Cameron Friesen, Manitoba's finance minister, was pleased to announce this week that Manitoba has chipped away at its provincial deficit.

Last year's 2016-17 figures show that significant progress was made.

"This is that master report where the government tells its citizens how it did on achieving its targets for the year. We made a commitment to Manitoba a year ago that we valued fiscal sustainability and that we planned to not over spend our budget," said Friesen.

Friesen had anticipated a 900 million dollar deficit, but achieved a reduction in the number, which turned out to be 764 million.

This is the first time since 2003 that the province has spent less than its planned budget, he added.

"Are we out of the woods as a province? Absolutely not... we said from the very beginning government had to do its work better. We needed to find areas of efficiency, we needed to look for opportunities where maybe government is duplicating, we needed to manage in departments just better on a day-to-day basis the way households do."

Friesen believes that when it comes to Manitoba, hoping for higher revenue is not the solution.

"The NDP always said we'll just wait for revenues to increase and then we'll be out of deficit. It never happened and they paid the price."

Manitoba is looking to take a moderate approach, where money is managed better and still invested in frontline services such as health and education. Friesen added that other provinces have taken a more drastic approach in comparison.

"Health spending, year over year, was still up 5 percent, more than 300 million dollars more year over year. So let's be clear, more is not less. We are making good investments in those areas. What's necessary is to not have a year over year increase that's an explosion," said Friesen when addressing budget cuts.

Manitobans will pay 1 billion dollars this year alone just to service debt requirements, said Friesen

"That's a billion dollars that cannot go for new schools, it cannot go for doctors and nurses, it cannot go for highways. That number is up 100 million dollars in just two years, that's scary. That's why we need to stabilize our finances. If we don't, eventually debt service costs will become the monster that eats all the resources in its path," he said.

Friesen believes the answer is to keep managing money and making good investments in services and infrastructure.

The Progressive Conservatives promised that by 2024, the budget will be balanced.