Board member resigns, slams Manitoba health minister's 'blame game' on overspending
David Moriaux says province wrong to blame health authorities; health minister doesn't respond to accusations
A board member with a western Manitoba health authority has abruptly resigned, saying he feels its leadership is being unfairly blamed by the health minister for cost overruns.
"I will not be part of the blame game for the impending health-care funding crisis that's coming," said David Moriaux, who stepped down as a Prairie Mountain Health board member last month.
Moriaux, who is also the deputy mayor of Swan River, said the "straw that broke the camel's back" was a Dec. 16 news conference in which the NDP government reported the projected deficit for the current fiscal year had increased by half a billion dollars, to a total of $1.3 billion.
Health-care costs were the biggest driver of the deficit. Finance Minister Adrien Sala's report said health regions, which overspent by $230 million, had "longstanding failures to deliver services within funding or anticipate financial pressures."
"Overages in health spending are not only accepted but assumed unavoidable," Sala claimed.
Less than a week before, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said regional health authorities had been instructed to redirect eight per cent of their funding from its bureaucracy to the front lines and clinical services, a target they called "very achievable."
External audits into several health authorities are slated to be released this year.
But Moriaux said costs are escalating because of the use of private agency nurses, an expensive substitute for publicly funded nurses.
The government has said it's working to reduce its reliance on nursing agencies, but "until you have that new model and staffing in place … there's basically nowhere to cut expenses to match your revenues," said Moriaux.
The government's frequent targeting of administrative costs is misguided, as only so much bureaucracy can be cut "before you start seeing the negative effects," he said.
'Massage or lie' about budget
Moriaux also alleges the government wants Prairie Mountain Health to "massage or lie" about its budgetary figures.
In the fall, the health authority presented a budget for the upcoming 2025-26 fiscal year that showed a $40-million revenue shortfall, he said. In previous years, both NDP and Progressive Conservative governments have accepted budgets with similar funding deficits. The health authority used its reserves to cover the shortfall.
But this year, the province told Prairie Mountain it had to present a balanced budget in advance of the fiscal year.
"We, as a RHA [regional health authority] board, had presented factual numbers that were backed up by data, that's verified year after year and by provincial auditors of the region that were true and accurate, and now you want us to massage or lie on the numbers to make a balanced budget," he said.
That's "inappropriate, so that's just not me," said Moriaux.
He believes the province is punting the deficit problem down the road, and said he's "not going to be part of the finger-pointing" if the health authority reports a year-end deficit that doesn't match the preliminary balanced budget.
Prairie Mountain Health CEO Treena Slate disagreed with Moriaux's characterization that the region faces a "funding deficit," saying it's actually "an overexpenditure largely related to agency nursing and overtime costs."
"Our budgeting practices have been changed to reflect that this is the case," she said in a statement, and Prairie Mountain "continues to work with the provincial government to be fiscally responsible."
Health minister blames PCs
Asagwara declined to answer questions about Moriaux's allegations, but said in a statement a large bureaucracy and strained health-care system are the fault of the former PC government, which was defeated in 2023.
"We've put an end to the previous government's failed strategy, but reversing the damage it caused will take time," Asagwara said.
The minister, who ordered health authorities and service delivery organizations last September to redirect eight per cent of their bureaucracy funding to front lines and clinical services, said the province has received "remarkable co-operation" from leadership.
Moriaux, who was appointed along with the rest of the board by the former PC government, said his criticism of the government's approach has nothing to do with his own political leanings.
In his resignation letter, he said he's holding true to his "beliefs, values and reputation" by stepping aside.
He announced his resignation on Dec. 18 during a public board meeting, a Prairie Mountain spokesperson said.
Another board member, Jana Knight, said she wouldn't speak on behalf of Moriaux or other board members, but said she supports his decision.
"I think he has a very strong moral stance on the issues facing Prairie Mountain Health and he is a man with a lot of integrity, and that's what he felt like he had to do in order to maintain his integrity."
She said nursing agency costs are particularly high in Prairie Mountain because it is a geographically vast, predominantly rural region far from Winnipeg, the province's largest population centre.
In the first three quarters of the 2023-24 fiscal year, $21 million of the provincewide $56 million agency nurse spend was billed by Prairie Mountain.
The funding from the province isn't sufficient to support current programming amid inflationary pressures, she argued.
"We're all here to work together to try to find a way out," Knight said.
"And for the health minister to point … [their] finger and say, 'actually, it's the board of directors' fault because they're overspending,' it undermines everything that everybody in that office works for every day."
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