The Manitoba Legislative Session - weeks one and two

The Second Session of the Thirty-Ninth Legislature
The Legislative Session began with the Throne Speech on November 20. It will continue until December 6.

Health Care:
1) Patient Safety:

The provincial Patient Safety Conference was running on the Tuesday and Wednesday of the first week. My question on Tuesday focused on the fact that the Throne Speech did not mention patient safety, that only one of the eleven Regional Health Authorities have a procedure for reporting medical errors on the web site easily accessible, and that the Chair of the Manitoba Institute of Patient Safety has been vacant for ten months, and even the definition used for critical incident is problematic. Quite clearly patient safety has not been at the top of the provincial agenda. This was very apparent at the public meeting on the Wednesday evening, where many individuals came forward with stories of problems related to medical errors.

2) Accountability in Health Care:

Friday November 23, I introduced at first reading our Bill 202 on Health Care Accountability. This bill would make accountability a fundamental principle to be used in the delivery of health care in Manitoba. This is the sixth time I have introduced legislation calling for accountability to be a fundamental principle in the delivery of health care in Manitoba. Five previous times the NDP have rejected accountability. But for me accountability in health care is very important. We need accountability with respect to the quality of health care and accountability with respect to the dollars spent. This was a strong recommendation of the Romanow Report and it remains to be implemented. The NDP in Manitoba are stubbornly opposed, but I am going to keep on pushing accountability and one day we will have it.

The Environment:

1) Lake Winnipeg:
On Thursday November 29, The NDP introduced their Bill 8 - to drastically reduce the phosphorous in automatic dishwasher detergents in Manitoba. This was essentially the same as our Bill which was first introduced a year ago, and which we reintroduced on November 22 at Bill 201. The NDP bill has a few extra frills. It also has a delay (It will not come into effect until July 2010, whereas our Bill 201 would come into effect on January 1, 2009 - a year and a half earlier). The NDP bill also has an exemption which may well be used to limit its application to industrial or commercial uses which make up about half of the automatic dishwasher detergents used in the province - so it may turn out to be not a small exemption.

2) Climate Change and The Throne Speech: Many adjectives were used to describe the throne speech. Underwhelming was one. Mediocre was another. The NDP could have done better. Even where they set targets - as in reduction of greenhouse gases, they were very weak. In 2002, Gary Doer said he planned to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 18% below 1990 levels in 2010. But, in this throne speech, he has pulled far back from this - and now is only planning to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to below 2000 levels (which were above 1990 levels) by 2010. It was a sad day for Gary Doer.

Child Poverty:
On Monday, November 26, a Child Poverty report card showed that Manitoba continues to have one of the highest rates of child poverty in Canada. I called in question period, on the Premier to have an action plan to reduce child poverty and to have a target of a 50% reduction in child poverty over the next four years. Gary Doer ducked my challenge. Too bad. We should be doing better in reducing child poverty in Manitoba.

The Sale of Flood Damaged Homes:
On Thursday in Question Period I raised the circumstances of Artur and Tara-Lee Maciuszonek. They had purchased a home, which turned out to have been flooded during the Flood of 1997. The government had bought the home and then sold it for $13,000. The new owners then sold it to the Maciuszoneks, who bought it unaware that it had been badly damaged in the flood. When they started to do renovations, they discovered major problems with mold and in other areas and had to demolish the home. The whole story is told in full detail by Gordon Sinclair in the Winnipeg Free Press. By the end of the week, as a result of my raising the issue and Gordon Sinclair's story, Greg Selinger decided to appoint an independent investigator to look at the situation.

Waiting times for education:
It would startle most Manitobans to know that there are waiting lists for 5 years and more for Licensed Practical Nurses who want to upgrade to be a Registered Nurse at Red River College. Under the NDP, Manitoba has become a long waiting time jurisdiction for education as well as for health care. Andrea Gordon-Cameron raised this problem with me. I raised it in Question Period. Diane McGifford, the Minister of Advanced Education brushed five years off - as a little time. Not for most people!