Bereavement day can wait: Tory house leader

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This article was published 24/05/2022 (1244 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A private member’s bill to create a bereavement day in May to remember Manitobans who died of substance use likely won’t be passed before MLAs break for the summer.

New Democrat MLA Bernadette Smith’s bill, which would proclaim the Sunday before Mother’s Day “Drug-Related Death Bereavement Day,” received second reading last month. The Tory government supported it.

But it likely won’t become law until the session resumes in the fall.

Smith said Tuesday she had hoped it would’ve passed before June 1.

“Families can’t afford to wait,” Smith said, noting 407 people died from overdose last year and 387 Manitobans died by overdose in 2020.

She said passage of the bill would reduce the stigma of substance use.

“People are using in isolation and not seeking supports because of the stigma,” said the MLA for Point Douglas who has lost family members to substance use.

“This is a way for this government to show leadership,” she said.

Government house leader Kelvin Goertzen said it’s an issue of scheduling. He said Smith was creating a “false emergency” by insisting that it needed to pass before the house rises next week.

“We’re sitting until November so there’s plenty of time to move on that and other bills,” he said.

Time was lost when the NDP delayed passage of the school tax rebate bill, worth $349 million to taxpayers, he said.

“When you stop one bill, you stop all bills,” said Goertzen, noting his party is committed to passing a bereavement bill.

“My father died from addictions. It’s important to me, too.”

— Carol Sanders