Manitoba Finance Minister Adrien Sala needs to go to summer school, because taxpayers can’t afford any more failing grades.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation just released report cards for all provincial finance ministers across the country.

Canada’s finance ministers are not stellar students. No finance minister received an A, because all provinces are borrowing more money this year.

But there were certainly some problem students among the class.

Sala is tied with Newfoundland and Labrador’s Finance Minister Siobhan Cody for last place, with both receiving F grades.

Finance ministers were graded on spending, debt, debt interest costs and tax relief.

Newfoundland and Labrador has the highest debt per person and debt interest costs per person in the entire country, but Manitoba isn’t far behind.

The Manitoba government is increasing the debt by $1 billion this year compared to last years budget. By the end of the year, the debt will reach $36.6 billion or about $24,268 per Manitoban, the fifth highest in the country.

Debt interest payments will cost taxpayers $2.3 billion this year. That works out about $1,554 per Manitoban. That’s the second highest in the country.

The government is increasing the debt because it’s spending too much money. The Manitoba government is increasing spending by 7.1 per cent. But its own budget projects that inflation and population are only going to grow by a combined 3.2 per cent this year.

That’s because the government is spending more on almost everything. It’s increasing spending in almost 80 per cent of its departments compared to last year’s budget.

The government also announced $50 million more in the budget for a “strategic innovation fund” – which is a slush fund to dispense corporate welfare.

When the budget is being gobbled up by debt interest payments, which make up almost 10 per cent of the budget this year, the government will always go looking for more money.

The first place it’s going to look is inside taxpayers’ pockets.

And that’s exactly what cemented Sala’s failing grade on the report card.

Newfoundland and Labrador is also increasing its debt, but its not making life more expensive for its residents by raising taxes.

Manitoba is.

The government is hiking taxes by stopping the indexing of income tax brackets to inflation. That’s called bracket creep. It punishes taxpayers for receiving a cost-of-living pay increase.

Imagine two boats floating on the surface of the water. When the water rises, both boats – your cost-of-living pay increase and the tax bracket – should rise at the same time so you can stay afloat. Bracket creep anchors your income down to the old tax rate, flooding you and making you pay higher taxes.

But it’s an especially sneaky tax hike because the government doesn’t have to stand up and vote on it. Instead, inflation automatically makes taxpayers pay more every single year it remains in place.

Sometimes you fail a test or get a bad grade and that means you must do better next time.

Manitoba needs to do much better next time.

First, the government needs to control spending. If the government had only increased spending this year by expected inflation and population growth, the province would have a $120 million surplus instead of the red ink the budget currently projects.

That would stop the government from piling more debt onto Manitoba taxpayers and set it up to start paying it back in and reduce wasteful debt interest payments.

Most importantly, Manitoba needs to stop hiking taxes. And it especially needs to stop hiking taxes in a sneaky and underhanded way like bracket creep.

Manitobans already pay some of the highest provincial taxes in the country, taxpayers can’t afford to shell out any more to Broadway.

Manitoba needs to do more if it wants to earn an A grade from taxpayers. That starts with reining in spending and not hiking taxes.