforts must begin with fundamental improvements, such as providing comprehensive technology training, expanding digital arts and creative education, and instating a language learning mandate.
It is imperative that our high school graduates possess bilingual proficiency (Any Second Language is acceptable, We should focus on Indigenous Languages), which can be achieved through a comprehensive language learning curriculum.
By implementing these reforms, we can foster a well-rounded education system that equips students with essential skills, nurtures their creativity, and prioritizes their safety and well-being.
Our province has a remarkable opportunity to lead the way in Canadian education, leaving behind the prevalent trend of underfunding and instead forging a path toward excellence.
Higher Education
All resident citizens should have access to higher education with no out-of-pocket costs for tuition and fees at Public Universities, Colleges and Technical Schools.
Free and subsidized education for those seeking employment in public education, healthcare or public service. We need more doctors, nurses and teachers, but we cannot expect them to be burdened with student debt after graduation.
Increased supports for International Students to entice them to stay in Manitoba after graduation.
Cancel All Provincially Held Student Aid Debt held by former students.
Primary & Secondary Schools
Primary and Secondary Schools need an overhaul. Schools should be centres of learning, the arts and athletics to help children gain the skills they need in the future.
We must increase funding to schools, eliminate school resource officers,
Mandating school divisions, in collaboration with Healthy Child Manitoba and parents/caregivers and the early childhood development community, to develop and implement early childhood education and development programming and initiatives.
We must incorporate employment and occupational health and safety classes into high school curricula, making them compulsory for minors before commencing work. This measure aims to ensure that individuals are well-informed about workplace safety regulations and their rights, which are often misrepresented by employers, inadequately enforced, and poorly understood.
Providing funding to school divisions for early childhood education and development programming and initiatives.
Promoting critical thinking habits would enable students to evaluate the reliability and accuracy of information sources, formulate rationally supported ideas, and communicate them clearly.
Centring the curriculum on participation in projects and problem-solving to incorporate diverse subject matter and teach various skills, with an ongoing emphasis on writing and arithmetic.
Free School Lunches for all students.
The Green Party of Manitoba supports all school divisions, in collaboration with teachers and school administrators, in developing annual professional development plans for teachers and school administrators.
Healthcare
We must fund our Public Healthcare system and ensure we have enough healthcare staff by offering better wages, working conditions and quality of care.
Provincialize for-profit, private Long Term Care Facilities so they are held to public scrutiny and democratic accountability.
Housing
Implement a Province-wide Housing First strategy to eliminate homelessness and reduce crime.
We must provide affordable housing for all Manitobans, to end homelessness, and make public housing available to all through subsidization or no-cost lease agreements with the provincial government following a combination of Austrian/Singapore lease/ownership structure.
The Province can and should use The Expropriation Act to ensure and acquire affordable housing when needed.
We must also make housing co-ops available and publicly funded to allow more Manitobans to own their housing without fear of eviction, price gouging, market instability, or inflation.
We must work to decommodify housing as soon as possible. Housing is a human right, and profiting from a necessity for survival, such as housing, is immoral.
Mandatory clean up and demolition/repair of derelict buildings and former building sites that suffered damage due to fire or other disasters that the owners have not cleaned up.
Province-Wide Rent Freeze should be put in place during the publicization of housing.
We will impose a rent freeze and cap, alongside the province investing in buying up existing properties and converting them to public housing.
We will keep the rent freeze in place until the province is building 1,000 new units of public housing a year.
Create a Housing First Strategy to fight homelessness at the source.
Free Public Transit
Institute a program of Universal Free Public Transit for all Manitobans for local trips.
Create an inter-city public transit system to connect those living outside of Winnipeg to the city and to each other in order to reduce our individual reliance on cars and fossil fuels.
Increase funding for the expansion of existing transit systems.
Labour Relations
Introduce a Bill on Sectoral Bargaining.
Revise the Employment Standards Act, the Labour Relations Act, and the Workers Compensation Act to align with human-centred economic prosperity and remove barriers to unionization, coops and worker-owned organizations.
Increase the Provincial minimum wage to $22/hour, and have it indexed directly to annual inflation.
Implement Mandatory Occupational Health and Safety training or classes for minors seeking work; offered by high schools, trade schools, and unions.
Full Employment should be guaranteed to all who want to work. We should create a new provincial crown corporation, Renew Manitoba. Each city and region should have an office where any person who wants temporary or permanent work can get it through the provincial government. The work would include trash cleanups, landscaping, city beautification and anything the local community needs. They would be managed locally, with funding coming from the province, but decisions on what work is done, at the local level. Every Manitoban has the right to a good-paying job. Why not put people to work, making their own communities a better, cleaner place to live.
2SLGBTQIA+ Issues
Education: Supports the freedom of speech and expression, as well as the freedom of information and the right to access that information, Against book bans
Human Rights: Remove Barriers to transitioning, removal of all gendered language from all bills, acts, and provincial identification
Human Rights: amending the Manitoba Human Rights Code to: specifically include “Intersex Characteristics” as an Applicable Characteristic for the purpose of defining discrimination; and expand the Applicable Characteristic “gender identity” to specifically include “gender expression, including preferred name, personal pronouns or honorifics, dress, hair, make-up, body language, and voice.”
Refugees: The Green Party of Manitoba supports the Manitoba government committing to developing dedicated safe spaces for 2SLGBTQIA+ refugees and housing at least 750 2SLGBTQIA+ refugees before 2028, equivalent to approximately 10% of the annual refugees received by Manitoba each year