Cullen, Kinew reflect on one year post-Pallister

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This article was published 12/08/2022 (1232 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Depending on who you ask — the provincial government or the Opposition — the year since Brian Pallister announced his retirement has either been proof of improved communication, or a disappointing maintenance of the status quo.

Wednesday marked the one-year anniversary of the former premier announcing his intention to retire from politics outside of the Dome Building in Brandon after a difficult summer.

In the year since, Manitoba saw two new premiers, a Progressive Conservative leadership race that culminated in a legal challenge from the second-place finisher, the withdrawal of unpopular legislation and more.

“It was somewhat of a surprise,” deputy premier Cliff Cullen said of Pallister’s resignation announcement in a phone interview Thursday afternoon.

“You never really know when people are going to make their exit from politics. It is a tremendous commitment to enter into politics, and an even bigger commitment to be the leader of a party, and in Pallister’s case, the leader of the province.”

Asked what the difference is between the three premiers Manitoba has had over the last year (including Kelvin Goertzen’s interim role), Cullen said he has respect for all of them and their different styles of management.

On Stefanson specifically, Cullen said the new boss has done a good job of engaging not just cabinet and caucus members, but Manitobans across the province and other levels of government as well.

He said her open-door approach to communication has seen a lot of different people visiting Stefanson to provide advice, and he believes that approach will continue.

When Stefanson launched her leadership campaign, of which Cullen was an early supporter, she promised to be a more conciliatory leader, which he said he believes she has followed through on.

“With that approach, she has been able to accomplish a lot in a relatively short period of time,” Cullen said. “I think Manitobans are getting a lot from her leadership.”

That includes several joint federal-provincial announcements made over the last year in sectors like infrastructure, transit and child care.

Like Health Minister Audrey Gordon has said previously, Cullen noted that staffing shortages aren’t unique to the health-care sector and Manitoba’s labour resources in health care aren’t unique within Canada.

Regarding what the government has been doing to tackle inflation, Cullen pointed to tax cuts that have been implemented since the PCs took power.

Though Cullen touted projects such as the hospital expansion announced for Brandon and the new hospital being built in Neepawa as part of “record investments in health care,” NDP Leader Wab Kinew told the Sun Thursday that facilities won’t matter unless the province has the workforce to staff them.

“Nothing has changed since Pallister left,” Kinew said. “In health care, it’s worse than it was. There’s more ER closures in Westman this summer than there were last year, and the staffing crisis is worse.”

From Kinew’s perspective, the Tories have largely the same cabinet and caucus under Stefanson that they did under Pallister. When the Tories talk about staffing and health-care issues being a problem the whole country is facing, Kinew said those are talking points held over from Pallister as well.

He said the most important thing the province must do with health care is improve working conditions to prevent nurses from leaving either the profession or the province or even leaving to work for private for-profit nursing agencies.

“I think it’s been worse in Manitoba than we’ve seen across the country,” Kinew said. “Particularly and acutely during the pandemic.”

The NDP leader said he believes there should be a health-care war room in Westman, bringing together stakeholders from nursing, the health authority, municipal and provincial leadership to hash issues out “around the clock.”

Given the problems with staffing shortages, why not continue the use of agency nurses the NDP previously criticized? Kinew said agency nursing should be used as an emergency tool, but it’s currently being used all the time.

When the provincial government asks for more federal health transfers, Kinew said his concern is that if more money is sent, they’ll just spend it on “a million-dollar cheque for the out-of-province landlords who own the Polo Park mall.”

That’s a reference to one of the corporate beneficiaries of the province’s education property tax rebates.

One way Westman has benefited under Stefanson is at the council table, with five PC MLAs from the region, including Cullen, currently serving as ministers.

“I would suggest we’ve never had a stronger voice for western Manitoba at the cabinet level,” Cullen said. “Clearly, Westman is critical as we move forward. It’s great to see some of the investments that have been made available in the region over the last number of years. I anticipate there will be additional investments in infrastructure in the region as well.”

Asked if the region would maintain a strong voice in cabinet if the NDP forms government, Kinew didn’t want to speculate on hypothetical appointments but said his party would fight for the needs of all Manitobans regardless of who represents their constituency in the legislature.

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