"Who decides where that $300,000 goes?" Hiebert left with questions after Province tops up Green Team funding

The Opposition MLA for Morden-Winkler still has some questions about the provincial Green Team funding program.
    
This, after the Province stepped back on cuts it made to the program and added $300,000 to the pot.

"Who decides where that $300,000 goes? That's not going to cover all the requests and expectations people in our communities, in our province, that were expecting that money," said Carrie Hiebert. "We (the PCs) brought that up in Question Period, trying to hold the government accountable to have the NDP reinstate that money. We want them to prioritize those tax dollars to supporting our communities and our community-based programs."

The original cut meant organizations, like summer camps, were caught off guard when their applications for this year were either denied or approved for considerably less than in previous years. This funding has historically been predictable and reliable, noted Hiebert, and the cut meant they weren't able to hire people who've have earned positions now because they didn't that funding. 

"So, they're unsure if they can even run programming, the things they had planned for the summer, and this is the time when they need that extra help."

"Many families rely on summer camps; many families rely on summer programming for their kids while they're at work. And I just think this is a really hard time to take that away," added Hiebert.

Municipalities are also able to apply to the program to help hire summer help to do odd jobs around their communities.

"In summertime we've got a lot of extra maintenance and outdoor events and stuff we need to maintain outdoor spaces, so that's also a big impact in our communities," said Hiebert. "There's a lot of students who won't have a way to earn money like they had been planning to do. That's a concern as well."

According to Premier Wab Kinew, funding to the program was cut as his government works to balance the books at the provincial level. 

"We were left quite a significant deficit and we're trying to get a handle on that," he said in an earlier interview.

To that, Hiebert asks, "What was the deficit that was left? There was actually a surplus left for them in 2023. What's happened since then?"

Overall, she doesn't feel the cuts are good for Manitoba communities and says they show the NDP's lack of care for those communities.

With files from Robyn Wiebe.