Question period clash over health-care ‘pork barrel’

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This article was published 25/04/2023 (867 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Opposition called on Premier Heather Stefanson during question period Tuesday to respond to a claim her government’s handling of the health-care system is becoming a political “pork barrel.”

“The premier owes Manitobans a response,” NDP Leader Wab Kinew told the house, referring to a letter to the editor published Tuesday by the Free Press.

Dr. Dan Roberts, co-head of neurology at Health Sciences Centre, Manitoba’s largest hospital, wrote about his frustration with the province’s diagnostic and surgical backlog task force disregarding public health-care solutions in favour of private ones.

“There is a clear difference between engaging private companies in an accountable and appropriate fashion in areas where they might provide useful cost-effective service versus turning the system into a pork barrel,” Roberts wrote.

Pork barrel refers to the use of government funds for projects designed to please voters or legislators and win votes. The Opposition seized upon the message.

“Why has she turned our provincial health-care system into a situation where it’s being compared to a pork barrel,” Kinew asked Stefanson during question period.

The premier responded with a familiar refrain.

“Contrary to the information the leader of the Opposition just put on the floor of the chamber, I’ll put some facts on the record,” she said.

“The fact is we’re investing record amounts into health care,” citing a 9.2 per cent increase in the health-care budget this year over the previous.

However, Kinew said Stefanson helped implement then-premier Brian Pallister’s “agenda of cuts” and “then she shows up in an election year and tries to promise different.”

“Manitobans see through that,” the NDP leader said, adding the public listens to front-line doctors such as Roberts.

“It’s really something when physicians and other health professionals speak out like this to condemn a provincial government’s failures to fix health care.”

Stefanson said her government continues to listen to front-line experts, such as task force members Dr. Peter MacDonald and Dr. Ed Buchel.

In December 2021, the Manitoba government established the task force to address wait lists for diagnostic and surgical procedures, and other related services affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“These are individuals who are helping us move in the right direction to help eliminate the surgical and diagnostic backlogs in the province,” Stefanson told the house. “We’ll continue to take their advice.”

In a Tuesday evening statement, a government spokesperson said: “Due to the efforts of our government and the… task force, nearly 26,500 patients are no longer waiting in pain, over 200 of which were (sent) out of province. Accessing both public- and private-sector health service providers have been important interim measures intended to meet the immediate needs of patients as we expand capacity and build a more resilient public health system at home.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca