Political parties point fingers over broken budget deal as legislative sitting extended

Manitoba MLAs will have to wait a little longer to start their summer vacations.

The legislative sitting was scheduled to end on Monday, but the Progressive Conservative government says it's calling the Legislature back for up to three weeks because a deal with the Opposition NDP fell apart.

PC House Leader Cliff Cullen said the two parties came to a verbal agreement on part of the budget process called "concurrence" — which allows the opposition to ask questions ahead of a vote on the budget implementation bill.

They had also agreed on an interim supply motion, which pays for government operations until the budget is implemented.

On Monday, however, that deal had fallen apart, but whose fault that is depends on who you ask.

"Even as late as last week we had an agreement. Today we didn't. To me it's a sad day for the legislative process when we have these verbal discussions, have agreements and unfortunately coming to work we didn't," said Cullen.

NDP Leader Wab Kinew denied the two sides had made any agreement on concurrence, saying they had only agreed to pass the interim supply motion.

"[Cullen] is misrepresenting the situation to you and to me. It seems like somebody who is trying to cover up the situation in order to look good for his boss," Kinew said.

The NDP says the government doesn't have its legislative agenda in order and doesn't want scrutiny on the details of its budget.

Kinew said the government hasn't provided their budget implementation bill, which in the past have contained "nasty" surprises, such as ending the 50/50 transit funding agreement.

"So we are not going to give up our right to ask questions under the concurrence process," he said.

Both Kinew and Cullen called each other out directly over the breakdown of the deal.

"Frankly, I don't know who's making the decisions there. Clearly Manitobans voted the NDP out two years ago on the issue of trust and clearly nothing has changed in the last two years under Wab Kinew," Cullen said.

"Most working people are going to be working through June and I don't think the government minister should come out here and act like it's the end of the world that he has to come to work tomorrow," Kinew said.

The additional sitting begins on Wednesday.

The rules allow the government to call the Legislature back for up to three weeks, but the sitting could end after a few days, or the government could add another three weeks on top of the extended sitting, if necessary.