The provincial NDP government released its first throne speech Nov. 21 to open Manitoba’s 43rd legislature, promising to address long wait times for surgeries and diagnostic MRIs, reduce hospital backlogs, grow the economy, help Manitobans cope with the cost-of-living crisis and work with Indigenous and municipal partners.
The NDP won the October provincial election with a strong focus on fixing Manitoba’s broken health-care system.
The throne speech sets out a course to address the “immediate crisis” in health care and reduce wait times by opening additional surgical slates [operating schedule] at the Grace hospital and expanding spinal surgery capacity at the Health Sciences Centre, Concordia Hospital and the Brandon Regional Health Centre.
“In one of our first acts, we reached out directly to Manitobans working in our health care system today. We committed to being a listening government and shared our plan to reset the relationship with health care staff on the front lines. Our team is launching a health care listening tour which will hear from the staff at the bedside across the province. We will hear directly from Manitobans who care for you at the bedside,” states the speech.
The government promises to take care of health-care workers by fostering open and transparent communication, reducing burnout and holding management accountable to improve the working lives of health-care staff.
To improve retention and recruitment of health-care workers, the NDP will create a culture that will empower workers and let them make decisions.
The NDP will restore emergency care services as it works to “staff up our health care system” by opening new ERs at the Victoria Hospital in Winnipeg and the Eriksdale Hospital.
The government also promises to protect and provide access to abortion services, as well as provide free birth control.
To help Manitobans cope with high inflation, the NDP promises to put a temporary hold on the provincial gas tax and freeze hydro rates.
“At the start of the new year, our government has a plan to give you a break at the pump – we have a plan to pause the provincial gas tax, saving you 14 cents per litre every time you fill up,” states the speech.
The gas tax reduction is expected to start on Jan. 1, 2024.
The speech says a “significant” new policy to lower costs for agricultural producers and ranchers is forthcoming, and that the government will partner with the agriculture industry to invest in “agricultural science, innovation, resilience and sustainability.”
To help address the climate crisis, the NDP promises to focus on the environmental impacts of government policies and bring in measures to help families afford hybrids and electric vehicles, as well as make their homes more efficient with geothermal heat pumps.
In partnership with the federal government, the province will use $500 million in new investment to expand the electricity grid and deliver low-carbon affordable electricity.
“Today we are proud to announce that we have a commitment from the federal government to work with us on our plan to help families make the switch to affordable, geothermal home energy,” states the speech. “This collaborative approach will help us deliver on our commitments to reduce emissions, lower costs for families and create more low-carbon jobs.”
About 5,000 homes would be converted to geothermal energy over the course of four years.
The new government will also focus on working together with Indigenous governments, the Manitoba Metis Federation and municipalities.
To advance reconciliation, the government will introduce legislation to recognise Louis Riel as the first premier of Manitoba and make Sept. 30, Orange Shirt Day, a statutory holiday. It will strengthen municipal economies by providing infrastructure, services and multi-year funding.
The Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals’ president Jason Linklater said the organization is encouraged by the new government’s commitment to fix the health-care system.
“MAHCP is encouraged by changes we are hearing and seeing, in tone, in approach, in government’s willingness to listen and work with us,” said Linklater in a statement. “Steering away from for-profit care, reinvesting in staffing and implementing ground-up solutions are what health care needs. Allied health professionals are waiting to see that change translate to the front line, where they are still dealing with short staffing and unmanageable workloads. The staffing crisis hasn’t gone away, and patients are seeing it in unacceptable wait times for ERs, scans and ambulances.”
Interlake-Gimli MLA and former agriculture minister Derek Johnson, whose Progressive Conservative party now sits as the Official Opposition, said there are a lot of promises in the NDP’s throne speech that will have to be balanced with fiscal reality.
“It will be a matter of fitting those promises into the budget while keeping our provincial coffers from going into debt,” said Johnson. “It’s like a credit card: you can only spend so much on it before the interest becomes overwhelming.”
In response to the NDP’s claim that Manitoba faces fiscal challenges because of unsustainable commitments the PCs made, Johnson said he thinks that refers to the $1.5-billion-dollar commitment the former government made to rebuild the central core of the Health Sciences Centre over a period of six years and invest in health care. The funding for HSC had already been approved by the government’s Treasury Board, on which he used to sit.
“I’m guessing the new government has to look at that [commitment] because they have different priorities from what our government did,” he said. “As PCs, we thought that was a great investment in our health care system. The Health Sciences Centre serves not just Manitoba, but northwestern Ontario and Nunavut. It’s the main trauma centre for them. And STARS [air ambulance] flies trauma patients directly to HSC. The building in the centre of the hospital is over 100 years old and it needs investment, which includes bringing everything up to a new standard for ventilation to reduce the risk of having respiratory illnesses like COVID being transferred from room to room.”
As far as the government’s commitment to retention and recruitment of health-care staff, Johnson said the PCs had always encouraged employees in all sectors to come forward with ideas to help improve their industries and had introduced an innovation fund to encourage the generation of new ideas.
The NDP’s promise to lower costs for agricultural producers and ranchers falls short, said Johnson, because the PCs had promised in their campaign to reduce the cost of agricultural Crown land by 50 per cent to help producers cope with the drought of 2021 and overland flooding in 2022. And the gas tax reduction coming in the new year won’t benefit farmers.
“The NDP’s gas tax holiday won’t be giving a break to farmers,” said Johnson. “They’re not reducing the price for fuel per litre for farmers and producers who use purple fuel; they’re not getting the same reduction as the rest of the population. The NDP is talking about inputs being high for farmers yet they’re not doing anything for them with this gas tax holiday.”
The throne speech is available on the government’s website at www.gov.mb.ca/thronespeech
