Shared Health administration costs targeted in 'salty' Manitoba election debate focused on health care
Wab Kinew says NDP will find savings; Heather Stefanson says it's more complicated than he thinks
NDP Leader Wab Kinew is promising to cut administration at Shared Health, but the premier is casting doubt Kinew will generate the savings he says are needed to improve Manitoba's battered health-care system.
At a provincial leaders' forum hosted Tuesday by the Association of Manitoba Municipalities, Kinew alleged "nobody can explain the benefits" of Shared Health, which the Progressive Conservative government created in 2018 to help co-ordinate health-care service delivery and planning across the province.
"Probably most people in the room couldn't even tell you where the front door to Shared Health is," Kinew told the crowd, while vowing to redirect those savings to the front lines of health care.
Kinew wouldn't explain to reporters where he'd find these savings, but Progressive Conservative leader, and premier, Heather Stefanson panned the idea as something more easily said than done.
"It's very easy for an opposition party, and I spent some time there myself, to get up and say whatever they want and promise the moon, but he doesn't explain how he's going to go about doing that," she told reporters afterwards.
"It's much more complicated, I think, than he envisions."
Any savings the NDP would find in Shared Health would be a small fraction of Manitoba's overall health-care department budget of $7.1 billion. The last annual report from Shared Health states $75 million was spent on administration costs.
Hiring more health-care workers
The three main party leaders — Kinew, Stefanson and Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont — all pledged during the pre-election debate as part of AMM's spring convention to hire more health-care workers.
Kinew promised incentives to entice people to work in rural Manitoba, while Lamont said all health-care staff would get bonus money if the Liberals are elected.
Stefanson said her government is on its way to hiring the 2,000 additional health-care workers it promised last year. After the debate, she said her government is in discussions about further incentives.
Over the course of 80 minutes, Stefanson, Kinew and Lamont tackled a range of municipal issues, stemming from provincial funding commitments to health care and public safety, in a debate attended by a few hundred municipal officials and elected representatives.
The premier, whose PC government has trailed the New Democrats in opinion polls for two years, attempted to frame the provincial leaders' forum held at the RBC Convention Centre in Winnipeg as a choice between the facts she's offering, and the fiction conveyed by the other parties.
It was, at times, a testy affair; AMM president Kam Blight called it "salty" as he thanked the leaders afterwards for their participation. Stefanson interrupted Kinew on a few occasions, chuckling when Kinew pledged mineral development, despite signing the Leap Manifesto that proposes a transition away from fossil fuels, and stating Kinew was "wrong" for stating the PCs have cut health care.
"The only fiction is that the PCs are going to change now that there's an election coming in Manitoba," Kinew said in response to Stefanson's claims the NDP was spouting false information.
"My view of politics is this: If you can't get it done in two terms, you don't deserve a third" term.
Stefanson alleged the NDP has a "hidden agenda" to raise taxes on Manitobans. Kinew denied the charge, but did not commit to continuing with the Tories' long-term plan to phase out education property taxes.
The NDP leader opened the debate by saying that he thinks everyone in Manitoba wants a change in their provincial leadership, "even the PCs are trying to argue that they're going to change if they get another chance to form government."
He said Manitobans can see through the government's spending largesse in the lead-up to the provincial election scheduled for Oct. 3.
Kinew joked the government's recent decision to end the six-year municipal funding freeze was the first 2023 election commitment from the NDP to be fulfilled, since his party was the first to make that pledge last year.
The premier said Kinew is trying to take credit for the Tories responding to what Manitobans want.
"What that means, though, is that they admit that we are taking action on your behalf. We're listening and we're getting things done," Stefanson said.
Stefanson didn't 'emerge from the wilderness:' Lamont
Lamont said Stefanson doesn't get to claim her government is different. The funding freeze began in 2017, the second year of Brian Pallister's time in office. Stefanson took over in late 2021.
"She did not emerge from the wilderness or from outside of the party to suddenly take it over," Lamont said.
"At this point, in a sense, the government is running against itself and its own record."
Lamont said the PCs should have helped municipalities earlier by giving them a share of the ballooning federal transfer funds.
He proposed the creation of an infrastructure secretariat that would understand the needs of municipalities, while Kinew promised a blue-ribbon panel of local leaders and municipal officials to decide upon the biggest infrastructure priorities.
All three party leaders said they'd consult with municipal leaders on developing a multi-year funding commitment.
As well, Kinew vowed to balance Manitoba's budget by 2027, one year earlier than the PCs' current pledge of 2028.
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With files from The Canadian Press