Skip to main content

Speaking up for CancerCare Manitoba


Monday April 8, I asked, in Question Period, about the CancerCare Manitoba review.  The government's first attempt to put together a review did not work,  I asked about the plans for the revised review and for some certainty that the review would be about improving the quality of cancer prevention and care, and not just about cutting spending.  My questions and the govenrment's responses are below. 
CancerCare Manitoba - Government Review
Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): Madam Speaker, let me start today by paying tribute to Arnold Frieman, a great entrepreneur and builder who was eulogized this morning by Rabbi Alan Green.
      My question today is about CancerCare Manitoba. The government's review process didn't work.
      Why didn't it work, and what is the government's next step with respect to CancerCare Manitoba?
Hon. Cameron Friesen (Minister of Health, Seniors and Active Living): I thank the member for the question. It's important to undertake this operational review of CancerCare Manitoba. We believe that every opportunity should be explored to be able to deliver cancer programming and services to Manitobans.            
      This is something that is agreed to by CancerCare Manitoba and I can tell you that the CEO for CancerCare was there that day when we announced this. I look forward to answering the question of the member even further in my next response.
Madam Speaker: The honourable member for River Heights, on a supplementary question.
Mr. Gerrard: Madam Speaker,  so the government will continue with a review. What's the process for the review? What's the timeline for the review? What will be the goal of the review?
      Will it be to find efficiencies, the word the government uses for spending cuts, or will it be to build on what has been achieved so far so that CancerCare Manitoba can provide even better cancer prevention and treatment for Manitobans?
      Indeed, I note in this context that the Premier (Mr. Pallister) has already dramatically reduced funding for Research Manitoba, the very body that funds the research needed to improve prevention and care.
Mr. Friesen: We would have preferred, of course, that the request for proposals would have returned a successful proponent.
      The member should understand, though, that when it came to undertaking to secure a third party for this engagement it is a complicated thing to look for someone with the necessary clinical, operational, and financial expertise in acute medicine, including cancer care.
      So in this case, we are committed to the goal that we originally stated. We will look for other ways to advance this exercise, but we need to make sure that CancerCare is delivering those services to the very best of their ability because we know that the demand is only going to increase in future.
Madam Speaker: The honourable member for River Heights on a final supplementary.
Mr. Gerrard: Madam Speaker, I note the Minister of Health is copying the previous NDP minister of Health in answering by saying that, oh, it's too complex and therefore we can't do much about it.
      Let me follow-up: Will the government focus on improving prevention and care, or will it, as it has done with previous reviews, focus primarily on where there can be cuts in funding, focusing on cuts in funding and putting people at CancerCare Manitoba into the "valley of despair" to which this government has subjected so many other health-care workers?
      Is that what the government's goal is? 
Mr. Friesen: Well, Madam Speaker, now the member has just entered into the valley of misinformation.
      Madam Speaker, to be clear, the changes undertaken in our amendments in Bill 10 establish CancerCare Manitoba as the cancer care delivery organization for this province. We need to ensure that everything is being done to make sure that there is capacity not just now, but five years from now, 10 years from now.
      I remind that member that these were the same things that the CEO for CancerCare said when we took this engagement on and said this is the way we build capacity for the future.
      We're getting better health care sooner for all Manitobans. That includes CancerCare.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dougald Lamont speaks at Meth Forum last night to present positive ideas to address the epidemic, while exposing the lack of action by the Pallister Conservatives

Last night at the Notre Dame Recreation Centre in St. Boniface, at an Election Forum on the Meth Crisis in Manitoba, Dougald Lamont spoke eloquently about the severity of the meth epidemic and described the Liberal plan to address it.  The Liberal Plan will make sure that there is a single province-wide phone number for people, or friends of people, who need help dealing with meth to call (as there is in Alberta) and that there will be rapid access to a seamless series of steps - stabilization, detoxification, treatment, extended supportive housing etc so that people with meth addiction can be helped well and effectively and so that they can rebuild their lives.  The Liberal meth plan will be helped by our approach to mental health (putting psychological therapies under medicare), and to poverty (providing better support).  It will also be helped by our vigorous efforts to help young people understand the problems with meth in our education system and to provide alternative positive
3 comments
Read more

Manitoba Liberal accomplishments

  Examples of Manitoba Liberal accomplishments in the last three years Ensured that 2,000 Manitoba fishers were able to earn a living in 2020   (To see the full story click on this link ). Introduced a bill that includes retired teachers on the Pension Investment Board which governs their pension investments. Introduced amendments to ensure school aged children are included in childcare and early childhood education plans moving forward. Called for improvements in the management of the COVID pandemic: ·          We called for attention to personal care homes even before there was a single case in a personal care home. ·            We called for a rapid response team to address outbreaks in personal care homes months before the PCs acted.  ·          We called for a science-based approach to preparing schools to   improve ventilation and humidity long before the PCs acted. Helped hundreds of individuals with issues during the pandemic including those on social assistance
Post a Comment
Read more

The Indigenous Science Conference in Winnipeg June 14-16

  June 14 to 16, I spent three days at the Turtle Island Indigenous Science Conference.  It was very worthwhile.   Speaker after speaker talked of the benefits of using both western or mainstream science and Indigenous science.  There is much we can learn from both approaches.   With me above is Myrle Ballard, one of the principal organizers of the conference.  Myrle Ballard, from Lake St. Martin in Manitoba, worked closely with Roger Dube a professor emeritus at Rochester Institute of Technology, and many others to make this conference, the first of its kind, a success.  As Roger Dube, Mohawk and Abenaki, a physicist, commented "My feeling is that the fusion of traditional ecological knowledge and Western science methodology should rapidly lead the researchers to much more holistic solutions to problems."   Dr. Myrle Ballard was the first person from her community to get a PhD.  She is currently a professor at the University of Manitoba and the Director of Indigenous Science
Post a Comment
Read more