Health care and jobs are the two main focus areas of the NDP as they prepare for the provincial election Sept. 10 and party leader Wab Kinew says they’re concerns for a lot of people in Thompson, too.
“We’ve gotten an earful on those issues just in the few hours we’ve been here,” Kinew said in an interview with the Thompson Citizen July 18. The NDP leader was in Thompson for a pubic forum on provincial issues at the Royal Canadian Legion as well as meetings with the constituency association, the deputy mayor and city administration and representatives from United Steelworkers Local 6166, which represents hourly workers at Vale’s Manitoba Operations.
“People are complaining about the expansion to the [northern consultation] clinic that was cancelled, the OR rooms being closed and then just all the ripple effects that’s having in terms of making people have to wait longer when they do have to go to hospital or to have appointments,” said Kinew.
He also heard concerns about the Lifeflight air ambulance program switching from government jets to privately operated aircraft and the Northern Patient Transportation Program.
“What I’m hearing from the patients, and I take them at their word over this government when it comes to health care, is escorts are not getting approved,” he said in regards to the patient transportation program. “Even the patients themselves are getting denied transportation, It’s getting harder and harder. What the government’s saying doesn’t match up with what we’re hearing from patients, who are saying it’s more difficult to arrange transportation and even when they do get approved they’re getting approved for less or without escorts. All in all, it just seems like health care’s getting worse.”
Kinew also says the NDP is the only party standing up for Manitoba’s north as the mining industry has gone through a rough patch over the past few years.
“I’m the one who’s standing up for northern jobs,” he said. “We’re the party that’s putting forward a plan for mining jobs, for the mining industry and for northern jobs. We’re the ones who have been raising these issues in the legislature for the past number of years and, to be frank, Thompson does not have representation at the legislature right now. The premier’s certainly not talking about how to create good jobs in the mining sector or across the north. We’re the team that’s doing that.”
But supporting the mining industry does mean sacrifices have to be made elsewhere.
“We’re saying yes to mining and no to oil and gas subsidies,” Kinew said. “We know if we want to have an environmentally friendly future, we’ve got to have the minerals for the batteries, for the technology, for the buildings and the infrastructure. We know we can mine those more cleanly and with better labour standards in Manitoba than pretty much anywhere else in the world so we should do that here but at the same time we’ve got to make choices so what we’re saying is maybe we stop giving handouts to the oil and gas companies so we can focus on mining in Manitoba.”
The NDP leader says his party’s approach is one that looks to the future while the Progressive Conservatives don’t have a plan besides taking the provincial sales tax off certain goods and services.
“The Tories can’t run on health care, they can’t run on creating jobs,” Kinew said. “So what are they going to run on? They’re going to run on attacking me and my team. I think Manitobans will see the difference between our two messages. One’s about the future, one’s about a negative message. I’ll criticize [Progressive Conservative leader Brian] Pallister but not on a personal level. I’ll just talk about the choices he’s made that I don’t agree with in terms of cutting health care, not standing up for jobs.”
