April 19, 2023

Treaty 1 and Dakota Territory, Homeland of the Red River Métis, Winnipeg MB— While surgeons at the Grace Hospital say they’ve been ignored by Premier Stefanson, and her wait times task force is losing doctors, the NDP revealed the Premier has only spent a fraction of the healthcare funding set aside in August, 2021 by Brian Pallister.

“Our healthcare system is in crisis because of the choices Brian Pallister and Premier Stefanson made,” said NDP health critic Uzoma Asagwara. “Now we’re learning that Premier Stefanson won’t even invest the funding Brian Pallister promised. Brian Pallister created chaos in healthcare with his cuts. And Premier Stefanson just made it worse.”

In 2021, Brian Pallister announced $812 million in healthcare funding. Manitoba Health documents show that Premier Stefanson has only spent 6% of that funding to date. Because of this broken promise, the timeline for completion of the Brandon Regional Health Centre has been pushed back three years, to 2026. This means families in Westman are waiting longer for healthcare.

“The provincial government’s most important responsibility is delivering timely, high quality healthcare to families,” said NDP leader Wab Kinew, who raised this issue in Question Period. “Premier Stefanson said she’d be different, but she’s spending less at the bedside than what Brian Pallister promised. Our team has the solutions to start fixing healthcare and helping families.”

You can read the FIPPA document here.