You can only cancel plans so many times before your friends stop believing you will ever show up.

Budget 2026 is likely Premier Wab Kinew’s last chance to make good on his promises to taxpayers before they start to feel they’ve been taken for a ride.

Kinew’s NDP campaigned making life more affordable for families and balancing the government’s books.

Three years later, Manitoba families are still feeling squeezed. Tax bills remain high. And the government is spending money it does not have.

After being elected, the government started on the right path on tax relief by cutting the provincial gas tax to zero.

But it took a wrong turn and hiked the tax back up by 89 per cent a year later.

Kinew also hiked income taxes on Manitobans by bringing back bracket creep in last year’s budget.

Bracket creep is a sneaky tax hike that happens when the government stops indexing tax brackets to inflation. Inflation pushes taxpayers into higher tax brackets even though their pay cheques do not buy anything extra.

The government might point to its one-year hydro rate pause or its decision to freeze the price of one litre jugs of milk as examples of making life more affordable. But tinkering around the edges will not fix the affordability crisis.

A Manitoba family making $75,000 per year already has the highest provincial tax burden in Western Canada, Manitobans need serious tax relief that benefits every taxpayer.

To fix this, the government should first reverse its bracket creep income tax hike. Then it should go further and cut the Retail Sales Tax by one percentage point. That would bring the RST in line with Saskatchewan and save Manitoba families about $315 per year.

The next step is simple: the government must stop spending money it does not have..

The NDP’s campaign platform forecasted this year’s deficit to be $128.1 million. In the last budget, the government said it would be $794 million. Now the latest forecast puts it at $1.6 billion.

The government will likely blame this irresponsible borrowing on wildfires, health-care costs, Manitoba Hydro income losses or tariffs.

Those excuses might carry some weight if the government tried to cut spending anywhere. But Kinew has not even tried.

Despite taking in $556 million less than budgeted in revenue this year, the government is also spending about $311 million more than it said it would.

That’s a recipe for fiscal disaster.

When a Manitoba family faces unexpected costs, they find savings in other parts of their budget to make up the difference. The government should be expected to do the same.

Every year the government avoids fixing its spending problem means more debt and billions more wasted on interest payments.

And this failure has gone on for far too long. The Manitoba government increased the provincial debt by 64 per cent since 2016. During that time, the government wasted about $18 billion on debt interest payments.

In fact, the debt has ballooned so much that about nine per cent of the provincial budget is now spent just on interest payments. Debt interest is the government’s third-largest expense, only education and health care cost taxpayers more money every year.

That’s why the government needs a real plan to control spending so it can start paying down debt. Less debt means less money wasted on debt interest payments and more room for tax relief.

Kinew can start with a comprehensive spending review. The government can’t find savings if it isn’t looking.

Former prime minister Jean Chrétien’s government conducted a spending review in the 1990s and found $9.8 billion in spending reductions. The Newfoundland and Labrador government embarked on a similar spending review and found more than $860 million in savings in 2021.

Kinew promised Manitobans a more affordable life and a balanced budget.

Budget 2026 is the time to deliver on both.