Stefanson, Gordon speak in incomprehensible election-year tongues Tories’ murky health-care staffing ‘plan’ a clumsy attempt at misdirection while hospital system collapses By: Tom Brodbeck Posted: 7:00 PM CST Friday, Mar. 3, 2023

Opinion

As political gimmicks go, the Stefanson government’s so-called health human-resource plan is not a very good one. The “plan,” to hire 2,000 front-line health-care workers, contains no breakdown by job type, no details of how it may improve vacancy rates at individual hospitals and does not include a timeline.

They’re not even faking it well.

Reporters have been trying to get those details from government for weeks and months, but to no avail. When pressed again this week as the legislature resumed sitting, Premier Heather Stefanson and Health Minister Audrey Gordon responded with little more than gibberish and non-answers.

Stefanson was asked Wednesday what the projected timeline is to hire 2,000 more health-care workers. She didn’t have the foggiest idea.

“It’s a good question,” the premier said. “We want to get them done as quickly as we possibly can.”

Given the crisis in health care and the desperate need for more nurses and other front-line staff (many of whom fled after the Tory government’s hospital consolidation plan was implemented), that was a spectacularly lame answer. It got worse.

“We’re competing against other provinces that are looking for the same, you know, human resources,” said Stefanson. “We’re moving as quickly as we can and we hope to get those, you know, done as soon as we possibly can.”

When drafting a strategic human-resource plan, it’s critical to have a high level of detail, including vacancy rates and projected timelines to estimate when and where shortages may be filled. Progress can’t be measured without those kinds of specifics. The vacancy rate for nurses in Manitoba is almost 25 per cent. Yet under this so-called plan, there are no system-wide progress reports on that metric.

“We’re competing against other provinces that are looking for the same, you know, human resources… We’re moving as quickly as we can and we hope to get those, you know, done as soon as we possibly can.”–Premier Heather Stefanson

“I think it’s difficult to set targets, I think we’re moving in that direction, we’re committed to that,” said the premier, when asked again for details. “We’ll work with whoever will work with us to make sure that we get that done.”

It’s difficult to know what that even means.

Gordon didn’t fare any better. The health minister was asked the next day what the timeline is for hiring 2,000 health-care workers and whether it would be a net increase.

“It will be a net increase and I was pleased to share where some of that increase will come from — from our Philippine recruitment mission — and we’re also adding individuals across the system,” Gordon said. “I look forward in my next update to sharing those numbers with you.”

The minister was asked a followup question, but she walked away. It was the second consecutive day Gordon bolted from reporters in the rotunda at the legislature, where a microphone is set up for politicians to answer questions.

Most cabinet ministers hold court for at least 10 to 15 minutes with the media, sometimes longer, to answer questions about pressing issues. Gordon was at the microphone for about six minutes when her assistant pulled her from the scrum — a common occurrence for the health minister, who doesn’t know her files well.

If she did, and if the Tories’ health human-resource plan was legitimate, the minister would be able to provide the public with information such as vacancy rates by hospital and estimated timelines for filling them. She would be able to share full-time equivalent staffing projections, especially on medical wards, where a severe shortage of personnel is causing bottlenecks in emergency departments.

Effective ministers demand action from their departments. They ask questions of their senior officials and ensure they receive regular briefings and progress reports they can share with the public. They don’t walk away when asked legitimate questions.

It’s the Stefanson government’s job to find concrete solutions to fix what they broke, not to steer public attention away from it.

Stefanson says the staffing shortage is “not unique to Manitoba.” To some degree that’s true. But it’s also a disingenuous statement.

Manitoba’s staffing crunch is driven by several factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic and a national shortage of medical professionals. However, it’s also the result of a botched hospital consolidation plan implemented between 2017 and 2019 that included funding cuts to hospital budgets.

It’s the Stefanson government’s job to find concrete solutions to fix what they broke, not to steer public attention away from it. The long-term damage that was caused is real. It can’t be covered up by a fantasy health human-resource plan.

tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca

Tom Brodbeck
Columnist

Tom has been covering Manitoba politics since the early 1990s and joined the Winnipeg Free Press news team in 2019.

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