Government failing disabled people

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/09/2023 (768 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This summer, the Free Press published a series, written by Katie May, on the Manitoba Wheelchair Program, a provincial service operated by Manitoba Possible, funded by the province and administered through the WRHA. Sept. 16, the paper published followup coverage, revealing the provincial government’s latest refusal to support the vital funding appeals of the Manitoba Wheelchair Program.

The Manitoba Wheelchair Program provides wheelchairs to over 14,000 Manitobans through cost-effective refurbishing and procurement measures. For over 11 years, funding for this essential public service has been frozen, despite an ever-increasing demand for wheelchair services and cost increases. Despite 10 years of repeated pleas for additional financial support and cautionary briefings on the impending crisis should such support be denied, our provincial government failed to act. Then, after it was called out for its inaction, it responded with deflection.

The greatest injustice in all of this is, of course, the further anguish brought to people like Mr. Tom Landy, Mr. Alex Lytwyn and Mr. Kristopher Blake.

These three individuals openly shared their stories about being confined to their homes, placing their livelihoods at risk and adversely impacting their mental health, while waiting for government leadership to step in and uphold their human right to essential mobility equipment. After their media appeal for help, they were exposed to further harm by a rather callous response from the government.

When asked for comment by the Free Press about the situations of Mr. Landy, Mr. Lytwyn and Mr. Blake, a government spokesperson responded by stating they had not received a request for additional funding for the Manitoba Wheelchair Program.

Manitoba Possible, in turn, provided proof of its request for increased funding. Further, this spokesperson stated that an additional $500,000 of funding was provided to Manitoba Possible to support the Manitoba Wheelchair Program, despite knowing full well that this funding was earmarked for a different chronically underfunded program operated by the agency.

The provincial government took no accountability. Instead, it chose to undermine the credibility of a non-profit agency delivering an essential service with resources spread so thin it cannot meet current demands on the program, let alone forecast increases for wheelchairs over the years to come. Amazingly, the government blamed their situations on the very agency that has spent years appealing to the government for support.

Manitoba Possible is not the only target of the provincial government’s deflection of responsibility. As previously reported in the Free Press, the provincial government employed deflection tactics to cloud their responsibility for the chronic underfunding of the orthopedic surgery program at the Grace Hospital (Dan Lett, April 19) and the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program at the Health Sciences Centre (Danielle De Silva, March 21). Service providers of these programs were bullied for speaking out about the insufficient funding for these essential healthcare services — a strategy perhaps designed to deter others from speaking out about our province’s fractured health-care system.

So, despite the government’s repeated attempts to revise history, let’s refocus attention on the real issue at hand: the chronic underfunding of essential health-care services by our current provincial government.

You don’t have to be an economist to understand that the cost to deliver services increases over time — a trip to the grocery store demonstrates this reality very well, especially in recent months. Inflation, wages settlements, and increasing demand for health care drive up costs. And, when financial support for programs doesn’t match these cost increases, the result is reduced services — reduced health care — for every Manitoban, whether you need healthcare now or down the road.

Imagine any of Manitoba’s hospitals not getting any funding increase for 11 years.

This is the experience of Mr. Landy, Mr. Lytwyn, and Mr. Blake. Eleven years without a funding increase for the Manitoba Wheelchair Program resulted in reduced services — they have had to wait years for their wheelchairs to be repaired and replaced — even though in Canada access to mobility aids is a protected human right.

The most recent Free Press article reveals that wheelchair technician positions within the program will now go unfilled, resulting in over 850 power and manual wheelchairs going unrepaired this year and compounding backlogs for years to come.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

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This will have profound consequences for wheelchair users across the province. Misters Landy, Lytwyn, and Blake are the tip of the iceberg.

The stories of these individuals are heart-wrenching, and the reactions I have heard from family and friends who read Katie May’s reporting about their stories are of disbelief, outrage, and compassion.

And yet, the response of our provincial government was to undermine the credibility of Manitoba Possible, shifting blame to the service providers, and shirking responsibility for essential health care services.

Manitobans deserve compassionate, responsive, accountable health care.

Dana Erickson is recently retired as Chief Executive Officer of Manitoba Possible and healthcare administrator at Health Sciences Centre for over 25 years, serving as Chief Operating Officer of HSC from 2012-2016.