Now-independent ex-Tory leader skips legislature’s first question period in four months

Crime rates, the cost of living and the state of health care were on the agenda Tuesday when the legislature’s fall sitting began a day after Obby Khan’s abrupt resignation from the Tory caucus.

Khan was absent from question period — the first since June 1 — while the Progressive Conservatives tried to put on a united display and the New Democrats largely ignored supposed turmoil within the opposition.

“The members opposite are disorganized, dysfunctional. We’re clear and focused that Manitobans come first,” deputy premier Uzoma Asagwara told the house after interim Progressive Conservative leader Konrad Narth pressed the New Democrats to explain how they plan to “make Manitoba more affordable, our communities safer (and) our health-care system more accessible.”

Outside the chamber, NDP house leader Nahanni Fontaine told reporters the government is focused on the work it was elected to do, not the Tory leadership.

“It’s not my business what’s going on in the PC caucus. They need to figure themselves out,” she said.

Tuesday’s question period was a subdued affair compared with editions earlier this year, when Speaker Tom Lindsey often scolded MLAs for heckling and a lack of decorum. Khan was rebuked by Lindsey in April for comments he made toward Asagwara.

“It’s not my business what’s going on in the PC caucus. They need to figure themselves out.”

“I would submit that every member in the chamber would like to see folks just doing the work that they’re elected to do, and leaving some of the unfortunate and harmful comments that we’ve seen previously,” Fontaine said of the potential for a change in tone this sitting.

The PCs introduced Narth as interim leader earlier in the day. Khan cited infighting when he announced Monday he would step down as leader and quit the PC caucus. He is now an independent.

The fall sitting began while the NDP enters the final year of a four-year term in government. The next general election must be held on or before Oct. 5, 2027.

Fontaine signalled the NDP’s pre-throne speech priorities include passing three government bills the PCs held back in the spring for further review. One bill will raise the rent control exemption threshold from $1,670 to $2,000.

She said the NDP will introduce additional legislation, including bills related to public safety and health care, but declined to get into specifics. It is unclear when the NDP will present promised legislation to create Canada’s first Crown-Indigenous corporation.

The government is awaiting a Manitoba Labour Board decision on whether Dynacare’s unionized employees provide an essential service. An interim order, sought by the province, halted a brief strike earlier this month. Workers demanded wage parity with their counterparts in the public system.

In question period, Manitoba’s lone Liberal MLA, Cindy Lamoureux, pressed the NDP to take action to close the wage gap.

“We’re still here, we’re resilient and we’re thriving.”

“Dynacare has a responsibility here as the operator, as the employer, to give these workers, these essential workers, a fair deal,” Asagwara, the provincial health minister, told the house.

The majority New Democrats hold 34 seats in the legislature. The Tories have 19 and the Liberals one. Khan joins Dawson Trail MLA Bob Lagassé (a former Tory) and Fort Garry MLA Mark Wasyliw (a former New Democrat) as independents.

Prior to question period, a moment of silence was held to honour Manitoba sheriff’s officer Brett Matheson-Maytwayashing, 27, who died in a collision west of Portage la Prairie while in the line of duty in July.

Earlier Tuesday, MLAs unanimously expressed support for a bill to designate September as Indigenous Heritage Month in Manitoba.

It came a day before the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, held each year on Sept. 30 to honour children who attended residential schools and to remember those who did not return home.

Jennifer Flett, who took her seat in the chamber for the first time as the new NDP MLA for The Pas-Kameesak, acknowledged her father, a residential school survivor, and her mother, an Indian Boarding Home Program survivor, when she spoke in favour of the bill. Flett was born in a racially segregated Indian hospital.

“I think it’s really important that we recognize the Indigenous Heritage Month due to the social history of Indigenous people across this land, and also to identify that, despite the difficulties that we went through, that we’re still here, we’re resilient and we’re thriving,” Flett, wearing traditional regalia, said to applause.

— With files from Carol Sanders

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca