Skip to main content

Statement of Concern on Manitoba’s Pandemic Preparedness

On Thursday April 3 our Manitoba Liberal Caucus put out a statement of concern about Manitoba's Pandemic Preparedness.   It is below: 
As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads, Manitoba Liberals have been working hard to collect and share the distresses of our constituents and other concerned Manitobans with the government.
While the government has taken many necessary steps that will slow the spread of COVID-19, we are growing concerned that the government is not acting quickly enough to deal with both the health and economic challenges we all face.
There is a lot of uncertainty and an enormous amount of emergency preparedness work that must be done. Most people agree that we need to commit resources to health and to the economy to minimize the impact.
When it comes to health, there are three separate announcements that are a matter of concern:
• Shared Health has created a website to ask Manitoba businesses to donate essential specialized medical equipment, including ventilators, gowns, masks, disinfectants and cleaners. As a legislature, we voted unanimously to approve an expenditure of $31-million on supplies. A Winnipeg manufacturer, Bomimed makes ventilators. Why is Shared Health resorting to donations?
Manitoba Liberals believe the government should be buying these supplies or getting Manitoba manufacturers to produce them, as has happened in other jurisdictions.
• The recall of nurses is also concerning. The government has had a troubled relationship with nurses who have faced mandatory overtime and complaints of burnout long before the pandemic was a threat.
A large number of nurses retired rather than go through the disruptive changes the government has imposed on Manitoba's health system. The announcement that fees and other registrations will be waived are positive, but point to a shortage of nurses in the system.
Manitoba Liberals believe the government should assure nurses they will be paid properly.
• Two of the top WRHA Executives left Canada on vacation at the beginning of the month and had to self-isolate on their return. As of March 27, 2020 media report stated "As a global pandemic was looming the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Operating Officer of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority left Canada.
Manitoba Liberals first called on the PC Government to issue a COVID-19 plan on March 2. The departure of the senior leadership of the WRHA on a vacation out of country calls into question how seriously health care leadership was taking COVID-19.
When it comes to the economy, we are also concerned the province is too slow to act. The Federal Government and every other province have announced supports for small businesses that are facing insolvency due to a total collapse in revenue. Manitoba is the only province that has not announced income or revenue supports to people and businesses.
For businesses to bounce back after this shutdown, they still have to be solvent. More loans, even interest-free loans, are not what businesses need. We have called for the government to announce support for business that have to close. One of the most important would be to commit to covering the overhead for businesses so they can pay their rent and utilities for three months.
This is not an ordinary recession. We are facing record unemployment and economic disruptions. The faster we delivery certainty to business and people, the easier the next few weeks will be.
We call, again, on the PC Government to:
• Make emergency investments in order to ensure our health system has the supplies it needs, including providing financing for Manitoba companies to retool to produce supplies
• Ensure that nurses and health care professionals have the tools and financial support throughout this crisis
• Review the staffing at the WRHA and other bodies to ensure that pandemic experts are in place
• Announce economic measures to support businesses that will ensure Manitoba's businesses can bounce back
Dougald Lamont, MLA St. Boniface
Jon Gerrard, MLA River Heights
Cindy Lamoureux, MLA Tyndall Park

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