Premier grilled on variety of issues

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/03/2023 (949 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Premier Heather Stefanson sat down with The Brandon Sun on Thursday for a quick question-and-answer session during her visit to the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair. Questions and responses have received minor edits for clarity.

Sun: A new Probe poll shows that the lead the NDP has over the Progressive Conservative party has shrunk heading into an election. How much of that is due to the increase in funding announcements versus any other factor?

Stefanson: Look, I don’t put a lot of credence into polling numbers and what they say. I just know that Manitobans are expecting us to govern in the best interest of all Manitobans. And so I’m just putting one foot in front of the other each and every day. I have an incredible team of individuals that work with me, both elected and our staff as well, who are dedicated to making sure that we’re focused on doing what’s in the best interest of Manitobans. And so, that will continue to be our focus, regardless of what any polls say.

Sun: The Brandon Sun is interested in hosting a leadership debate during the upcoming election (editors note: with Brandon University). Would you commit at this point to a leadership debate in Brandon?

Stefanson: Certainly, that all goes through our campaign team, and we have our campaign manager, Marni Larkin, that will be making those decisions moving forward. Anyone who’s been through a campaign before knows that I don’t make those calls, those are the calls of the campaign manager. I’m just here, and I do what I’m told during the campaign (laughs). So, we’ll leave that to the campaign team to decide what that will look like moving forward.

Sun: Fair enough, but what’s your gut reaction to that idea?

Stefanson: Listen, I have no problem having debates with Wab Kinew and Dougald Lamont, I do it every day on the floor of the chamber, so that’s great. But again, I think what Manitobans want us to be focused on right now is, and certainly what we did in our historic help for Manitobans in the budget that we just released, that’s clearly focused on what’s in the best interests of Manitobans. Things like affordability, better health care sooner, closer to home, those types of things, and so we’ll continue to focus on those areas.

Sun: You increased school funding, and you’re working on a model for the ongoing funding of schools. School divisions are saying it’s not enough to keep pace with inflation and they’d like a plan for more stable funding so they can better plan their budgets going down the road. What is your approach as a government to forming this funding model, first of all?

Stefanson: What we want to do is be listening and working with stakeholders in the educational field, seeing what that funding model will look like moving forward. But what I will say is that the funding that we have offered so far has reached, has covered off inflation and then some. A 23 per cent increase since 2016 to education funding, a 6.1 per cent increase across the board just this year alone. So those are significant increases in investments in education across the province.

Sun: I know you’ve still been working on the funding plan. Any chance we’ll see anything before the election in terms of what it may look like?

Stefanson: It depends on the consultations and how that process unfolds, and I know the minister of education is working very hard, diligently. I know he’s gone up to Swan River today. He was just in Brandon, he’s gone up to Swan River to meet up there with stakeholders as well. And so, he’s continuing to go across the province and speak with various school divisions just to get their feedback. And so, that’s a process that will unfold and take some time, so we’ll let that process take place.

Sun: Traditionally, rural areas support conservative governments. There’s some concern in places like Carberry and Glenboro about their hospitals possibly closing due to lack of staff or doctors departing. What would you say to rural residents who might be concerned about the health-care system?

Stefanson: I think that what rural residents don’t want to do is go back to the days of the NDP government when they closed down more than 16 ERs in rural Manitoba and northern Manitoba. We don’t want to go back to that. What we want to do is offer better health care closer to home. That’s why just yesterday we were here in Brandon announcing significant investment to the Brandon hospital here, which is going to be acting as a hub for the community. So rather than for the whole Westman, Parkland region, we’re making those investments here in Brandon so that people in the surrounding communities can come to Brandon rather than going to Winnipeg for those services, so this will act as a hub.

That is very significant, so I think what people in these communities want is better health care closer to home, and access to those services that they may not have been able to get in the past in a very close proximity to their home. I know there’s a lot of fear-mongering out there by the opposition. I think that is not helpful, frankly, to what is happening out there. And we know that there’s a health human resource challenge that’s out there. That’s nothing unique to Manitoba, nothing unique to rural Manitoba, nothing unique to Manitoba itself. It’s a challenge across the country, and we are working diligently … that’s why we have announced a $200-million investment in health human resources to bring 2,000 more health-care professionals to Manitoba. That includes doctors in communities like Glenboro and these areas as well, and Carberry, to ensure that we can continue to offer those services. So we are tackling that.

» ihitchen@brandonsun.com