Seniors care, addiction services top latest round of promises

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This article was published 21/09/2023 (720 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s political parties continued to unleash promises on Thursday as the provincial election campaign moves into the home stretch to the Oct. 3 vote.

The Progressive Conservative Party, Liberal Party and Green Party of Manitoba all held news conferences, announcing an assortment of pledges and priorities.

The Liberals, led by St. Boniface MLA Dougald Lamont, outlined a new “safe at home” strategy that would provide grants of up to $15,000 for seniors to retrofit their homes and enhance accessibility.

The program would include at-home assessments to address the needs of people aged 70-years and older, and would account for their needs and the best way to maintain their independence, with recommendations ranging from at home supports to part-time or long-term care, the Liberals said.

“What many seniors are going through in Manitoba is heartbreaking right now,” Lamont said in a release. “Seniors have spent their lives paying into the health-care system and building our province. We have an obligation to them to ensure they live in dignity and independence.”

Lamont also committed to expanding home-care and palliative-care programs, as well as funding for diabetes drugs, glucose monitors and CPAP machines.

Meanwhile, the Tories promised, if re-elected, to double the number of addiction treatment spaces available in Manitoba through an $8.7-million capital investment.

“This will dramatically increase the resources available to people and families struggling day-to-day,” said Kirkfield Park MLA Kevin Klein, who made the announcement outside the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre in southwest Winnipeg.

The money would fund approximately 1,600 new treatment spaces, building on the current provincial capacity of 1,648. It works out to roughly $5,500 per space.

Klein could not provide a timeline for when the spaces might be available, but said it was a priority for all members of the PC caucus.

“You have to be realistic on that because you can’t promise to do it overnight,” he said. “We have to be fair to Manitobans and not just promise everything is going to change and be better in 24 hours. I know that our premier (Heather Stefanson) is committed to getting to work on this.”

The funds will be allocated using an expression-of-interest system, in which treatment centres apply for financial support. The money will come from the provincial budget and is not contingent on support from stakeholders or other levels of government, Klein added.

The announcement came alongside a slate of other Tory promises, including $10 million in capital funding toward the development of a First Nations-operated drug treatment centre in Winnipeg and a $2.5 million top-up for mental-health care providers.

“This is a revitalized PC party,” Klein said.

The Green Party took shots at all of Manitoba’s major political parties, accusing them of “sleepwalking” in the face of imminent environmental crises.

“These parties are preoccupied with cutting taxes, while simultaneously promising to spend more than their opponents and pledging to balance the budget. None has a clear understanding of the demands the climate emergency will make on all of us,” Green Leader Janine Gibson said.

Gibson, who hopes to win a seat in legislature by way of the Wolseley constituency, said if elected, she will focus on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and transitioning the province away from industrial animal agriculture.

“For a resilient future, Manitoba must feed ourselves, shelter ourselves and move ourselves without fossil fuels,” she said.

While the NDP did not host a media event Thursday, the party has made at least 32 promises since June.

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This week, the party said if elected it will: build a new facility and headquarters for CancerCare Manitoba; increase beds and surgical capacity at the Grace Hospital; remove provincial sales tax from rental builds; construct an airport at Wasagamack First Nation; and help 5,000 families switch to geothermal energy.

Stefanson, Lamont and NDP Leader Wab Kinew were to participate in a televised debate Thursday evening — one day after opinion polls by Angus Reid and Probe Research identified the NDP as having a commanding lead in public support.

The debate was slated to begin at 6 p.m., with live streams available on YouTube.

Advance polls open Saturday.

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.