Manitoba NDP criticizes awarding of air ambulance contract to private firm with PC ties

The Opposition NDP is accusing Manitoba's Progressive Conservative government of favouritism in the awarding of an air ambulance contract.

On Monday, Manitoba signed a 10-year contract with Keewatin Air to provide medical air evacuation services to seriously ill or injured patients.

The contract, awarded following a public tender, requires Keewatin to provide a fleet of five planes. Some of them will be jets and others will be turboprop planes, Keewatin's parent company, Exchange Income Corporation (EIC), said in a statement.

Another EIC subsidiary, Carson Air, was awarded a similar 10-year contract by the NDP-led B.C. government in June.

"EIC is excited to continue expanding our medevac business. These two contracts speak to the quality of and confidence placed in our medevac services," CEO Mike Pyle said in a statement.

The New Democratic Party criticized the deal, noting Premier Heather Stefanson's husband, Jason Stefanson, works for CIBC World Markets, which the Opposition party says has acted as an underwriter for EIC.

The NDP says the premier has refused to recuse herself from cabinet when decisions were made regarding the company.

In a statement, NDP health critic Uzoma Asagwara described the Keewatin award as an example of "privatized health care" and claimed the PC government is "now giving the profits to their friends in the dying days of their mandate."

A provincial election is slated for Oct. 3.

Asagwara also noted Keewatin is a defendant in a negligence claim filed by the family of Krystal Mousseau, a Brandon COVID-19 patient who died in 2021 as medical staff prepared to transfer her to an intensive care ward in an Ontario hospital. 

"Manitobans want public, quality health care. Not handouts for the premier's friends and insiders," Asagwara said.

The Stefanson government declined requests to respond to the NDP's claims.

EIC said the NDP claim has no merit.

"The contract was awarded through a competitive public RFP [request for proposals] tender process," EIC president Carmele Peter said in a statement, noting the firm has also won the B.C. medevac contract as well as contracts in four other provinces and territories.

"The medevac contracts we have with the governments of B.C. and Nunavut, for example, are several times larger than this contract with the government of Manitoba and were negotiated with governments of different political stripes," Peter said.

"EIC has also provided medevac transport in Manitoba through Perimeter Aviation and Keewatin for 20 years and has won contracts with the federal government and other nations," she added.

"We are very proud of our accomplishments, our history of performance and the trust instilled in us by the multiple governments with which we do hold contracts. All of this speaks to our credentials to having been awarded the Manitoba air ambulance contract."

In a statement, Manitoba Government Services said the value of the Keewatin contract will be disclosed in late September, 72 days after the award. Two other components of the bid have to be awarded first, said Tobi Brown, a spokesperson for government services.

The province can't reveal the number of companies who bid on the air ambulance work, she added.

"Confidentiality on the number of bidders or bids received is intended to help protect and promote competition in the marketplace and helps provide integrity in the procurement process for future opportunities," Brown said.