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Grace expansion feels like pre-election ploy

Premier Heather Stefanson made a curious announcement this past weekend. The premier pledged on Sunday that her government plans to triple the size of Grace Hospital’s intensive-care unit.

Construction on the project is expected to begin in the summer of 2024, the premier announced. However, there is no completion date, or even a rough estimate of when the new ICU beds might come online. The province has allocated $30 million to the project (along with a contribution of $5 million from the Grace Hospital Foundation), but there is no overall budget for construction costs.

The hospital released no drawings or design work for the proposed renovation, which is supposed to include up to 20 additional ICU beds (on top of the current 10). When Ms. Stefanson was asked how the hospital plans to staff the expanded unit — the most important part of the project — the premier did not know.

Without those details, or evidence that any real planning went into this proposed expansion, Ms. Stefanson’s announcement offers little hope that chronic overcrowding at the hospital will ease any time soon. It was more wishful thinking than a concrete plan to improve patient care.

Walking it back

Portage and Main has long been considered Winnipeg’s most famous intersection.

Infamous may be more appropriate.

Since 1979, Portage and Main — the confluence of this city’s two main non-river arteries — has been closed to pedestrians. Crossing at the intersection involves navigating a confusing underground concourse populated by businesses that close at 6 p.m., and is accessed by poorly maintained, poorly lit stairwells. Traversing Portage and Main is an accessibility nightmare for those with disabilities, and a baffling ordeal for tourists and newcomers to the city.

The word iconic gets bandied about a lot when describing Portage and Main. What, exactly, is “iconic” about crumbling concrete barricades? The intersection is a reliable source of debate and, once, a go-nowhere plebiscite. And that’s about it.

Health-care task force or task farce?

Time is of the essence when it comes to diagnostic testing and life-altering surgeries. Yet, thousands of Manitobans remain in limbo, suffering through pain and medical anxiety, while the provincial government celebrates dismal progress on health-care wait lists.

Earlier this month, members of the diagnostic and surgical recovery task force convened with media to announce that pandemic-era backlogs had been cut by 30 per cent over the last 16 months.

Although backlogs have been eliminated in 10 key areas of the health system — including for cataract surgeries, ultrasounds and CT scans — task force leadership admitted that clogs persist for many other procedures and that much of its wait time data was guesstimated.

This important task force is quickly becoming a farce.

With rail safety, don’t wait until it’s too late

It was literally a train wreck, albeit a small one: 12 railway tank cars containing bitumen, a heavy oil byproduct, went off the tracks just over a week ago right in the city, on top of the rail overpass at McPhillips Street.

Maybe a train wreck is too strong.

Maybe you could just call it a warning.

Canadian Pacific didn’t have much to say about the incident. Here’s their entire response: “CPKC crews responded to an incident involving the derailment of rail cars being moved at slow speeds in the Winnipeg yard. All of the derailed cars remained upright. There were no leaks and no spills of any product. No dangerous goods were involved. (There) were no injuries. CPKC regrets the inconvenience the incident has caused motorists.”

Capacity key for working daycare system

On April 2, parents in Manitoba received a boon: daycare at $10 per day.

It’s great news if you have a child in daycare. Licensed care, of the sort that can put parents at ease while they head to work for the day, hasn’t come cheaply for Manitobans.

The province is quite proud of instituting the new, cheaper rate — advertisements touting the new rate, the result of joint federal-provincial funding, are easy to find — but if parents don’t already have a spot for their children, or much hope for one, the rate doesn’t matter much at all.

According to the Manitoba Child Care Association (MCCA), there were 16,605 children on the province’s online child-care registry list as of June 2018. Of those kids, 12,838 needed a spot within three months. Since then, the province has replaced the online registry with a new search tool for parents to find care.

Base changes to bail on facts, not fears

Federal Justice Minister David Lametti should tread carefully when deciding whether Canada’s bail laws should be changed.

Provincial premiers and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police have for several months been calling on Ottawa to enact laws to make it more difficult for repeat, violent offenders to be released on bail pending the outcome of their court cases.

The premiers and the CACP renewed their calls last week, arguing more stringent bail provisions are necessary to protect the public from chronic, dangerous offenders.

Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson, chair of the Council of the Federation, said changes should be made immediately to improve public safety.

Our nation meets the coronation

King Charles III, who will be crowned on May 6, has yet to persuade Canadians he is the king they want. About half the country would rather have no king at all, the Angus Reid Institute found in a recent survey.

Canada’s monarchy, though based in Britain and little loved here, will nevertheless survive as a part of this country’s governing structure. The Canadians who agree in wanting to get rid of their foreign monarchy are not even close to agreeing on what to put in its place.

The Angus Reid survey found that 52 per cent of respondents did not want Canada to continue as a constitutional monarchy — that is to say, a country whose hereditary head of state is limited by a constitution.

Australia went through a debate about this in the 1990s. At the 1998 constitutional convention, a majority of delegates favoured a republic.

Time for action on Orange Shirt Day, not political dithering

Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative party is wearing its commitment to reconciliation on its sleeve — and it’s not a good look.

Earlier this month, Premier Heather Stefanson revealed that her party is, again, declining to make Orange Shirt Day a statutory provincial holiday.

“It will be the same as last year in terms of the way it has been dealt with,” she told reporters, citing non-consensus among Indigenous communities and concern for business owners.

The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, which occurs Sept. 30, was designated a federal holiday to honour the victims and survivors of Canada’s residential school system in 2021. In Manitoba, federally regulated offices, schools and some provincial workplaces are closed, yet the event remains just another workday for the majority of residents.

Support for bereavement bill encouraging

Pregnancy loss can be an incredibly difficult and painful experience, both physically and emotionally. It’s also a very common one. Around one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage.

That’s why it’s encouraging that an NDP bill advocating for paid bereavement leave for parents who have experienced a miscarriage or stillbirth seems to be receiving support from all sides of the House.

NDP MLA Amanda Lathlin’s Bill 210 passed second reading last week with a vote of 45-0. All Tory MLAs in the chamber supported the private member’s bill, which would allow parents to take up to three days of paid leave following a miscarriage or stillbirth.

A miscarriage is typically defined as a loss prior to 20 weeks gestation while stillbirth is a loss post 20 weeks gestation. Miscarriage is the most common pregnancy complication.

One-question rule makes Smith’s scorn clear

‘It’s an election, that’s why.”

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith offered that succinct but nevertheless confounding explanation last week for her decision to limit reporters and/or media outlets to one question and no followups as the ruling United Conservative Party heads toward an end-of-May provincial election.

Ms. Smith elaborated slightly on a call-in radio show, stating “We’re sort of getting into election mode, so we have lots of people (and we) want to answer lots of questions.”

The rationale, as laid out by the premier, is that limiting reporters to a single query and no auxiliary questions will allow her to “make sure that we’re getting to as many people as possible” in what’s expected to be a large press following on the campaign trail.

Surveys suggest tax cuts won’t woo voters

Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative party unveiled its new election-style slogan this past weekend: “Fighting for Manitobans.” The rallying cry was shared with party faithful at the Tories’ annual general meeting in downtown Winnipeg, as the party gets set to do battle in a scheduled Oct. 3 provincial election.

“Manitobans need our Progressive Conservative team to fight for them,” Premier Heather Stefanson said during her keynote address.

The CBC gets federal cash — but so do its MP critics

Here’s what Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre wrote on Twitter on Sunday: “BREAKING: CBC officially exposed as ‘government-funded media.’ Now people know that it is Trudeau propaganda, not news.”

Mr. Poilievre’s post came after he requested, earlier in April, that the CBC be identified that way. Twitter acquiesced, adding the line on the main CBC Twitter site.

Health regulators need prescription for transparency

In the “about us” section of its website, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba says its role is to “protect the public as consumers of medical care and promote the safe and ethical delivery of quality medical care by physicians in Manitoba.”

Paltry funding for First Nation firefighting risks lives

What’s the price of safety? Or the going rate for peace of mind?

Let’s do our best not to match the ever-growing political mess to the south of us

“Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, and be prepared to be amazed.”

That was the pitch of carnival barkers, back when there were things you could experience that actually could leave you amazed.

Back when there were things that seemed impossible. Things that were unbelieveable.

Things were different then.

Post-surgical physiotherapy coverage for patients renewed, not expanded

Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative party made a solemn pledge during the 2016 provincial election campaign: it would not cut front-line services in a rush to balance the books.

Lunar missions aren’t just footprints

“We choose to go to the moon.”

It was more than 60 years ago — Sept. 12, 1962, to be precise — when United States president John F. Kennedy uttered those words, a challenge to the world, during a speech in Houston.

It’s almost 54 years since scientists and astronauts with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) fulfilled Mr. Kennedy’s pledge to complete the task before the 1960s ended. People around the world were glued to their television sets to watch Neil Armstrong make one giant leap for mankind July 20, 1969, as part of the Apollo 11 mission.

Smith’s antics play mainly to fringe supporters

Danielle Smith became premier of Alberta last October by winning the leadership of the ruling United Conservative Party following the resignation of Jason Kenney. She must hold an election, her first as UCP leader, before the end of May. She is going about it in a very odd way.

Women in sports subjected to sexist trolling

After Kerri Einarson and her teammates Val Sweeting, Shannon Birchard and Briane Harris won a bronze medal representing Canada at the World Women’s Curling Championship in Sandviken, Sweden, Ms. Einarson did an interview with Postmedia — not about her team’s achievement, but rather the misogynistic abuse slung at her online.