NDP promise to offer meals to students in every school in Manitoba

Opposition leader Wab Kinew promised to create a "universal" school nutrition program in Manitoba if his New Democrats win the provincial election slated for Oct. 3.

Speaking to party members at a fundraising dinner on Saturday evening, the NDP leader promised if he's elected premier this fall, Manitoba will offer meals in schools to every student who wants one.

"We will ensure it is in place within this coming school year," Kinew promised during an address to approximately 650 NDP members at RBC Convention Centre in Winnipeg.

Right now, the province pays for meals at 31 schools but pledged to consider expanding the program to 22 others after a provincial task force concluded in February improved nutrition would help alleviate poverty.

Kinew vowed to expand the program to all 690 schools at an annual cost of approximately $30 million.

"We're talking about moving the needle for someone's health outcomes for the rest of their life," he said, adding an NDP government would replace volunteer labour and fundraising for school meals with provincial support.

"This is not something we can leave to chance. This is not something we can leave to charity. This is the role of government."

The NDP first called on the province to expand school meal programs in 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic started.

Kinew also promised to unveil a youth crime prevention strategy later in the campaign.

He also chided the governing Progressive Conservatives for alienating health-care workers, accused the PCs of failing to articulate an economic development plan for the province and suggested Manitoba has dawdled on fostering conditions to produce and export hydrogen.

Kinew did not take questions from reporters following his speech.

Springfield-Ritchot MLA Ron Schuler, the PC caucus chair, said in a statement his government has already increased the school nutrition budget.

"In order for Wab Kinew to pay for all of his promises, he would have to raise the PST to 10 per cent," said Schuler, making a variation on an earlier claim by the party that the NDP are planning a three percentage point PST hike. 

The NDP call that claim a fabrication.

The Saturday evening NDP fundraiser was the largest for the party since it last held power in 2016, said Rebecca Blaikie, a longtime party member who emceed the event.

"Everyone was so well-dressed, I thought I might have been at the wrong gala," Blaikie joked during a short address before Kinew spoke.

She said she was happy temperatures cooled enough to allow party members to dress up for the event.

"I thought the heat wave was due to climate change, but then I heard Pierre Poilievre was in town," she said, referring to the federal Conservative Party leader, who visited Winnipeg earlier this month to campaign for his party's candidate in the Winnipeg South Centre byelection.

The NDP also used the fundraiser to unveil a new television ad featuring Kinew tossing a baseball with his family.

"What I want for my sons, I want for all of us," Kinew says in the sunny ad, during which he promises "the best" education, health care and jobs for new generations of Manitobans.

Premier Heather Stefanson attracted a crowd of approximately 1,300 people when the Progressive Conservatives held a fundraising dinner of their own in April.