Health authority chairman in Arizona should face 'immediate accountability': Manitoba NDP

Members of the Manitoba NDP and Liberals are calling for the immediate removal of the chair of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority after it was discovered that he is in Arizona.

On Wednesday, the Winnipeg Free Press reported that Wayne McWhirter, a provincial government appointee, is in sunny Arizona.

McWhirter was reached by phone the day prior, and would not say how long he has been in the U.S. or why.

In response, NDP health critic MLA Uzoma Asagwara (Union Station) is calling for "swift, immediate accountability."

"We know the sacrifices Manitobans have made during this pandemic to follow the orders," they said in a news conference on Wednesday. "We know many people have wanted to go on vacations, wanted to travel, and have made the decision to stay home and stay safe.

"It's kind of the bare minimum to expect our leaders to do the same."

Current public health orders permit Manitobans to travel outside the province, but Premier Brian Pallister's government and public health officials have strongly advised against it. 

Starting on Friday, new public health orders taking aim at non-essential travellers will mean travellers such as McWhirter will have to self-isolate for 14 days.

Asagawara is calling on McWhirter to resign his post or for him to be removed from it.

"I think that if you're in a position of leadership like that and you're not able, or not willing, rather, to match the commitment of Manitobans and do what's needed to keep everyone safe and stay right here at home in Manitoba, then I think he should consider maybe serving his resignation," Asagawara said.

Manitoba Liberal Party Leader Dougald Lamont also thinks McWhirter should be pulled from his post.

"It's terrible judgment for the chair of the WRHA to go to Arizona," he said.

Newly appointed Health Minister Heather Stefanson says there are no plans to remove McWhirter from his role on the health authority's board, but says he will be expected to quarantine upon his return.

"I know that Dr. [Brent] Roussin] and Dr. [Jazz] Atwal as well as the premier have been very clear that now is not the time for non-essential travel, and we would expect that those individuals to follow the law and and follow the public health order. So when they come home, they will properly isolate according to those those orders.

"At this time, we are not looking to rescind his appointments, no."

In response, Lamont says he's concerned there's a double standard when it comes to public health orders and guidelines, citing the case of MLA James Teitsma [PC Radisson].

Teitsma drove to Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia with members of his household from Dec. 21-30.  Pallister said that he didn't support the decision, but initially wouldn't take any disciplinary actions against Teitsma.

"It's a two tier pandemic where there's one set of rules for Pallister and his buddies and another set of rules for everybody else," Lamont said.

McWhirter isn't the only health-care executive who travelled when advised against it.

Over the holidays, St. Boniface Hospital president and CEO Martine Bouchard went to Quebec to be with her family.

"She did travel to Québec to be with her immediate family over the holidays. When returning to her home in Winnipeg, she follows all public health orders, including self-isolation," a St. Boniface spokesperson said in a prepared statement earlier this month.

Bouchard came under fire last summer when it was revealed she left the province in April at the beginning of the pandemic to work remotely from Quebec and wouldn't be returning until August. 

When she returned in August, she was given a special exemption that meant she did not have to self-isolate.