Tuesday's federal budget is getting mixed reviews from Manitoba's Premier.
    
Brian Pallister says the Trudeau government addressed some important issues like expanding substance abuse contributions and providing funding to deal with asylum seekers crossing into the province.
    
He says, however, the budget failed miserably in providing tax relief to Canadians who are overburdened.

"Over half of Canadian households, according to statistics, have less than two hundred dollars left over after they pay their bills every month," says Pallister. "That's a concern for us, two hundred dollars a month gets eaten up pretty fast with a mortgage payment that goes up one percentage point."

Pallister adds, the legacy of NDP mismanagement on Manitoba Hydro has caused hydro bills to go up just a few dollars a month, which he says is a big deal to many Manitoba families.

Finance Minister Cameron Friesen agrees that the federal government missed out on an opportunity to provide some tax relief to Canadians.

"We don't see that broad relief that Canadian households are hungering for," says Friesen. "Costs are going up and this budget does not respond to address those concerns about the rising costs in households."

Pallister says the federal budget also does nothing to address Canada's burgeoning deficit, which he calls another form of taxation.

"A deficit is a tax, it's a deferred tax that has to be paid later, plus interest," he says. "When we say tax relief we're saying that there needs to be a plan to move to fiscal balance and there's just nothing here to address that. What Canadian can have that kind of a financial plan? This budget is out of touch with the real challenges that Canadians face in their homes and small businesses."

The federal budget details an $18.1 billion deficit for the next fiscal year, with no timeline for getting back into the black.