The freedom to live a good life

Fort Rouge

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/10/2024 (432 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the year since our election I have seen the best of Manitobans in a new light. I have seen what happens when people have the freedom to live happy, healthy, safe and affordable lives.

I stood next to our veterans who stormed the beaches on D-Day in France to free Europe from Nazi tyranny and heard their stories of loss and bravery. I sat with educators and children as our government fulfilled a promise to make sure each child in our province will eat healthy food when they go to their school this year. I listened to the brave families of murder victims as we moved forward to search the Prairie Green Landfill to try and find the remains of their family.

This past year I have also seen the many challenges we face as a province. I heard sadness and pain in the people of Carman who experienced terrible violence and unimaginable grief. I saw the concern and fear in the faces of wildfire evacuees in Northern Manitoba who were far from their home and uncertain if they could ever return. I have travelled to hospitals across the province to hear first-hand from the front lines the challenges we face in fixing our health-care system.

All of it has been a humbling experience. A trying experience. A difficult experience. An amazing experience.

Lately I’ve been thinking about how important it is to defend our most fundamental freedoms. Some of our political opponents want to decide who benefits, who gets health care and who gets ahead. Our government wants to give you the freedom to live a good life.

They want to decide what you’re paid, we want to you to be free to negotiate a fair salary. They want to decide who benefits in our economy, we want to give you to be free to pursue opportunity. They want to decide your identity, we want you to be free to be yourself, openly and with pride.

Our approach to governing is about celebrating our province and showing compassion for all Manitobans. After so many years of division, I know expectations are high. It can be easy to be cynical.

We’ve made so much progress in just this first year. On health care, we’ve added 873 net new health-care workers to our system—putting us on track to meeting our promise to add 1,000 new staff. We’ve opened neighbourhood clinics across the province (and announced a clinic coming soon to Misericordia for nearby residents, including Fort Rouge). We’ve moved forward on big projects — projects like building a new Victoria ER with added addictions services for women and restoring the Mature Women’s Centre closed by the previous government.

We’ve also taken steps to make your life more affordable. We cut the gas tax to save you money at the pump, and we’ve recently extended this cut to the end of the year. We brought in a new $1,500 tax credit for homeowners and we increased the renter’s tax credit. We implemented free prescription birth control for every single person in our province. Plus, we’ve increased EIA support for the most low-income people in our communities to help them make ends meet.

Together, we rolled up our sleeves and got our hands into the work that needed to be done. We’re a year in, and our work is just beginning. I encourage you to keep sharing your stories, concerns, and ideas with our team. This is how we can continue to make life better for the people of our province – by working together.

If you want to connect with us about life here in Fort Rouge, you can find us at 2-565 Osborne Street, call us at 204-615-1922, or email wab.kinew@yourmanitoba.ca