Latest news with #ManitobaNDP
Global News
5 days ago
- Health
- Global News
Winnipeg man pays for back surgery in Mexico to avoid long wait times at home
In December, 60-year-old Dean Simpson injured his back after slipping and falling on some ice. The nerve running down to his left leg was pinched between two discs, causing him pain he described as feeling like a drill bit going through his bones. He was in so much agony that he barely left the house. A month and a half following his injury, Simpson knew the wait to receive medical care could be much longer. 'I got a letter from St. Boniface Hospital MRI, and the letter said 'We will contact you again in three months, to let you know how much longer you're going to be waiting for an MRI,'' Simpson recalls. Simpson was then told by a health-care worker that it could be an additional six- to twelve-month wait for surgery to fix the problem. The pain was getting worse, and he decided he couldn't bear it for that long. Story continues below advertisement In June, Simpson and his wife flew to a private clinic in Mexico. There, he had an MRI scan and was scheduled for surgery within days. But the price tag — paid out of his own pocket — was more than $30,000. Get weekly health news Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday. Sign up for weekly health newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'I don't think we'll ever pay it off,' says Simpson. 'That's going to just sit on the line of credit and we'll have to make interest payments on it until we sell the house, basically.' He's elated that the pain is now gone, but he has lost much of the use of his left foot. With great effort, he can lift it slightly off the ground, but cannot move it laterally, and has very little sensation. With time and intense physiotherapy, Simpson may regain some movement, but he believes he would have full use of his foot if he'd been diagnosed and treated sooner. He also worries he may have lost the use of his foot entirely if he had waited longer. Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara says Manitobans shouldn't have to take such drastic measures to get care. 'We're training more MRI technicians and we're doing the work of making sure the program and training they need is direct entry, so a faster path to that career choice,' says Asagwara. 'But we know there's more work to be done here. This is not something that gets solved overnight.' Story continues below advertisement The Manitoba NDP have made multiple promises to cut down diagnostic and surgical wait times. Asagwara says they have increased the overall number of MRIs being offered in the province, and last month launched a mobile MRI unit in the Northern Health region to take pressure off Winnipeg Hospitals. In a statement, Shared Health says their diagnostic department has been 'implementing initiatives aimed at reducing MRI wait times for lower back pain and knees.' The health authority added they are upgrading software on MRIs across the province and adding more evening and weekend staffing capacity. In Winnipeg hospitals, median wait times range from 17 weeks at the Health Sciences Centre to 46 weeks at St. Boniface Hospital, according to data from the province's website. Simpson says it's unreasonable for anyone to have to wait that long. 'You know that a cure is there, that you can feel better. But you're just being told, six months to a year, six months to a year, six months to a year.'
CBC
05-07-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Manitoba premier suggests he won't call byelection until NDP better able to compete in conservative riding
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said he won't call a byelection in Spruce Woods until his New Democratic Party is better able to compete in the conservative southwestern Manitoba constituency — and suggested PC demands to call the byelection sooner amount to a request for a political "freebies." Spruce Woods has been vacant since March 24, when former Progressive Conservative MLA Grant Jackson resigned his seat to run in the federal election. Kinew said he wants to give his party a better opportunity to be competitive in a constituency it has never won. "I don't know if everyone in the province knows what I'm like, but there's no freebies with me," Kinew said Friday during a scrum with reporters at Canada Life Centre,. "I want to put a serious effort forward in the Spruce Woods byelection. I'm speaking now as a leader of the Manitoba NDP. I want our team out there canvassing. I want our team out there contesting. I want us in the communities that have never put up an NDP sign before in southwestern Manitoba to talk to our canvassers and to hear our plan." No party other than the PCs has won Spruce Woods since it was created in 2011. Former MLAs Jackson and Cliff Cullen won more than 60 per cent of the vote in the constituency in each of the four provincial elections held over the past 14 years. For weeks, Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan has accused Kinew of dragging his feet on the byelection call, noting it's been 102 days since Jackson resigned and a byelection will require another 28 to 35 days. Kinew called byelections more quickly to fill two Winnipeg seats where the NDP were competitive. The 2024 Tuxedo byelection, which was won by the NDP's Carla Compton, was held 43 days after former MLA Heather Stefanson resigned, while the 2025 Transcona byelection, which Shannon Corbett won for the NDP, was held within 63 days of the death of NDP MLA Nello Altomare. Khan said Friday Kinew is playing games, noting how Prime Minister Mark Carney wasted little time in calling a federal byelection in rural Alberta's Battle River-Crowfoot even though the Liberal Party of Canada has very little chance of winning in the extremely conservative riding. "It's sad to see the premier equating democracy and the right of Manitobans and the people of Spruce Woods constituents — their rights to vote — with freebies," Khan said Friday outside the Manitoba Legislative Building. "I don't know what he's talking about with freebies. There are no freebies in the legislature. All 57 seats are earned. All 57 seats represent their constituencies. People have a right to vote. The Premier is denying those people." Kinew also claimed Spruce Woods is affected by the forest fires in northern Manitoba, noting some evacuees are living in Brandon-area hotels that are located in the constituency. In Manitoba, byelections must be held within six months of a constituency becoming vacant. In order to ensure that happens, Kinew can not wait later than the third week of August to beat the September deadline for a byelection.
CBC
11-06-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Manitoba tops up research funding following pleas from scientists
Manitoba's NDP government is topping up its annual funding for Research Manitoba following complaints from scientists about inadequate support for the agency responsible for providing the bulk of research funding in Manitoba. The province will increase its annual funding for Research Manitoba from $14 million to $19 million, Innovation and New Technology Minister Mike Moroz announced Wednesday in a press release. Oversight of the agency is also moving over to his ministry from advanced education, he said. The increase in research funding comes two months after dozens of Manitoba scientists, researchers and academics penned an open letter to the government, noting funding to Research Manitoba had not increased significantly since the former Progressive Conservative government cut the agency's budget. That letter was inspired by comments made in March by Premier Wab Kinew, who mused about attracting disaffected U.S. scientists to Manitoba. Dylan MacKay, a University of Manitoba food scientist who was among the signatories of the April letter, said Wednesday he was pleasantly surprised the provincial government listened to him and his peers. More funding for Research Manitoba will translate directly into more actual research and make the province more competitive, both nationally and internationally, MacKay said. Provincial funding for Research Manitoba bottomed out at $12 million in 2023, according to the agency's most recent annual report. In 2023-24, the agency allocated nearly $7 million to health research, slightly more than $5 million to natural science and engineering research, and just over $500,000 for the social sciences and humanities, according to the report. That supported 195 researchers and 267 students at a total of 154 organizations, the report stated.
Winnipeg Free Press
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Opinion: Letters, June 10
Opinion Rent problems Re: Finding what's missing in the Winnipeg housing marke t (Think Tank, June 9) While Mr. Bellamy identifies the problem of affordable housing, I am disheartened at the lack of analysis of how families seeking ownership, as opposed to eternal status as tenants, can afford to bid against commercial developers who will now be able to bid for essentially every property in Winnipeg as a tear-down to construct multi-family revenue-generating 'middle housing.' The law of unintended consequences may then obtain with ever higher rents when the option of ownership further recedes into the economic distance, given that individuals bidding against investors will be at tremendous economic disadvantage. Mr. Bellamy is suggesting a market-based solution, when all the fundamentals of present concentration of ownership in the commercial residential tenancy market tends toward rent controls as essentially ineffective in the new construction market. Norman Rosenbaum Winnipeg Khan's claims Re: Seeking a reset on 'parental rights' and landfill snafus (June 7) Although Obby Khan was deeply involved in the 2023 provincial government that saw the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives decimated at the polls, he now purports that he was unaware of the meaning of the right-wing soundbite decrying that 'parental rights' were in danger, i.e. that the LGBTTQ+ community had no right to self-determination. Apparently, he was far too busy to attend any of this year's Pride activities, and besides pointing to his taxing schedule, tried to explain his absence by saying that no one in his party had received an invitation to any activity. Newsflash: no one needs an invitation to participate in Pride activities. During the campaign, his silence regarding the 'Stand firm' soundbite is equally telling. His party took the official stance of refusing to search a Winnipeg-area landfill for the remains of two Indigenous women who police presumed were victims of an alleged serial killer. This was a central plank in his party's campaign. Remaining silent in the face of clear racism does not absolve his tacit complicitly in promoting that horrific message. The remains of Marcedes Myran and Morgan Harris were later found, thanks to the humanity and commitment of the Manitoba NDP. Does Khan not know that his pants are on fire, for all to see? A veritable inferno. Kenneth Meadwell Winnipeg I find it interesting that Obby Khan, the newly elected leader of the Progressive Conservative Party states that he has had an 'a-ha' moment when it comes to his stance on parental rights and support (or lack of support) for the LGBTTQ+ community. First, he explains his position of being the champion of the parental rights movement as not really understanding the meaning or the extent of that movement as being anti-LGBTTQ+ and now he wants to apologize to anyone who though he was promoting a hate concept. Along with many other Winnipeggers, I saw Mr. Khan leading that huge parental rights demonstration down Broadway and it was clear that it was anti-LGBTTQ+. So I don't believe that excuse for a minute. Second, Mr. Khan and his entire PC caucus just voted against Bill 43 which would add Gender Expression to Manitoba's Human Rights code. This would not only ensure individuals are not discriminated against based on how they express their gender, but also bring the code in line with almost all other provinces and territories in Canada. Every PC caucus member voted against Bill 43 with Mr. Khan again leading the way. Don't believe this party has changed their stance on anything. Their 'apologies' are not lining up with their actions. Melissa Dvorak Winnipeg Khan really can't win this one. Either he knew and went along with it or he didn't think to google the phrase they were going to put beside his likeness and plaster all over certain areas of Winnipeg before agreeing to it. Either way, it demonstrates a level of cruelty or incompetence. One could also look to where the concentration of those ads were going to be the highest and should have asked a few other questions. Like, why are we targeting these areas with these ads? Answers to those questions should have raised concerns as well and maybe prompted another visit to the Google machine in hopes of generating possible eye-opening results. Regardless, his lack of interest in the power of language doesn't make for a great leader. And definitely doesn't signal a change in the party. From Pallister's 'All Lives Matter' comment to Stefenson's 'And that's where I draw the line' the PCs really need people who understand that words matter. They have staying power. And in Khan's case, they have sticking power. His words do stick with voters. And to date, none of them in a good way. For those reasons I do believe that if a provincial election were held tomorrow, Khan would end up with one more thing in common with Pierre Poilievre: he'd be a party leader without a seat. Brian Spencler Winnipeg HBC's legacy In 1821, the North West Company was absorbed into the Hudson's Bay Company and its name put to rest. In 1987, the HBC shed its Northern Stores Division, which subsequently became the revived North West Company. Knowing these facts may comfort those, including myself, who lament the loss of the iconic Bay, in at least two ways. First is the idea that it may one day, perhaps in the far future, be itself revived in some form, as had been the NWC. Second, and more immediate, is the knowledge that the NWC carries a lot of the history of the HBC; it is not completely lost. It is as yet unclear exactly what meaning or resonance the HBC Stripes, as sold by Canadian Tire, will have, but I hope they prove to be, in the near future, another source of comfort and historical continuity for all who miss the Bay. Conrad Padilla Winnipeg Time for an inquiry Re: Bureaucrats must also be accountable (Think Tank, June 7) David McLaughlin's article on Manitoba's ethics commissioner report shows a clear case of broken governance and the need for Premier Wab Kinew to call for a full, independent public inquiry into the Sio Silica file. For decades, organizations have been calling for meaningful reform of Manitoba's environmental assessment and licensing regime under the Environment Act. Reforms that ensure for independent evidence-based decision making, an accountable public service and a transparent process are required to bring about proper oversight and good governance. Strengthening our environmental and mineral law and policy will prevent the 'fear or favour' culture and political back-door dealings identified in the report. The government's handling of the Sio Silica development since 2016 exemplifies the 'capture in ideas and implementation and an unhealthy accommodation of 'getting along to go along.'' Until an inquiry and meaningful reform occurs, Manitobans will continue to have no confidence in our government nor our environmental regulatory and enforcement processes. Tangi Bell Anola
