A pre-budget consultation meeting held in Ile des Chenes Sunday was attended by about a handful of the general public.

Steinbach MLA Kelvin Goertzen was there. He says these sort of meetings have been happening for many years as a way to ensure the public can provide input into the upcoming budget. But Goertzen says Sunday's meeting opened with an NDP MLA stating that in the past, his government hasn't always listened to what people have said, using the rise in the PST as an example.

"I suspect that a lot of people have become disillusioned when they see the taxes continue to go up and the debt continues to go up," notes Goertzen. "Nobody is asking for that, and yet that continues to happen under the NDP."

Goertzen says he finds the best ideas that an MLA gets don't come from sitting in the Legislature, but rather from hearing what Manitobans have to say. And Goertzen says there are probably reasons why more Manitobans didn't show up in Ile des Chenes Sunday.

"I think people generally need to hear about something obviously if they're going to attend it," notes Goertzen. "And I think that under the NDP they've been quite ensuring that people don't know about these meetings or that you aren't able to actually access them very easily."

Goertzen says another reason why it might have been poorly attended is that the consultation was held on Sunday; a day many people view as family day.

"Everybody's busy and you're not going to take time out of your schedule to be away from family to go to a meeting to try to give input on something that you don't think anybody is listening," he says.

Goertzen says there weren't a lot of people there and so there weren't a lot of concerns raised. He notes one question that came up was whether there would even be a spring budget before the next election.

"The Minister of Finance, Greg Dewar said no, he wasn't sure if there was actually going to be a budget," notes Goertzen. "So you had a room of about a half a dozen people, who were told that they might not be listened to, about a budget that might not happen."

The NDP government has not commented on the event.