The Gerrard Report

It was a really good day with many families and their children at our Family Fun Day.

I am looking forward to being in Boissevain Monday July 31 Roxanne Dan Goodon July 28 at 9:59am  ·  Jon Gerrard  wants to meet you! Come for supper stay for conversation. Monday July 31, 2017 Meet Dr Jon Gerrard Dr Jon Gerrard is your elected Member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba for the riding of River Heights. He has held the seat for River Heights since being elected initially in 1999. He is currently running for the Leadership of the Liberal Party of Manitoba. Between 1985 and 1992, Dr Gerrard was director of pediatric oncology and hematology at the Children’s Hospital. He has also taught medicine at the University of Manitoba between 1980 and 1993. From 1993 to 1997, Dr Gerrard was secretary of state for the Chrétien government. He was the leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party from 1998 until 2013. Casual conversations and wanting your community input on what is happening within our Province. Monday July 31, 2017...

Grace Lake Airport July 11, 2017 during my visit When I was in The Pas two weeks ago, I was able to visit the Grace Lake Airport.  This is the airport that the Conservative government said they wanted to close.  However, this is an important airport which is very close to the community of The Pas and there are considerable reasons for it to stay open. 1) It is the hub airport for Missinippi Air, an important northern airline which provides air services in the north including medical flights going to and from The Pas.   2)    A reason for closing the Grace Lake Airport was that the cost of operations have been more than the revenue generated so that the province has covered these extra costs in recent years.    Missinippi Air is now providing dollars to cover the extra cost of operating Grace Lake Airport above the existing revenue generated and so this is no longer a reason to close Grace Lake Airport.  3) The Town of The Pas do...

Manitoba Liberal Party - Leadership Forum When Tue, August 1:   6 pm – 8pm Where West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave, Winnipeg, MB R3B 1Z8, Canada Description This is the first event of the Manitoba Liberal Party's Leadership Contest.  It is a grassroots forum with party members. Each of the Official Contestants will get an opportunity to speak to the attendees. Then individual members will be able to ask questions. Each contestant will have the chance to respond to each question. The forum will be moderated by former Manitoba Liberal Party president - Sachit Mehra. Doors open at 6:00 pm.  The Forum starts at 6:30 pm. Admission is $5 If you require disability accommodations to participate, please let our Executive Director, Sam Dixon, know in advance.  He can be reached by phone at 204-988-9380 or by email at executive.director@manitobaliberals.ca

Enjoy a good fun afternoon with your family, and have a chance to talk with Jon Gerrard about issues of the day for children and families - including child care and early childhood education, our education system, health care in Manitoba and more. 

Thank you to the Winnipeg-Transcona Rotary Club for their invitation to speak to them about public policy with respect to brain and mental health.  My talk centred on the need to address changes I am advocating for including - an improved approach to addressing homelessness, employing significant numbers of peer support workers, putting some psychological services under medicare as we do for doctors, addressing lifestyle factors important for optimum brain health and ensuring family and community members are helped by health professionals in providing a circle of support for those with brain and mental health issues.

Sadly, too many of the Pallister cuts are misguided because they are aimed directly at reducing budgets for preventing sickness and keeping people healthy.   As this evidence based article systemic review shows, cutting public health budgets is a false economy. This article at http://jech.bmj.com/content/71/8/827 is a carefully written and analytic piece which shows that what is needed is more emphasis on keeping people health not less. The article concludes:  "This systemic review suggests that local and national public health interventions are highly cost-saving.  Cuts to public health budgets in high income countries therefore represent a false economy and are likely to generate billions of pounds of additional costs to health services and the wider economy."   We should be investing more to keep Manitobans healthy instead of less.

Among the recent Pallister government cuts is the elimination of the Mature Women’s Centre at Victoria Hospital.  This misguided decision will reduce the quality of care for women and will not save many dollars because the result will divest services from a consolidated center of excellence, increase patient visits and will lead to more costly procedures and more expensive health care. For more than 20 years, the team of physicians, nurses and allied health care workers who are part of the Mature Women’s Centre at Victoria Hospital, have provided superb health care for women throughout the menopause transition and particularly for those with complex issues like abnormal uterine bleeding and uterine fibroids. The Mature Women’s Centre program is cost effective because: 1)    It is delivered cooperatively, in a nurse-managed fashion, by a superb team which includes a pharmacist, a dietitian and a kinesiologist.   This provides cost-effective use of nurs...

The Triple 7 mine is slated for closure in 2020, and yet the current government, in office for 15 months has not yet presented any plan for Flin Flon’s future.   While there have been false alarms before, when there were concerns that ore in the Flin Flon area may be depleted and Flin Flon’s primary mine might close, this time it seems likely it is for real.  Even if this time it was not a false alarm, there is still need for a plan for Flin Flon.  Where is it?   Why is it not here now? And what should be in the plan?   I was in Flin Flon July 9-11, the latest of many visits to the community.  The first time I was in Flon Flon in 1967, its population was about 11,000.   Today it is just over 5,000.  Let us look first at elements which are needed in a plan for Flin Flon.  First, in our digital world, there needs to be fast access to the internet – broadband with sufficient capacity to download large amounts of info...

The recent meeting of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs in Nelson House at the Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation and the election of Grand Chief Arlen Dumas has created an opportunity for action on Churchill.  The residents of Churchill are waiting for action.  The people of Manitoba are waiting for action.   Yet, the Premier of Manitoba, Mr. Pallister, instead of acting says he wants to wait when it comes to Churchill. Mr. Pallister’s government has been characterized by waiting and delays.  The brain, mental health and addictions initiative so touted during the election, will not even see a first report on what the government might do until almost half way through the government’s mandate in December 2017. The piecemeal, thousands of cuts approach, to health care has created much uncertainty and poor morale within health care.   Even where announcements have been made, like the badly thought out closing of the Misericordia Urgent Care Centre, the p...

Too often, our homes, buildings, and outdoor spaces are designed without sufficient consideration given to how they will impact little people, those with large bodies, or those with disabilities.  Manitoba should become a leader in designing and building new structures so they’re comfortable and accessible to all.  Further, the province needs to do more to adapt our existing infrastructure, so that it meets everyone’s needs.   The design of our built environment makes daily living a challenge for too many.  A friend, who uses a wheelchair, must call ahead wherever she goes to ensure she can enter a restaurant, store, salon, etc. A young person in River Heights has a struggle each fall to make sure that with his cerebral palsy he is able to get the support he needs to do well in school.  A large-bodied man I know has been bedridden for five months because he lacks access to a usable lift or wheelchair.  Samantha Trubyk, President of the Little People ...