NDP extends Dynacare deal despite criticism in opposition

After criticizing the consolidation of laboratories and the for-profit delivery of essential health services while in opposition, the NDP government has signed a five-year agreement with Dynacare to deliver even more community services.

“Manitobans made clear to us that they wanted to see lab services improve in the province,” Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said in an interview Wednesday. “We have come to an agreement with Dynacare that does just that.”

That includes opening seven more blood and urinalysis collection sites in under-served areas of the province, including northeast Winnipeg, rural communities and First Nations, the minister said.

It also includes rapid mobile lab collection for physicians to support family doctors, and a commitment from Dynacare to deliver a mobile app to review test results at no cost to Manitoba patients, said Asagwara, who couldn’t provide a timeline.

The value of the contract is $42.4 million for 2025-26, the same as last year, when the province extended the private Ontario firm’s contract by one year while it reviewed the future of diagnostic testing in the province. At the time, Asagwara did not rule out bringing community laboratory services back into the public sector.

In 2018, Dynacare became the sole provider of community-based specimen collection and analysis services for Winnipeg outside of hospitals after it acquired Unicity Laboratory and X-Ray Services. Dynacare closed 21 lab locations followed by another round of closures that consolidated 25 labs into four Winnipeg “super sites.” The company currently advertises 14 locations in Winnipeg.

The health minister said staying with the for-profit company, in a deal first signed by the previous Progressive Conservative government, is in the best interest of Manitobans.

“Our government prioritizes strengthening the public health-care system,” Asagwara said. “The transition to Dynacare was made (by) the previous government so many years ago that any change away from Dynacare, at this point, would be incredibly disruptive to not only the health-care system, but directly to patients who rely on this service. We want a health-care system that is more stable, more predictable and provides better services.”

The five-year deal aims to increase access and quality of service for things like getting bloodwork done. It will offer more mobile collections in personal care homes so residents don’t need to travel, said Asagwara, who couldn’t provide details.

Dynacare must get the government’s permission to close any site, change hours or modify services.

There are now non-compliance penalties for failing to meet performance indicators like wait times and test accuracy, the minister said.

“Having standards is a pretty basic component of an agreement,” Asagwara said. “It is wildly irresponsible that the previous government didn’t ever have any performance metrics, any accountability measures or standards in their relationship with Dynacare. We have these measures and performance indicators in place and we’re keeping a close eye on them to make sure Manitobans are getting the best value for the dollar.”

The health minister called the agreement “fiscally responsible” and said it allows the province to keep its lab costs stable.

“Manitobans made clear to us that they wanted to see lab services improve in the province.”–Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara

The Manitoba Health Coalition says it is disappointing the province is moving to consolidate and expand private lab services.

“This announcement does not make up for the 46 labs Dynacare closed in Manitoba in 2018,” said Molly McCracken, the coalition’s acting spokesperson.

Closing labs made it harder for seniors and people without access to a vehicle or public transit to obtain those services, she said. In 2025, access to mobile apps is “standard” and could be provided by a public lab service, McCracken said.

“The priority of for-profit laboratory services is to make money — money that should be going into improving public access instead of being paid out to corporate shareholders,” she said.

The health minister said hundreds of unionized Dynacare workers “deliver great services to Manitobans each and every day.”

McCracken said Manitoba should move to the model used in Alberta, where community lab services are publicly delivered by Alberta Precision Laboratories, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alberta Health Services.

Dynacare is a subsidiary of the life-sciences company Labcorp, which reported US$13 billion (nearly $18 billion) in revenue in 2024.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca