Despite an election campaign pledge by the Manitoba Tories to clean up the financial mess left behind by the outgoing NDP government, the Pallister government unveiled a budget Tuesday that contains some of the biggest spending increases in recent years in Manitoba.

It was a remarkable departure from the pledges made on the campaign trail by the Tories during the spring election -- promises to control spending, reduce deficits and ultimately forge a path towards a balanced budget.

There was none of that in the 2016-17 budget. In fact, the Tories showed no sign of fiscal restraint whatsoever. There was no "good first step" in this fiscal blueprint, no down payment towards a more financially responsible government.

In some ways, it was worse than some of the NDP budgets we've seen in recent years.

The Tories are proposing to jack up overall spending by 5.2% in this budget compared to last year. That's up from the former NDP government's spending increase of 4.3% in 2015-16. And it's by far the highest spending increase by the provincial government in recent years.

It was 2% in 2014, 2.1% in 2013 and 2.9% in 2012.

The Tories are also proposing to add $1.75 billion to the net debt this year, bringing it to a staggering $23.1 billion, the highest debt load in the province's history.

That will bring the province's debt-to-GDP ratio to 33.8%, higher than it ever was under the NDP.

Spending in health care is going up 5.9%, which is completely unsustainable. And expenditures in Manitoba Families, which includes child and family services and child care, are skyrocketing by a mind-boggling 10% this year. In fact, spending is going up in every department except executive council and agriculture -- the latter only because of a crop insurance adjustment.

The Tories argue they've only been in power a few weeks and can't be expected to rein in spending overnight. Nobody's asking them to. That's a cop-out position.

Budgets are simply spending plans for the year. Government knows approximately what its revenues will be for the next 12 months and it's up to them to set targets for the year to bring spending more in line with revenues.

The Tories could have set more modest spending targets for 2016-17 and worked through treasury board throughout the year to meet those targets.

Instead, they took the lazy way out, threw their hands in the air and said this is the best they can do.

Now they're saying they won't be able to balance the books for eight years. Eight years? They're prepared to live beyond their means for that long? And they're willing to add billions more to the provincial debt and mortgage the future of our grandchildren, all because Premier Brian Pallister and his government don't have the balls to show even the slightest bit of fiscal responsibility?

It surprises me. I expected better.

It's not like we're in a recession. Manitoba's GDP is expected to grow by 2.2% this year, up from 1.6% last year. Federal government transfers are up by a healthy $252 million. And overall revenues are projected to grow by 1.8%.

It would be reckless to try to balance the books within the short term. But the new government should have at least started down the path towards rehabilitating the province's finances. They didn't. Instead, they're increasing spending by nearly three times the rate of revenue growth.

Finance Minister Cameron Friesen also refused to provide the usual multi-year economic plan in his budget. It's a normal part of a budget that shows where the government expects to be over the next four years, including projections on deficits or surpluses. It's an outlook, a guideline. And it's in every budget. Except this one.

Presumably it was left out because these guys have no plan at all.