Liberals promise to protect seniors with independent advocate, improved health care

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This article was published 18/08/2023 (750 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Liberals promised Friday to protect vulnerable seniors by creating an independent office to investigate all reports of abuse.

“There has been a lot of talk this week about crime, about violent crime, and here, the victims of violent crime are seniors,” Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said during a campaign announcement.

Speaking at Andrew Mynarski Park next to Maples Long Term Care Home — where 57 resident died during a 2020 COVID-19 outbreak — Lamont said his party would appoint a seniors advocate if Manitobans elect a Liberal government on Oct. 3.

The advocate would have the power to take complaints and investigate on behalf of seniors and their families and report issues to the legislature. In addition, the advocate would launch unannounced inspections of care facilities to ensure they are compliant with provincial regulations.

Lamont estimated the position would cost approximately $2.6 million to establish and would operate with an estimated $2 million annual budget.

He said his party plans to release its fully costed campaign platform soon.

“This is actually about treating people better to get them out of crisis,” he said. “Once we start caring for people better, frankly, the costs will come down because we are not dealing with people in crisis.”

Lamont went on to admonish both the Progressive Conservative government and the opposition NDP for “10-plus years of inaction” on seniors care.

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“It is not enough for the (Progressive Conservatives) to appoint a commissioner who will tell us two years from now what we already know,” he said, referring to an auditor general’s report published last month outlining violence perpetrated against Manitoba seniors by health-care providers.

“While in government, the PCs and NDP did nothing to fix it.”

In addition to creating the advocate office, Lamont committed to placing nurse practitioners in care homes to provide a higher level of preventative care. He also promised to improve staffing ratios to 4.1 hours of direct care per resident, per day.

Finally, the Liberal government would protect seniors from eviction by preventing future selloffs of affordable housing facilities with legislation requiring government approval of property sales, he said.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.

Every piece of reporting Tyler 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.