Congratulations to instructor Phil Neziol on receiving the Best Practice Program designation from the Boys & Girls Club of Canada last week for his contributions piloting the Youth Build Program with the Thompson branch of the club. The provincially funded Youth Build Program is a life skills and job readiness program that prepares local youth for success.
Our government has worked hard this spring to improve services for Manitobans, and on April 1, we reduced the ambulance fee by another $85 to bring it down to $340 from $425. With this new reduction, we have decreased the fee by a total of 35 per cent in the past two years after the price for ambulance service in Manitoba was $522 under the previous NDP administration. We are more than halfway to fulfilling our commitment to reducing the fee by 50 per cent in our first term.
“Ambulance costs can be a major burden for many Manitobans including seniors on fixed incomes,” says Tom Farrell, former Thompson mayor and current president of the Manitoba Association of Senior Centres. “Seeing this important issue addressed in a meaningful way by this government is welcome news that will help many Manitobans.”
Our government also hired 29 new paramedics last year, and has committed to hiring 60 more full-time paramedics as part of our 2018 provincial budget. We will work with regional health authorities and paramedics throughout the province to ensure consistent, reliable and affordable emergency medical care for Manitobans.
We are also taking steps to shorten wait times for child care and to increase access to licensed child-care spaces. With the new Canada-Manitoba Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, we are allocating operating funding for 621 existing spaces at 63 child-care centres across Manitoba. Building on that announcement, Families Minister Scott Fielding made another exciting announcement this month about the creation of up to 780 licensed early-learning and child-care spaces in areas most in need. I’m very pleased that some of these new spaces will be created to serve families in Thompson, including four infant and eight pre-school spaces at Thompson Children’s World.
