NDP promises to hire more home care workers

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This article was published 10/09/2023 (801 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s NDP is promising to hire 100 new home care workers and offer financial incentives to workers if the party is elected in October.

Party Leader Wab Kinew made the announcement at a community centre in St. Boniface packed with seniors and home care workers Sunday afternoon.

“More home care workers will mean no more cancelled appointments,” Kinew told the dozens of people gathered. “It will mean no more shortened visits. It will mean people show up to help you with the things you need assistance with … and not have to rush out to another appointment.”

Kinew said the NDP will offer hiring incentives and an increased mileage rate. The party’s pledge is to move the mileage rate from .45/km to the Canada Revenue Agency rate of .68/km. The mileage increase and hiring incentives — which Kinew described as “financial” incentives — are expected to cost $5 million.

Asked how confident the NDP is its ability to fulfil its 100 worker hiring promise, Kinew said there are more than 100 former workers who’ve been recently “forced out” of the workforce because they were losing pay due to low mileage. This promise would bring them back, he said.

The 100 workers is “just the start,” Kinew said, acknowledging there is a need to hire more workers in rural and northern parts of the province in addition to Winnipeg.

Debbie Boissonnault, president of CUPE 204, agreed the incentive will draw workers back.

“I hear from members all the time that if they got proper mileage and proper benefits, which they haven’t gotten out of this current government, that they would stay in the program,” Boissonnault told the crowd, adding that workers are often in their cars driving from appointment to appointment, which can be costly in gas and wear on a vehicle.

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“This is a big incentive that will keep (home care workers) in their jobs.”

Kinew said home care workers are essential as they allow seniors to age in place. Their services can also help free up hospital beds, allowing those who need extra care to get it at home rather than in hospital.

Coinciding with the announcement, the NDP released data from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority showing 80,000 homecare visits were cancelled this year. The rate of cancellations to total visits was just under 5 per cent.

The PCs did not respond to a request for comment on the announcement Sunday.

katrina.clarke@freepress.mb.ca

Katrina Clarke
Investigative reporter

Katrina Clarke is an investigative reporter at the Winnipeg Free Press. Katrina holds a bachelor’s degree in politics from Queen’s University and a master’s degree in journalism from Western University. She has worked at newspapers across Canada, including the National Post and the Toronto Star. She joined the Free Press in 2022. Read more about Katrina.

Every piece of reporting Katrina 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.