ERs to be slashed within two years

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/05/2017 (2723 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Pallister government is imposing a two-year wage freeze on 120,000 public-sector workers — and it’s not even the biggest story of the legislature’s sitting.

That would be Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen’s decision to close the emergency rooms at Concordia, Seven Oaks and Victoria hospitals within two years, close the urgent care centre at Misericordia and convert Seven Oaks and Victoria into 24-hour urgent care centres.

Meanwhile, Manitoba still has not signed the federal health accord, making it the lone holdout province.

MLAs began their summer break Thursday after a sitting in which the Progressive Conservatives began to put their cost-conscious stamp on government. The legislative session resumes Oct. 3.

If it’s proclaimed, Bill 28 will impose four years of wage controls on 120,000 public-sector workers, retroactive to March 20. For their next collective bargaining agreement, those workers will see wages frozen for the first two years, then receive maximum wage and benefit increases of only 0.75 per cent the third year and one per cent the fourth.

The University of Manitoba has already credited the wage freeze for balancing its 2017-18 budget without major cuts, despite Finance Minister Cameron Friesen’s giving post-secondary schools a zero increase in operating grants.

More than a year after taking office, the Tories dealt with minimum wage, allowing it to increase at the rate of inflation each Oct. 1 — unless the government decides the economy can’t handle it in any given year. Minimum wage is slated to go up by 15 cents to $11.15 an hour this fall.

Friesen’s budget kept the Conservatives’ promise of adding no new taxes but saved more than $60 million a year by eliminating the tuition-fee income tax rebate.

It was a highly expensive financial incentive designed by the former NDP government to encourage post-secondary graduates to stay in Manitoba, but the Pallister government concluded it wasn’t making any difference and wasn’t worth the money.

Pallister served notice we can expect to see public-private partnerships building the province’s largest infrastructure projects, beginning with four new schools.

Manitoba Hydro has applied for 7.9 per cent annual rate hikes for the next five years and is reducing 900 jobs to cut its workforce by 15 per cent.

The government has decreed the civil service, health-care system, Crown corporations and soon the post-secondary schools reduce management by 15 per cent, and the NDP has alleged the Tories are pulling the strings on the Hydro workforce cuts.

So much has been happening, changes to election financing and tough penalties for driving under the influence of legalized marijuana barely got noticed.

And then there’s Costa Rica and the premier’s vacation home. Pallister still refuses to say how and with whom he communicates when he’s in Costa Rica, despite numerous bitter exchanges with the NDP.

Thursday was interim NDP leader Flor Marcelino’s last hurrah in the legislature. New Democrats choose a new leader Sept. 16, and so far, Fort Rouge MLA Wab Kinew is the only candidate.

Pallister and Kinew shared what could be a rare sight this fall: shaking hands in a quiet moment, when Kinew gave Pallister an orange shirt, a gift a young man had offered to the premier to mark approval of Orange Shirt Day. Each Sept. 30, said Kinew, Manitobans will honour residential school survivors and share their stories of resilience.

The Liberals will choose a new leader in October. So far, only rookie MLA Cindy Lamoureux has announced her candidacy.

The NDP has used its option to delay consideration of five bills until the fall, including the red-tape reduction bill and its controversial changes in water testing and agricultural practices, setting the cap on tuition fee increases at five per cent plus inflation, and allowing Uber to operate in Manitoba.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca