NDP rolls out promises while ignoring record

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/02/2016 (3760 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For the first time in a long time, Brandon East will be the constituency to watch in the upcoming provincial election.

Last week, longtime NDP MLA Drew Caldwell hosted a nomination meeting at the East End Community Centre. While it’s odd for a sitting MLA, who is also a cabinet minister, to hold a nomination meeting — Caldwell was acclaimed — the fact Premier Greg Selinger spoke at the meeting demonstrates a perception from NDP brass that the seat is very much up for grabs.

In reality, the meeting was more of a call to rally the troops than any attempt at conducting legitimate party business.

Selinger laid out a laundry list of projects the NDP has undertaken in Brandon over the last 16 years. Those achievements include investments in the Brandon Regional Health Centre, Western Manitoba Cancer Centre and smaller class sizes for students from kindergarten to Grade 3.

Health care and education will figure prominently in the next election.

“When times are tough in the economy and half of your budget is going to health care, they have to be part of the solution and the solution is not to do cuts,” Selinger told the crowd of approximately 50 supporters. “When everyone is working together as a team, we will deliver better health care for Manitobans.”

Selinger said the government has to find ways to do things better in the health-care system, but “It’s not enough to just talk about health care because if we’re not investing in education on the other side of the story, (then) we’re not preparing the next generation to enter the workforce.”

He echoed a November announcement that Brandon will get a new school.

Every new school, according to Selinger, will also be built with a daycare as part of a pledge to add 12,000 new daycare spaces within five to seven years in the province.

The trouble is this government continues to promise, while ignoring its record in areas it has deemed as key indicators.

Start with the daycare promise, for example.

In the 2013-14 fiscal year, the Selinger government spent more than $140 million on child-care initiatives — more than double from a decade ago, when the government spent $63 million. Spaces have increased by approximately 8,000 in that same time period to 29,500.

In one decade, the government more than doubled the amount it spends in child care and increased spots by less than 30 per cent.

Could some of that money been better used creating incentives for home-based child-care centres, which actually declined during the same time period, to thrive?

Need a refresher course in education — Manitoba is failing.

Maybe failing is a bit harsh. After all, the word has essentially been outlawed in any school setting.

In standardized testing in 2013, Manitoba was dead last in every category, according to the Council of Ministers of Education report.

That’s an F in math, science and reading.

More damning, however, is that Manitoba is the only province to see reading levels drop between 2007 and 2013.

The Manitoba Teachers’ Society recently released a commercial that does everything but tell the viewer to vote NDP.

The commercial features a teacher concerned about “politicians talking about cutting school funding.”

The trouble is neither Progressive Conservative Leader Brian Pallister nor Liberal Leader Rana Bokhari have talked about cuts to education.

But don’t let the facts get in the way of a good commercial.

Quite frankly, we find it a touch disturbing that the Manitoba Teachers’ Society, the voice of our trusted educators, would use its members’ dollars to shill in the political arena.

It erodes trust.

As a reference point, its 2014 television campaign focused on how children’s questions will change as they age, letting parents know they should feel comfortable talking with teachers for a “better idea of how your kids are doing in the classroom and hallways.”

Focusing on students’ education seems like a better fit.

And finally, there’s health care.

While it’s true this government has made record investments in health care, it’s also true that more hospitals than not in Prairie Mountain Health are struggling with doctor recruitment and retention.

Some of those communities include Minnedosa, Hamiota, Shoal Lake, Glenboro, Melita, Killarney, Russell … the list goes on.

Just how strong is a health-care system if many of our hospitals don’t have an adequate number of family doctors to staff them?

And it’s not that we’re saying this government hasn’t tried. It has directed millions in resources into health care, education and child care.

But the next government — new or old — must focus on results rather than trumpeting record investments made.

It might have been an admission by Selinger at Caldwell’s nomination meeting that summed it up best.

“We haven’t always gotten it right,” he said.

We agree.