Premier deflects call to hike Manitoba minimum wage

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This article was published 09/05/2022 (1303 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Labour shortages could mean better wages for Manitobans, Premier Heather Stefanson said Monday, after the NDP called on government to increase the hourly minimum wage to $15.

“It’s a supply and demand issue,” Stefanson said during question period. “If people want to attract high-quality workers… they’re going to have to pay a little bit more. And that’s exactly what is happening now.”

Should his party form government in the next general election (expected in October 2023), NDP Leader Wab Kinew said it would raise minimum wage to $15 an hour.

“You can work full-time in Manitoba on minimum wage and still live in poverty. That’s just not right,” Kinew said.

Manitoba’s minimum wage will become the lowest in the country in the fall, after the Saskatchewan government announced it would increase its minimum wage to $13/hr on Oct. 1.

Currently, Manitoba minimum-wage earners take home $11.95/hr. Wages are set to increase by 40 cents to $12.35/hr on Oct. 1, based on the 2021 annual inflation rate of 3.4 per cent.

Stefanson said her government is making life “more affordable” for Manitobans through a $525 tax rebate for renters and other initiatives in the latest budget.

The Tory premier said Manitobans can expect to pay more taxes if the NDP were to form government and increase the minimum wage to $15.

Abortion services protected: Gordon

Continued access to abortion services will be guaranteed in Manitoba should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn that right south of the border, Health Minister Audrey Gordon said.

“We don’t play politics with women’s health,” Gordon said Monday. “Abortion services are health services.”

Gordon said her heart goes out to people in the United States organizing to defend the right to abortion services, after a draft of Supreme Court opinion overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was leaked last week.

“This American court decision will not change access in Manitoba,” the minister said.

NDP justice critic Nahanni Fontaine said Canadian jurisdictions are not immune anti-choice attacks on abortion, and governments need to do more to protect and increase access to reproductive health services.

On four occasions, Fontaine introduced a private member’s bill to create buffer zones to prohibit anti-abortion demonstrations around health centres. The bill has not received support from Progressive Conservative government.

Gordon said the Tories do not support people who harass or threaten people seeking care in a health-care facility in Manitoba. “Anyone who does that is wrong. That should not happen.”

Hospital ‘bed crisis’ measures

Winnipeg hospital patients being moved to hallways and staff lounges are low acuity and it’s a temporary measure taken to handle a “surge,” Gordon said.

“We’re seeing individuals that are low-acuity, ambulatory and they’re close to discharge within 24 to 48 hours,” she told reporters in a scrum Monday after question period.

A notice sent to Victoria General Hospital staff May 6 by facility chief medical officer Dr. Ken Cavers said the “current bed crisis” across the Winnipeg health region required moving ER and urgent-care patients to “wherever patient care space can be created.”

“I’m assured from Shared Health that no one is being placed in closets and some of the other places I’ve heard,” Gordon said Monday. “These are areas that are staffed, they have the proper health equipment, they’re being monitored.”

Spousal support obligations law

The Progressive Conservatives have introduced legislation to implement the 2007 Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance.

Bill 37 would enable the province to implement the convention to ensure spousal support obligations are met when family members live in different countries.

According to the Tory government, Manitoba would be the second province to adopt legislation to support the convention.

“Implementing the convention doesn’t change Manitoba law governing child and spousal support, but it provides a new and important means for Manitoba families to seek and receive support from family members in other countries under the international agreement,” Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen said.

Price tag rises on outlet channel

As floodwaters threaten Peguis First Nation, the price tag of mitigation efforts for a flood that hit Lake St. Martin First Nation and the Lake Manitoba area a decade ago has risen by another $60 million.

In the budget estimates process Monday in the legislative chamber, the premier was asked about the cost of the channel outlet project increasing to an estimated $600 million, from the expected $540 million.

The price hike is not due to delays, Stefanson said. The increased cost is the result of COVID-19 and more consultations having to take place, she said.

When pressed by Kinew for details of the increased cost and whether the additional $60 million with be shared by the federal and provincial governments, Stefanson directed the opposition to the departmental estimates process for transportation and infrastructure.

The cost-shared project was originally pegged at $540 million, with $297.5 million coming from the province and $247.5 million from the federal government.