New health minister pledges to learn from Manitoba's earlier pandemic mistakes

Manitoba's new health minister says the province is learning from mistakes made earlier in the pandemic, hints at a return of reproductive health to her portfolio and won't rule out a future run for premier.

Heather Stefanson was appointed Manitoba's new Minister of Health and Seniors Care on Jan. 5, during a cabinet shuffle that saw her replace beleaguered former health minister Cameron Friesen.

The 20-year Tuxedo MLA, who moved over from the families portfolio and has also served as justice minister in Brian Pallister's Progressive Conservative government, says she knows Manitobans are nervous 11 months into a pandemic that thus far has claimed the lives of 813 people in this province and sickened nearly 29,000 others.

"Nobody has a rulebook for how to deal with things during this kind of a pandemic," Stefanson said in an interview on Wednesday, referring to the province's pandemic response during the fall.

"Certainly we're all learning from mistakes not only that are made locally, but that are made nationally and internationally."

For many Manitobans, the local mistakes stand out. They include multiple failures last fall to meet the demand for COVID-19 tests, ramp up contact-tracing capacity when cases started to spike and prevent fatal outbreaks from racing through personal care homes.

Stefanson said she is meeting with doctors, nurses, pharmacists and First Nations health experts in an effort to get up to speed about what she concedes is a challenging portfolio.

"I'm not a health care worker coming to this role. I have a lot to learn. I will continue to learn and work in a collaborative way to ensuring that we take that common-sense approach to this pandemic," she said.

The biggest task ahead of her is ensuring the success of Manitoba's COVID-19 immunization plan, which has come under fire for a slow start and, relative to several other provinces, the delayed disclosure of a plan that outlines which groups will get a needle first.

On Wednesday, during her first appearance at a public health briefing as the minister in charge, Stefanson said Manitoba is in "very, very good hands" with a vaccination task force she described as "an incredible team of experts."

That team must figure out how to scale up the administration of daily doses from roughly 1,300 shots a day this month to upwards of 6,000 a day, if the province intends to meet its goal of giving two shots each to 70 per cent of Manitoban adults — roughly 725,000 people — by the end of 2021.

"I think we do have a great team," Stefanson said. "I can't promise that mistakes aren't going to be made and that we're going to make all the right decisions, but I think we need to continue to move forward and make decisions and make sure that we provide as much information to Manitobans as we possibly can."

Stefanson also outlined health-care priorities beyond the provincial pandemic response.

She hinted she will soon reclaim responsibility for reproductive health, an area her predecessors Friesen and Kelvin Goertzen refused to address during their time as health ministers.

"Stay tuned on that front," she said, suggesting a reversal of a statement made by her office earlier in January, when a spokesperson said reproductive health will remain the purview of the minister responsible for the status of women.

 "When I came in to the portfolio, it just wasn't obviously a top of mind when we're in the middle of a pandemic and everything else. But we've had further discussions about that."

Stefanson also pledged to continue to restructure Manitoba's health-care, though she conceded the pandemic has stretched out the timeframe for promised changes that include the conversion of rural hospitals into personal-care homes.

She also said she's focused on "increasing capacity and choice in seniors' care," which she says will not just involve improving the quality of care homes.

"If we start to look at providing more choices for seniors to maybe remain at home a little bit longer, those kinds of things where you're not relying as much the congregate care settings, those are the types of choices, I think, that we want to roll out and offer to Manitoba families and seniors," she said.

The death of hundreds of Manitoba personal-care-home residents during the fall COVID-19 surge helped usher Friesen out of the health portfolio and damaged his prospects of becoming Manitoba's premier.

Stefanson declined to say whether she fears serving as health minister during a pandemic will impede ambitions of her own.

"We have a premier right now, and so and I'm just going to remain focused on, obviously, my job here. We have a pandemic going on. I think this is one of the most important roles that we have right now," she said.

At the same time, Pallister's trusted ally would not rule out a run to succeed him after he departs.

"I'll wait for that opportunity if and when it becomes available."

Serving as health minister during a pandemic

4 years ago

Duration 1:55

Manitoba's new health minister says the province is learning from mistakes made earlier in the pandemic, hints at a return of reproductive health to her portfolio and won't rule out a future run for premier.