Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew announced Sunday if elected Sept. 10 he would cancel the premier’s plans to privatize home care.
Kinew pointed to a $1.7 million annually-funded senior’s hospital-to-home transition program Brian Pallister’s government axed in early 2017.
In September 2017, the province granted two three-year contracts to WeCare and ParaMed Home Health Care, which the NDP and other critics characterized as part of Pallister’s plan to privatize the home health-care system.
Those contracts cost $15.7 million. Kinew said the NDP wouldn’t renew the contracts, which expire in 2020.
The NDP would spend the equivalent $15.7 million on public home health care, the party said in a media release.
“Patients deserve to be treated with respect. That means not being rushed when they are being given a bath, for example,” Kinew said in a statement. “But Brian Pallister’s plans to change home care aren’t about dignity or respect for patients any more than his choice to close ERs is.”
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When asked about the campaign promise, the PC candidate for Morden-Winler Cameron Friesen says the promise proves the NDP wants to “turn back the clock”.
“The NDP are more concerned about whether home-care workers have union cards than ensuring people get the treatment they need,” Friesen continued.
Friesen also pointed out long waits for personal care home beds in Winnipeg have been all but eliminated.
In the email, he referenced the 110 new transitional care beds being opened this month at Misericordia Health Centre.
Manitobans will head to the polls on September 10th.
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