Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew was in Thompson this weekend to attend the local Candidate Campaign Launch event, and to outline his northern strategy.
One aspect of his northern Manitoba strategy is to repair and upgrade the operating rooms at the Thompson General Hospital, after three of the ORs were deemed unusable after sustaining water damage in June.
"The challenge I've heard from many people in Thompson is that the doctors don't have the space to operate in right now. There's a back-and-forth with the insurance company and the government. The bottom line is that people are concerned not only are they loosing the OR space, but also when the ORs get renovated, that they may not be renovated to the state-of-the-art capacity."
"We'd like to see the ORs modernized, so we're going to commit to that, as well as strengthening the overall infrastructure, just so that to try and avoid having a repeat of the situation in the future."
Other health care commitments Kinew and Thompson Candidate Danielle Adams are campaigning on are making LifeFlight air ambulances public, improving the northern patient transportation program, and bringing healthcare services closer to home, such as dialysis services.
The NDP leader is also promising to using the Community Reserve Fund if elected into office.
Kinew says he’s committed to putting people back to work in northern Manitoba, and adds that using the mining reserve fund will help with increasing jobs in the industry.
Kinew adds that there is currently $11 million in the reserve fund, and is accessible for mining communities to use.
There has been some back-and-forth between the NDP and PCs on how much money is currently in the fund, and if it can be accessible if it hits below the $10 million threshold.
Other commitments in Kinew’s Northern Strategy include fixing northern highways, and working with Indigenous communities to ensure they are at the table before major projects are given the green light, reforming the child welfare system to recognize the right of Indigenous children to grow up in indigenous households, and establish a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Committee of Cabinet led by Indigenous women who will work with families to implement recommendations coming out of the National Inquiry.
