Northern health authority lifts emergency declaration on staff shortage

Manitoba’s northern health authority lifted its emergency declaration one day after it was issued as it prepared to meet with the nurses union to discuss a critical staffing shortage.

The meeting is set for Wednesday after the health minister said Monday’s declaration was made “prematurely”and it was removed Tuesday.

The declaration was issued under the section of the union’s collective agreement that deals with emergency, disaster and fire plans, and was delivered via a memo to the union on Monday.

It applied to the Thompson hospital — specifically the emergency/special care unit, obstetrics and surgery departments — as well as the emergency and special care units at the hospital in The Pas.

The health authority rescinded the declaration late Tuesday afternoon ahead of Wednesday’s session.

“The declaration was made prematurely without having done the due diligence around the options that are available within a very robust, collectively bargained agreement that provides the north with resources and equips them with tools to take extraordinary steps, if necessary, to staff the front lines,” Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said Tuesday.

Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson called the situation “very embarrassing” for the province.

“I think (Northern Health Region) did what they had to do to at least try and provide safe staffing,” she said. “There aren’t a lot of things you can do when you have no staff.”

The declaration would have temporarily suspended certain provisions of the contract for nurses at the sites. If it had remained in effect, it would give employers the authority to assign nurses to duties outside the usual terms of that agreement when necessary to address situations that affect the safety or well-being of patients, residents or clients.

Asagwara said it’s important for the health authority to understand the ins and outs of the collective agreement, and to understand what levers can be pulled.

The minister said the community toolkit to support recruitment and retention, which was launched last week by the government, is one option.

“(They) have a responsibility here and a role in making sure you’re showcasing what the north has to offer… being creative in terms of training people… and recruiting folks to their community,” the minister said.

Jackson said the emergency declaration due to staffing woes was unprecedented.

“This is frightening,” she said earlier Tuesday before it was withdrawn.

Jackson said nurses are exhausted and overwhelmed as vacancy rates continue to climb, and there’s no plan to address the issue.

Two nurses at the Thompson hospital will soon go on maternity leave, which will translate to a 73 per cent vacancy rate at the hospital.

“It’s absolutely unsustainable,” Jackson said, noting the emergency declaration would have meant nurses would work more shifts. “How do you run an emergency department with three-quarters of your staff missing?”

Thompson is closing its special care unit from April 30 at 7 p.m. to May 8 at 7 p.m., an internal memo obtained by the Free Press on Tuesday says.

Jackson said these units in rural areas are similar to intensive care units, and the closure means patients will need to be sent away for care.

“It puts yet another burden on Winnipeg, which already has its own issues with flow, bed utilization and movement,” she said.

Progressive Conservative health critic Kathleen Cook said Tuesday the emergency declaration was unprecedented.

“The vacancy rate in Thompson is astounding, particularly when you consider that just a few months ago, the premier was out telling anybody who would listen that Manitoba has enough nurses.”

“Well, clearly, we don’t.”

Cook said there must be more incentives for nurses to work up north.

She said training should take place there because once people move south for schooling, they are less likely to return to the north.

“Providing training opportunities closer to home, retention incentives, training reimbursements to make it more appealing for them to even enter the profession in the first place,” Cook said. “When we’re looking at something like a 73 per cent vacancy rate, it’s time to pull out all the stops and do what you need to do to get those numbers back up.”

Last November, nurses voted overwhelmingly to grey-list the Thompson hospital to push for safety improvements.

Grey-listing warns people not to work at a facility because the employer doesn’t maintain professional standards.

Unionized nurses began considering grey-listing the Thompson hospital in 2024, after a man fired a gun inside the hospital on Christmas Eve, and after a stabbing in the emergency waiting room in September 2025.

The nurses union said RCMP were called to the hospital more than 550 times in 2024.

Health Sciences Centre and St. Boniface Hospital have also been grey-listed.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca