Opposition pursues health minister’s alleged comments in house

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This article was published 03/04/2023 (927 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The NDP and Liberals are calling on the Manitoba Legislative Assembly to investigate comments Health Minister Audrey Gordon allegedly made in the chamber accusing the Opposition of paying nurses to quit.

“The minister of health attempted to deliberately mislead the house,” NDP health critic Uzoma Asagwara said at the start of Monday’s proceedings, adding it is a violation of privilege as a member of the house.

Asagwara told deputy speaker Andrew Micklefield, on March 23 in the chamber, Gordon said: “How much did you pay the nurses to resign?” referring to the resignation of a group of Winnipeg sexual assault nurse examiners.

Seven of the 13 casual nurses employed in the struggling Health Sciences Centre program resigned last month.

“The allegation is outrageous and the minister knows it to be false,” Asagwara told the house.

“I am disappointed I’m compelled to raise this today, but the minister refuses to apologize or take responsibility for actions,” the health critic told the members returning from the March break.

Gordon, who was not in the house Monday, was away for personal reasons, a spokesperson said.

The NDP health critic said the Speaker has the ability to act when members make statements “they know to be false and would mislead this house.”

“The minister needs be held accountable for her actions,” said Asagwara. “I move that this house condemn the minister of health for deliberately misleading the house.”

The NDP MLA asked the matter be referred to committee for investigation.

Government house leader and Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen told the deputy speaker the NDP member did not produce a transcript from Hansard, the official record of what’s said in the chamber, nor any documentation of what Gordon is alleged to have said.

“The member opposite has brought forward an allegation without any indication of where the allegations are cited or rooted in,” Goertzen said.

“The one thing that is clear is that the minister of health has been working diligently like all ministers of health in Canada to deal with a difficult situation when it comes to health human resources,” he said. “She has been working to ensure the $200 million this government allocated to hire thousands of new health-care professionals is put to work.”

A spokesperson for Gordon last week said there is no record of the alleged comments, and the minister wouldn’t speak on hearsay.

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However, Liberal MLA Jon Gerrard told the house other elected officials, too, heard the minister’s alleged heckling.

“This is a very serious matter and the remarks which were said were very inappropriate, even though they were said in haste,” the MLA for River Heights said Monday.

“It’s time we have some accountability for what is said, even if it’s heckling and even if it’s not in Hansard.”

The deputy speaker said he’ll take the matter under advisement.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.

Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.