Premier Wab Kinew hinted on Thursday that the Manitoba government “might be asking the top one per cent” to help out more with education property taxes in the coming budget.

Kinew made the comment during an interview while discussing cost of living challenges and possible affordability measures in the March 24 budget.

“I don’t want to see people pay higher taxes,” Kinew told CBC Information Radio guest host Marjorie Dowhos.

“I think we’re going to have some help in the budget on the education property tax front, and we might be asking the top one per cent to help us out with that.”

A provincial spokesperson declined to provide more details ahead of the budget when asked by CBC News to clarify what the premier meant by the top one per cent — whether that indicates individual income, residential property value or corporate-owned property.

Fletcher Baragar, an associate professor of economics at the University of Manitoba, said it’s hard to know what the Kinew government might have in mind.

He suggested in all likelihood, the NDP have already costed out whatever budget item Kinew was alluding to, despite the scant detail provided Thursday.

“It sounds from the premier’s remarks … like there’s going to be a plan to sort of shift the incidence of taxes amongst the taxpaying population in Manitoba rather than maybe change the overall tax take,” Baragar said.

Baragar speculated that the premier’s comments may also hint at a possible “cost of living relief” for property owners, possibly through additional provincial support for property taxes, or maybe through rebates or other tweaks to the education property tax.

“That would of course reduce provincial tax revenues, and it sounds like the premier is then saying to offset the reduction of the tax take from the property taxes, there will be an increase in the tax take from the income taxes and especially the very top one per cent of income earners,” Baragar said.

“That would probably mean the imposition of a higher marginal tax rate at the very top of the income tax structure for Manitoba households.”

While he’s uncertain, he speculated it could affect households earning somewhere over $200,000 in annual income.

New NDP bills

Baragar said there’s been a “flattening” trend emerging in Manitoba and other provinces over the past few decades in terms of income tax and personal tax rates, “so that rather than a more steeply progressive income tax system,” there have been fewer tax brackets.

“If indeed we see a new high marginal tax rate at the top, that might be an indication of a slight reversal of that trend, and I think that that’s probably a good way to move forward,” Baragar said.

“Especially given the fact that incomes in general seem to be becoming more unequal across population,” a high-income tax bracket “might offset that to some degree.”

The NDP also introduced over a dozen bills during question period on Thursday, including legislation that would create harsher penalties for impaired drivers.

Another bill would enable physician assistants, nurse practitioners and clinician assistants to apply for the ability to detain people suffering from mental health crises — something they’re not presently permitted to do.

Bill 11, the Employment Standards Code Amendment Act, would end a requirement for sick notes from employees suffering short-term or minor illnesses that make them unable to work for six days. 

The Long-Bladed Weapon Control Amendment Act, Bill 8, would ban the sale of machetes from secondary online resalers and ban anyone from carrying such a weapon in a park and other public places.