Manitoba added no new personal care beds in 2016-17, despite Tory election promise

The Pallister government broke a campaign promise in not adding any new personal care beds to Manitoba facilities in 2016-17, NDP Leader Wab Kinew says.

During that period, there were "no new personal care home beds added within Manitoba and resultantly no ensuing budgets and/or costs," reads the Nov. 27 response from a freedom of information request filed by Kinew in October.

"When are they [the Pallister government] going to start to actually invest in health care rather than cutting all the time?" Kinew said Tuesday.

In the lead-up to the April 2016 provincial election, ​Brian Pallister's Progressive Conservatives committed to adding 1,200 new personal care beds if voted into power to help slay long wait times for beds.

At an estimated cost of $133,000 per bed, or $160 million in total funding, a spokesperson for Manitoba Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen said the province still plans to make good on its promises.

"We remain committed to our mandate and to working with communities to identify creative funding models that will substantially reduce capital costs," the statement reads.

Goertzen previously said the $133,000 price tag is "two to three times" lower than what it cost per bed under the NDP.

The lack of movement on care beds comes about three months after the Tory government announced it would fund 258 new personal care beds at three facilities in Winnipeg, Steinbach and Carman — areas analysis shows will need them the most over the next 25 years, Goertzen said in September.

The Winnipeg project, Bridgwater Personal Care home, was announced in 2015 by the NDP.

The province also cut over $1 billion in health-care infrastructure projects in February, which included a personal care home in Lac du Bonnet, Man. Kinew brought up that example during question period Tuesday and said the community raised over $2 million toward the project, only to learn this year it wouldn't go ahead as planned.

In response, Goertzen accused the previous NDP government under Greg Selinger of making much ado about a sod turning event in Lac du Bonnet after announcing that project, only to turn its back on the community.

"The took a picture, they cheered for the one shovel of dirt ... they got back in their Hummers and they never returned back to Lac du Bonnet," he said.

Kinew said the failure to add any beds in 2016-17 is a sign the Tories aren't moving fast enough, and a symptom of changes the government is bringing into Manitoba's health-care system.

"We should be adding personal care homes, we should be adding personal care home beds. We shouldn't just be freezing things and allow things to get worse," Kinew said, adding shortages in beds can cause backups in acute care facilities and make wait times longer.

In addition to the three facilities in Carman, Winnipeg and Steinbach getting more personal care beds, Goertzen previously said Holy Family Personal Care home in the north part of Winnipeg will be expanding. Nearly 160 beds are expected to be added there by late 2018.

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