New paramedic program tailored for Westman

Assiniboine College will offer a new primary care paramedic course starting next year, Premier Wab Kinew announced in Brandon on Thursday.

The first cohort will have 16 spots and be offered at Assiniboine’s Parkland campus in Dauphin next January, while a second cohort with the same number of seats will start at a different location in Westman later next year.

“The whole idea is to get more people into the parts of the health-care system where we need them, instead of waiting for folks to come to the hubs like Winnipeg, like Brandon,” Kinew said during his State of the Province address hosted by the Brandon Chamber of Commerce.

“We’re going to put more effort into reaching people where they’re at today.”

The training in smaller communities will help keep rural residents closer to home and allow them to stay there to work, he said.

He added that return-of-service agreements will also be in place for graduates to work in their communities, ensuring they have a job offer as soon as their training is completed.

“This is a really good model to make sure that folks stay in the communities where they come from,” Kinew told a crowd of about 450 people in the UCT Pavilion at the Keystone Centre.

The provincial government is providing $115,000 to the college for the program.

“This is what we were talking about on election night,” Kinew said.

“We’re super, super happy to be able to keep our word and to deliver on the needs for people in Westman and across Manitoba.”

The official responsible for emergency medical services in Brandon said the provincial announcement is “an extremely important step” for the area.

“Anytime we can increase the amount of paramedics coming out of the colleges and institutions, it’s huge for the province,” Brandon Fire and Emergency Services Chief Terry Parlow said just after Kinew’s speech ended.

“We are very short, especially in southwestern Manitoba. So, them being in Dauphin and staying in Dauphin and helping out, that helps everybody.”

Parlow said the rural areas have had a hard time attracting and retaining paramedics and often rely on Brandon crews to help.

“It’s a struggle. So, when we’re actually training the paramedics in communities like Dauphin, and they’re people from Dauphin, they tend to stay in Dauphin or the area, so that’s very important.”

Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals president Jason Linklater described the program as “a start,” but said more expansion is needed to match programming in Saskatchewan.

“The critical shortage of paramedics, and the government’s election commitment to add 200 net new paramedics, requires a significant mobilization of resources and focus to retain, train and recruit,” Linklater said in a statement.

“We’re two and half years in, and so far paramedics haven’t seen that level of commitment from government.”

There was a 43 per cent vacancy rate for primary care paramedics in rural Westman as of last December, according to Shared Health data. That included a staff of 78.5 full-time primary care paramedics with 60 unfilled positions.

The second cohort of students could start in either May or September 2027, with a location to be announced shortly, chairperson for Allied Health at Assiniboine College Michele Sykes told the Sun.

“We’re extremely excited to be offering this new programming in the province,” Sykes said.

The program will be “rural rotating,” with the program offered where the greatest need in rural communities is, she said.

“We know that there are some critical staffing needs in these areas, and this is us listening to what the community, the leadership across the province … are saying, this is where we need it,” Sykes said.

She said people often want to learn in their communities and might not be able to relocate to a larger centre.

The program already has more than 100 people on an interest list for the Dauphin location, Sykes added.

The college’s website shows it to be a one-year program, with graduates receiving a certificate upon graduation.

Dauphin Mayor David Bosiak wasn’t available for comment on Thursday afternoon.

Kinew’s speech also highlighted the Port of Churchill project and its potential impacts on Westman. He called it “probably the biggest energy project that Manitoba has ever seen,” and that Prime Minister Mark Carney has been clear that he wants to see liquefied natural gas moving out of the port by 2030.

The investment, he said, is “on the scale” of around $30 billion and would mean five to six per cent economic growth each year as it is built.

“When you think Churchill, you should think opportunity for Westman at the same time,” Kinew said. “Because not only are tradespeople and contractors going to be heading north to build there. You’re going to have a whole lot of economic activity to the south and to the west of where we are today.”

Speaking to reporters after his speech, Kinew said the transit of western Canadian resources to Churchill will start in the province’s southwestern corner.

“That’s going to be great for the oil patch in our province. That will be great for Brandon as the hub in the region,” the premier said.

“Every tradesperson, every contractor, every subcontractor is going to have a chance at working for the next decade on some of these big energy projects.”

During his speech, Kinew also talked about the demolition and reconstruction of the Park Community Centre in Brandon this year and removing property controls on grocery stores, including on the former Sobeys location at 1645 18th St.

Other topics included the addition of 148 new child-care spaces at the Brandon Regional Health Centre announced last year.

» alambert@brandonsun.com