A little less whataboutism, a little more compromise

“We should be thanking (PMH) instead of criticizing them when the community is in their time of need and when everybody is focused on taking a Team Manitoba approach. I’m a bit stunned to not see the PCs and the critic also taking that Team Manitoba approach.”

— Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara

There is a beautiful, cyclical — cynical? — rhythm to Manitoba politics. It’s a kind of passing of the torch that includes taking on a massive sack of historical grievances that comes with the reins of power.

One of the latest chapters in this grand tradition was fielded at the Dauphin Regional Health Centre earlier this month.

During a recent visit to Dauphin with other members of the Progressive Conservative caucus, PC health critic Kathleen Cook was turned away by health officials after she showed up at the Dauphin hospital to inspect the newly opened emergency room at the flood-damaged facility.

“I had hoped to meet with Prairie Mountain Health to discuss the status of the hospital timeline, for getting services back online and the challenges that they’re facing in doing that,” she told the Sun. “Prairie Mountain Health put a stop to that.”

Cook said she had contacted PMH in an email on Aug. 26 and the next day received a “one-line reply declining the meeting.” She had also tried to visit a personal care home in Dauphin, but that request was similarly denied.

Naturally, the PCs erupted in righteous indignation, declaring it a dark day for democratic accountability, and accusing the NDP government of using health-care bureaucrats to block independent oversight to hide the reality of front-line health care in Dauphin.

Textbook opposition complaint — one that glossed over the fact that busy and stressed ER staff may simply not have had enough time to entertain a visiting MLA. Given the hurried, time-limited nature of the reopening, it was not unreasonable for the health region administration to say “not right now.”

But the health minister’s response on Wednesday in an interview with the Sun was itself a masterclass in modern Canadian political whataboutism.

Rather than explaining why a sitting MLA shouldn’t get to have a look at a public emergency room or a PCH hallway, Asagwara instead opened the sack of grievances, stuck a hand in, and came out with “you did it to us first.”

When asked to respond to Cook’s concerns about being denied access to Dauphin facilities, Asagwara countered that they “were never extended those opportunities” when they were the health critic under the former PC government.

“I found many ways to be effective in asking questions and getting information,” the minister said. “I encourage the health critic of today to do the same.”

To be fair, there is no legislative mandate granting opposition critics unrestricted access to publicly funded health facilities. Generally, health authorities and facility management accept visits by politicians on a case-by-case basis.

Though, as Winnipeg Free Press columnist Tom Brodbeck recently pointed out, MLAs and judges have a legislated right to visit provincial jails under Manitoba’s Correctional Services Act.

Perhaps there should be such a mandate, in the interests of transparency and accountability. Both parties could work together to amend health-care legislation to grant elected officials — including opposition MLAs — scheduled and non-disruptive access to public health-care facilities.

But that would require a level of discourse and trust that we have seemingly abandoned in this province. The childishness of our politics is endemic. Besides, denying MLAs entry to hospitals seems to be a time-honoured Manitoban tradition, passed down from one ruling party to the next like a cursed family heirloom.

By this standard, no systemic issue in Manitoba ever needs to be fixed. It just needs to be archived so it can be weaponized by the next administration.

Perhaps we can find a compromise. Going forward, all hospital tours for opposition politicians should require a strict one-to-one trading system. If the NDP lets a Tory look at an X-ray machine in Dauphin, the Tories must retroactively grant the NDP permission to have looked at a cafeteria menu at the Brandon Regional Health Centre in 2021.

If we can’t fix the wait times, we can at least ensure that the petty grievances are perfectly balanced.

While the two major parties remain locked in this perpetual playground standoff — forever shouting “But they started it!” into the legislative ether — ordinary Manitobans are left waiting in those very same hospitals.

Manitobans can rest easy knowing that while they might wait hours in the ER, the political rhetoric is moving at lightning speed.