Premier’s speech offers election preview

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This article was published 19/05/2023 (849 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Premier Heather Stefanson delivered a state of the province address to the Brandon Chamber of Commerce on Thursday that seemed both a defence of her government’s tenure and a soft launch for her re-election campaign.

Many of Stefanson’s partisan comments echoed those made at her state of the province address to the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce in December, touching on subjects like taxation and Manitoba Hydro.

Fewer discussions were held on health care, though the premier highlighted expansion work underway at the Brandon Regional Health Centre and the Western Manitoba Cancer Centre.

Addressing the audience, she said everyone in attendance has a different reason for getting up in the morning and putting in the work needed to succeed in their chosen field.

“When I get up in the morning, I’m thinking about how we can grow the economy, to create jobs so that we have the freedom and flexibility to lower taxes and invest in health care, education, justice and social services,” she said. “The other parties would pay for public services by raising taxes, not by growing the economy. They’ve done it before, and they’ll do it again.”

Other accusations levied at the opposition included assertions they would defund the police and open safe drug consumption sites, which the premier claimed have failed in “city after city.”

A joint study published in January by researchers from Athabasca University, the University of Alberta and the University of Winnipeg found the closure and replacement of a safe consumption site in Lethbridge, Alta., with a mobile overdose prevention site equipped with fewer resources was harmful to drug users in that community.

Health Canada reports on its website that although there were around 15,000 overdoses and drug-related medical emergencies at safe consumption sites in Canada from 2017 to 2019, no fatalities were reported at those facilities.

Stefanson took aim at the federal government’s carbon tax, in line with other attacks she has made against it this year. In January, the provincial government issued $200 million worth of “carbon tax relief” cheques to Manitobans, despite Ottawa’s tax scheme already sending rebates to most Canadians every quarter.

No new announcements were made during the speech, though Stefanson was on hand to announce around $350,000 in funding for Brandon Bear Clan and Brandon Police Service in the morning and a ground-breaking ceremony at the city’s in-progress outdoor sports complex in the afternoon.

During the speech, the premier highlighted her government’s investments in Brandon such as funding for upgrades at the municipal water treatment plant, a new five-year joint funding agreement between the city and the province for the Keystone Centre, $1.2 million for an expansion of the child-care facilities at the Brandon YMCA, $2 million announced for the construction of a sobering centre and plans to build a new francophone school.

Funding for the sobering centre was first announced in July 2021, with little information about the project made available since then.

Last December, representatives from the Community Wellness Collaborative told Brandon City Council $2 million was not sufficient to both build and operate a sobering centre, pointing to the almost $9 million the province is spending to help build a new detention centre for the Brandon Police Service that will eventually have room for just 17 detainees.

After Thursday’s event concluded, reporters pressed Stefanson for a response to a recent delegation to the Brandon School Division board of trustees calling for a ban of books discussing gender identity and sexual health.

While the premier said she condemns “any kind of a hate crime or any kind of criminal activity” against anyone, including people in the LGBTQ+ community, she stopped short of denouncing the presentation.

“When I was campaigning to be leader, the first announcement we made was to do away with Bill 64, which took away the local autonomy for school divisions,” Stefanson said. “We believe in local autonomy when it comes to school divisions and school trustees making those decisions … at the same time, I believe in inclusivity, I believe in making sure our kids feel safe being taught in our schools, but this is a decision to be made at the local level.”

She added she does not like “bans of things of this nature,” but said any book bans are still hypothetical.

On Monday, the Sun reported on a mix-up in which Assiniboine Community College received around $1.3 million less from the province than it was expecting for its practical nursing diploma program in Neepawa this year, forcing the school to find a way to cover the unanticipated shortfall.

In February, the province announced it would provide ACC with $2.1 million over several years to fund a one-time cohort of students for the program. However, on March 1, the college received notice that funds for the Neepawa program were actually included in its base funding for the year.

Stefanson said she had a meeting scheduled with college president Mark Frison on Thursday afternoon.

“Look, sometimes we don’t get it right and we’ve got to make sure we rectify those situations,” she said. “We will continue to work closely with our post-secondary institutions across Manitoba, but also here in Brandon.”

Speaking to the Sun by phone from Winnipeg, Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew said the premier is attacking the opposition like this because she knows she can’t win the next election running on her health-care record.

“There is an addictions crisis and unfortunately, it’s affecting people from all walks of life,” Kinew said.

“You’ve got people in rural communities, urban communities including Brandon, where the addictions issues cut across every level of socio-economic standing and the current approach just isn’t meeting the needs of the moment. What we’ve been proposing is to just listen to the evidence.”

Kinew also denied Stefanson’s claim that his party wants to defund the police.

On the book ban topic, Kinew said: “The leader of the province should be able to just clearly say that she is opposed to banning books because they have 2SLGBTQ+ content.”

The turnout for Thursday’s luncheon was the largest of the season, featuring dignitaries from the City of Brandon, the Manitoba legislature, Canadian Forces Base Shilo and Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, among others.

The premier had originally been scheduled to speak at last month’s luncheon, but a blizzard postponed those plans, so Mayor Jeff Fawcett stepped up to deliver his state of the city speech earlier than expected.

The next chamber luncheon is on June 8, where Jamie Pugh will be sworn in as the organization’s new president and Tanya LaBuick will assume the role of past-president.

» cslark@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @ColinSlark