Health care and education — not tax cuts

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/12/2023 (988 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In 2019, I wrote an opinion piece looking at the ramifications of the Manitoba PC government’s one per cent tax cut. I predicted this tax cut could affect our health care, education, and our province’s financial well-being. An editor rejected this piece as “too speculative.”

Unfortunately, some predictions do come true: the new NDP government’s just announced our province’s government deficit forecast has quadrupled — it’s now $1.6 billion.

When I wrote about the worrying state of our health care in 2019, our province’s education and retention challenges regarding doctors and nurses concerned me. Manitoba’s nurses are in constant demand. Nurses endured upheaval and extended periods without a contract.

For those without local ties, these disruptions make it appealing to work elsewhere. Nursing shortages could rise further.

In 2019, Red River College announced the elimination of 75 nursing school seats to compensate for loss of provincial funding and rising costs. Now, due to COVID’s continued effects, there’s a huge lack of nursing care. Our system relies on students, micro-credentialing, international recruitment and bringing nurses out of retirement to cope.

As for doctors, we’re in trouble there too. An October 2023 CBC piece indicates: “An annual report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information shows Manitoba has 215 doctors per 100,000 residents, the second lowest rate in the country and well below the national average of 247.”

While Brian Pallister’s government couldn’t predict a pandemic, they cut budgets so much that there were no ‘extra’ professionals in training and no redundancy. There were no resources to fall back on.

Suddenly, the PC government asked university programs to ramp up their nursing programs on very short notice — but no one can educate that many new nurses in such a short time frame.

What’s worse? Nursing educators at the University of Manitoba are paid less than those who work as nurses. Experienced nurses are tired of forced overtime and lack of public health protections from COVID. These veterans are retiring. We cannot train new nurses fast enough.

While NDP Premier Wab Kinew and Minister of Health Uzoma Asagwara say they’re working to improve our health-care situation, it’s not something that can turn around overnight. It’s part of a bigger, provincewide problem. This started with a lack of training spaces for doctors and nurses long ago.

Education in our province is also concerning. It starts with K-12 education. Recent testing indicates a big drop in Canada’s (and Manitoba’s) scores. Experts suggest it can’t just be blamed on COVID; this decline also has to do with how we’re teaching these subjects, too. Lack of science-based approaches affects our students’ performance.

While the new NDP government proposes a provincewide school nutritional program — which is absolutely necessary — we also need to improve teaching methods. We need to study how our province helps students learn, critique it and raise standards. We also need to measure how the education tax rebate may affect classroom funding.

Education extends beyond K-12. Manitoba’s professors continue to be paid less than their academic peers. Professors in Manitoba are our experts. Their skills could help turn things around.

Surprisingly enough, professors who teach economics might have ideas about how to manage the budget, just as education professors can shape curricula that might raise performance levels. Those professors who teach biology to pre-med undergrads could help more students reach medical or nursing school — but only if our province budgets more to provide spots in medical degree programs to train Manitoba’s future health-care professionals.

This lack of future professionals in the caring professions extends beyond humans. We have no academic programming to train veterinarians in our province. We send future vets to Saskatchewan’s veterinary school. The former Manitoba PC government cut the number of spots for Manitobans available there, too. We have a provincial veterinarian shortage.

Improving our health-care and educational systems is a huge, and expensive, task. The ballooning budget forecast is just a sign of what’s happened. When I thought about these issues in 2019, my biggest insights weren’t just based on the data, but by observing cause and effect.

Critical thinking requires us to recognize that our actions have consequences. Cutting taxes means there is less money for expenditures. When funding is cut for vital government services like health care and education, one can assume that there will be serious ramifications down the line. These choices affect Manitoba’s future.

Many people prioritize the lifelong value of a good education, along with maintaining one’s health, saying, “Your health is everything.”

A province that offers poor access to health care and lower educational outcomes disappoints us all. I’m sad my “speculative” piece proved correct over time, but sometimes these issues are too important to leave alone. It’s not nice to say “I told you so” but it’s more important to heed warnings.

Now, it’s up to Wab Kinew and the new NDP government to make difficult choices that will affect us all. Will there be more tax cuts? Will we instead maintain the essential programs and services our province needs to thrive?

Here’s to your health, Manitoba— and to improving our province’s bottom line, too.

Joanne Seiff is a Winnipeg freelance writer and the author of three books.