Manitoba’s NDP government is getting a lot of well-deserved criticism these days for higher sales taxes, skyrocketing debt, their spat with Assiniboia Downs and many other matters.

However, the provincial government has managed to eek out a few worthy initiatives that deserve praise.

With any lucky, public recognition through columns like this – and positive calls and emails from readers - will encourage them government to pursue even more taxpayer-friendly initiatives in the future.

First up, the provincial government is now backing away from its plan to have Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) fund infrastructure projects. As you may recall, last fall MPI announced it was going to start funding some road projects in the name of safety.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF), a donation-based taxpayers’ watchdog organization, has always pushed for MPI to return excessive surpluses have back to motorists. After all, when MPI racks up excessive surpluses year after year, that means they’re simply overcharging you.

When MPI announced they were going to start funding infrastructure, we encouraged our supporters across the province to speak out and tell the government to back down.

Thankfully, the government listened. What straw broke the camel’s back is anyone’s guess, but why not call or e-mail Minister Andrew Swann and tell him “thanks for changing your mind.”

Next up, the government continues to benefit from a bill passed in 2010 called the Criminal Property Forfeiture Act. The bill makes it easier for the government to seize the proceeds from those committing crimes.

As a result of the bill, the government can take cash, vehicles and other assets much easier from criminals and then use them to pay for supporting victims and paying for equipment that helps police do their jobs. Recently, the government announced it was going to use $1 million seized from criminals for such purposes. Thus, instead of taxpayers paying for those bills, the criminals did.

A third good decision worth a mention involves the government’s “Military Envoy” position. For years, former MLA Bonnie Korzeniowski represented her constituency and was given the “Special Military Envoy” title. In other words, she would go to a lot of military functions, shake hands with those in attendance and try and get military votes for the NDP.

However, when the 2011 election came around, Korzeniowski chose not run. The government then turned the Military Envoy position into a full-time job for her; complete with an office and assistant. Rightly so, the NDP took some flack for creating the new $190,000 office and full-time position for their friend while they were also raising taxes and racking up provincial debt.

Now the government is going to eliminate the full-time position and go back to having an MLA perform those duties on the side.

Make no mistake, two of the three aforementioned “good decisions” are actually cases of the NDP cleaning up messes they created.

But if we’re ever going to convince them to clean up other messes and problems, they’ll want to know they’ll see some public praise for the moves. So here it is. Now, let’s see some more good moves.

.