Manitoba throne speech dominated by health-care promises

The Manitoba government has vowed to make the health-care system safer by boosting staff-to-patient ratios and eliminating mandatory overtime for nurses, in a throne speech packed with promises on the economy and public safety.

The speech, read by Lt.-Gov. Anita Neville, includes plans for a Manitoba-wide crackdown on meth, new rules to stop “unfair” rent increases, four new schools, 402 new child-care spaces in Winnipeg and Brandon, and a renewed commitment to balance the budget by 2027 without raising taxes.

“We’ve got all these great ideas on health care and the economy and we’ve got to execute those while still being responsible with spending, growing the economy and being balanced when it comes comes to revenue — that’s a very narrow path,” Premier Wab Kinew told reporters.

The spring budget won’t include tax increases, said the premier who promised to fix health care and vowed to enshrine patient safety into law.

“We just want to take steps to ensure that your safety as a patient is going to be improved,” Kinew said. “At the same time, because we’re looking to fix health care (and) lower wait times, we’ve got to take care of the staff as well. The staff are the crucial piece to deliver you the health-care experience that you want.”

The province will create a new patient safety charter that puts into law Manitobans’ right to “good health care.”

Mandatory overtime will be eliminated for staff, starting with front-line nurses. Staff-to-patient ratios will be created in priority areas, including hospital emergency rooms. The premier said 3,500 new health care staff, including 1,200 nurses, have been added since the NDP took office two years ago.

“We have added the staff, we are spending more money than ever on health care. I’m confident that those on the front lines are doing their job,” Kinew said. “We need the administration to do their job now and there will be standards.”

The Manitoba Nurses Union said there aren’t enough staff and pointed to the 37 per cent vacancy rate in obstetric nurse positions at the Thompson hospital, among “many, many vacancies” across the province.

“We’re still in a nursing shortage,” president Darlene Jackson said.

She noted that Kinew promised legislation to end mandatory overtime seven years ago when he was opposition leader.

“It’s a positive concept, but I don’t see we’re at that point right now,” Jackson said.

Legislating such changes will require consultation, said Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Nichelle Desilets who practises in Neepawa.

“As a doctor who works in a small town, I’m very sensitive to new rules that can actually compromise keeping our hospital open and keeping those services available,” she said at the legislature. “I think a measured, balanced approach with gradual implementation and proper consultation is the way to go.”

The long-promised supervised drug consumption site will start operating in downtown Winnipeg in January, the NDP pledged.

A “meth sweep,” involving a new task force with members of the Winnipeg Police Service and RCMP, will target people who make and sell the drug. New legislation will target the sale of dangerous weapons, including machetes, on online marketplaces, and ban them from public spaces, such as parks and buses.

Kinew said the province will commission a study to look into grocery costs. Potential measures could be included in the spring budget.

The NDP announced construction of four schools and the addition of 402 child-care spaces in River East, Pembina Trails and Seven Oaks in Winnipeg, and Brandon.

To help “Trump-proof” the economy, the NDP government plans to build new dual-fuel combustion turbines at an existing site near Brandon to produce 750 megawatts of power to help heat homes in winter, which would reduce the reliance on U.S. energy imports.

Much of the throne speech included promises previously announced or hinted at, including the creation of a Crown-Indigenous corporation to ensure Indigenous involvement in the expansion of the Port of Churchill. A feasibility study will explore the option of extending the shipping season on the Arctic Ocean port.

Manitoba’s promised $2,500 security rebate program for businesses will start in December, the throne speech said.

Tory Leader Obby Khan reacted by picking apart the throne speech.

“There was not one iota of concrete economic growth in this throne speech that hasn’t been announced before,” he said. “Health care is worse, crime is higher. Affordability is at all time unattainable for Manitobans … That’s all glossed over and ignored.”

Other measures in the government’s legislative agenda include the elimination of mandatory sick notes for short-term absences from work, and a new online portal that will give Manitoba patients access to lab results and immunization records.

One striking highlight is the plan to build an overpass at highways 1 and 5, north of Carberry, following the crash that killed 17 seniors two years ago.

“This intersection is different than any other intersection because of the loss of life,” Kinew said.

The province will construct the overpass in response to outcry from the community over initial plans to build a restricted-crossing U-turn (RCUT) instead, the premier said. He expects more overpasses will be built, and asked the transportation department to “give me a modular design that we can repeat over and over and over again.”

Work will also begin to twin the Trans-Canada Highway between the Manitoba-Ontario boundary and West Hawk Lake.

Manitoba will conduct its most comprehensive post-wildfire review, following this year’s devastating season.

The province has signed a new contract for park passes with a Manitoba company, replacing one in Texas, and it will hold a vote for a new provincial park-themed licence plate.

The throne speech was published in Ojibwa, the language that named Manitoba, for the first time.

— with files from Nicole Buffie

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca