Health-care capital projects funding plan remains untapped: NDP

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/04/2023 (1225 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Manitoba government has spent just six per cent of the $812 million it announced in 2021 to fund 38 capital projects its the health-care system.

As of April 11, the province had spent $48.9 million on renovations, new construction and the expansion of hospitals and clinics around Manitoba, according to a freedom of information request made by the NDP.

The massive funding plan announced by then-premier Brian Pallister in August 2021 touted $812 million for more than three dozen projects as part of a new “provincial clinical network” — a system of health services that were to improve access and enhance the quality and reliability of care, while reducing provincial wait times.

His successor, Premier Heather Stefanson, promised to follow through on those capital spending projects, NDP Leader Wab Kinew told the house Wednesday.

“Twenty months later, only six per cent of those dollars have actually been implemented,” Kinew said during question period. “Why has the premier broken her promise?”

Stefanson said the PC government (in power since 2016) spends more on health than the previous NDP government and it’s made historic investments, with a budget of more than $8 billion this year — $2 billion more than the New Democrats ever spent. That includes major capital spending at hospitals and health centres around the province, she added.

“We’re making record investments in Portage la Prairie, in Neepawa, in Selkirk, Brandon, St. Boniface and Flin Flon,” the premier told the house. “Those investments are continuing to be made.”

In its response to the New Democrats’ request for information, dated April 11, Manitoba Health said the amount spent on capital health projects will increase as work get under way.

“It should be noted that these infrastructure projects work through their design and construction phases, investment will increase as major portions of the work are completed,” it said.

Stefanson said the government isn’t to blame for construction projects being delayed.

“There was a worldwide pandemic and there has been some delays to some things,” the premier told the house. “We know that’s not unique to Manitoba, but we’ll continue to move forward to ensure those capital investments get made.”

The NDP leader said the health-care capital projects weren’t promised at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The premier is trying to use the pandemic as a shield to escape from the fact she has broken these promises,” Kinew said.

How much gets spent on building hospitals doesn’t matter as much as staffing them, said Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont.

“You can build as many of these buildings as you want, but if you don’t have anyone to work in them, to actually provide the care, we’re not going to have a health-care system,” the MLA for St. Boniface said after question period.

Manitoba’s health human resources crisis follows years of PC austerity, and can’t be fixed like a hospital renovation, Lamont told reporters.

“This is a government that held back for years and years, and now is unleashing the floodgates of spending to make themselves look generous when it doesn’t even make up for all the losses that have happened over the last seven years.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca