Leaders trade jabs during radio debate

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This article was published 18/09/2023 (762 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s political leaders tried to poke holes in their opponents’ plans for health care and community safety while recycling their well-worn campaign messaging in a wide-ranging, 90-minute radio debate Monday morning.

The event, hosted by CJOB’s Richard Cloutier, featured Progressive Conservative Leader Heather Stefanson, New Democratic Party Leader Wab Kinew and Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont.

For much of the debate, the leaders stuck to their speaking notes and repeated past promises to address staffing shortages in health care, the rising cost of living and public safety. No new commitments were made.

However, some select policy proposals — including the reopening of three Winnipeg emergency rooms, strengthened parental rights in schools, and police funding — spurred the leaders to exchange a few verbal jabs.

“We don’t want to go back to the days where people are travelling by ambulance between hospitals in Winnipeg to get diagnostic and surgical procedures that they need,” Stefanson said when asked about the NDP’s plan to reopen ERs at Victoria, Concordia and Seven Oaks hospitals.

Rather, Stefanson said, her party is focused on hiring new health-care workers and retaining those currently on the front lines.

“Heather Stefanson — the leader of the PCs — just said she agrees with the decision to close three emergency rooms in Winnipeg, and I’d ask you where has that gotten us as Manitobans,” Kinew rebutted, saying current ER wait times are unacceptable.

On the Tories’ promise to enshrine in the Public Schools Act parents’ right to be involved in addressing a child’s behaviour changes, Kinew accused Stefanson of trying to divide Manitobans on social issues in order to distract from the PCs’ record on health care.

“I’m never going to stand in between you and your child, but I’m also going to stand up for the rights of trans children in our communities,” Kinew said.

Stefanson would not say if her plan will require parental permission for teachers to use a student’s preferred pronouns or name.

“I want to make sure that parents are involved in that, that they are aware of what is going on with their kids at school, so I don’t believe that anyone, any parent, should be left in the dark.”

Lamont said the Tories are raising the issue of parental rights to frighten Manitobans, adding neither they nor the NDP can claim the high ground, given their respective handling of the child welfare system.

Stefanson also panned the NDP’s promises to reform the justice system so small-time offenders leave jail on a better track, saying some NDP candidates support defunding the police. “We need to invest in our police officers,” Stefanson said.

Kinew called the premier’s allegation false and said he will never defund the police.

The debate also focused heavily on natural resources and climate action — areas on which Lamont said the province has fallen behind.

“Mining was in decline under both the NDP and the PCs,” he said, promoting his $300 million “Green Fund.”

Kinew argued the province’s energy future cannot be anchored in natural gas, and proposed hydrogen fuel development as an alternative.

“Let’s get hydrogen projects online in Manitoba, because when we build up the hydrogen industry here we can make more Manitobans build wealth, rather than shipping our wealth out west to the places that produce natural gas,” he said.

Stefanson said her party’s plan will make Manitoba a top destination for mining the critical minerals needed to power electric vehicles.

“We cannot go back to the days of NDP government where the permitting process was horrific. No one could grow their businesses here in Manitoba,” she said.

Health care dominated the balance of the debate, with the three leaders entrenching their positions on staffing, addictions and long-term care.

Stefanson said she continues to oppose supervised consumption sites and refused to characterize homelessness and addictions in downtown Winnipeg as a crisis.

All three leaders said they do not support a mandatory addictions-recovery program like those proposed in other jurisdictions.

Kinew also hinted at plans to reduce support for private, for-profit long-term care homes in Manitoba and to make diagnostic test results available to people without going through a doctor.

“I don’t think that that works with the way we live our lives today,” he said.

Lamont said his party is focused on prevention.

“Making sure people have family doctors is about prevention; making sure people don’t have to pay for diabetes medication is prevention,” Lamont said.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca