Winners and losers in the Manitoba budget

WINNIPEG – Manitoba has tabled a deficit budget that borrows heavily from a dwindling rainy-day fund. A look at who wins and who loses:

WINNERS

Primary caregivers: Get a boosted tax credit for caring forvulnerable relatives at home.

Welfare recipients and low-income earners: Get an increase in rental assistance tied to market values.

Film production companies: Get an extension of a tax credit due to expire next year.

Small businesses: More of them will qualify for a venture capital tax credit.

Roads and bridges: More of them will be repaired as the government rolls out its five-year spending plan.

——

LOSERS

Smokers: Will have to pay another $1 in taxes on a carton of cigarettes.

Banks: Corporation capital tax is going up to six per cent from five per cent.

Rainy-day fund: Will have dwindled to $115 million after $105 million taken out to pay down debt and fund infrastructure. The fund contained $864 million in 2009.

Income taxpayers: Manitoba isn’t adjusting income tax brackets to match inflation

Black ink: Budget posts a $422-million deficit, virtually unchanged from last year, and puts off balancing the books until 2019.