Manitoba’s NDP government is promising to build, saying in its third throne speech it will construct an overpass at the location of a bus crash that killed 17 seniors, set up the province’s first supervised consumption site in a matter of weeks and build a new fuel-burning generation station to stave off a forecast power shortage.
The address — which outlines the priorities of Premier Wab Kinew’s government for the coming legislative session — was also heavy in its promises to bolster the health-care system, with a focus on reducing mandatory overtime and implementing staff-to-patient ratios.
The government’s pledge to build an overpass at the current at-grade intersection of Highway 5 and the Trans-Canada Highway near Carberry is being celebrated by locals, who fiercely opposed the government’s initial proposal — an intersection configuration that would have required merges and U-turns to get onto the busy Trans-Canada.
A semi-trailer and a bus full of seniors on their way to a casino collided at the intersection on June 15, 2023, killing 17 people. The other eight people on the bus were seriously injured.
After the tragedy, some area residents, as well as Carberry’s town council, called for an overpass at the intersection, but the government initially said it wasn’t an option because current traffic volumes aren’t high enough.
But that’s changed, Kinew said Tuesday.
“This intersection is different now than any other intersection in Manitoba because of the loss of life and how sad it was to see those seniors passing away,” he said, speaking at an embargoed briefing to reporters before the throne speech was read Tuesday afternoon by Lt.-Gov. Anita Neville.
“And because this intersection is different, with that scrutiny and that history, it means that we have that extra responsibility to listen to community voices on this.”
The throne speech commits to starting the design work for the overpass next year.
The address also promised to open a supervised consumption site in Winnipeg next January. However, it didn’t specify where it will be located, apart from being west of Main Street, or how the government can guarantee Health Canada’s approval in time.
Kinew said he’s confident the timeline can be met, because the province has already done much of the legwork on the application and will now file the paperwork and consult with the public.
Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan said the NDP hasn’t adequately consulted with the local community about the planned consumption site, which is normally a requirement for federal approval.
“When the premier doesn’t get his way, he just goes around the rules,” the Opposition leader said.
The speech commits to building a $3-billion fuel-generating system in Westman, which is bigger in scope than Manitoba Hydro’s original plan for a $1.36-billion station to prevent the province from eventually running out of power in winter months.
The proposed facility will feature three turbines, rather than the previous plan for two, producing 750 megawatts of power. It will burn natural gas, but Kinew hopes the facility will eventually be fuelled with cleaner renewables.
The province already has 600 megawatts of wind power in the works.
Other infrastructure projects cited in the speech include starting construction on the Victoria Hospital emergency department in January, the new ER in Eriksdale this winter and a new correctional facility in Dauphin next fall. The twinning of the Trans-Canada Highway from the Ontario border to West Hawk Lake will start next year.
On health care, the speech vows to begin ending mandatory overtime for staff, starting with nurses.
“You wouldn’t get on a plane with a pilot who has worked two back-to-back shifts. Why should you go to an ER where nurses have been asked to do that very thing?” the speech says.
There will also be legislation setting minimum staff-to-patient ratios in priority areas of the health-care system.
Kinew said the province will initially look to implementing these two promises within emergency departments.
He also took aim at health-care administrators, saying the province has enough nurses to end mandatory overtime, but system leaders won’t stop the practice unless they’re given a hard line.
“We think we have a performance issue with our management in health care, and we need to push them further.”
The Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals suggested it’s going to take more workers to hit some of the province’s goals.
“Without a credible health human resources plan, I think it’s very unlikely that there’s going to be successes in filling many of the vacancies across the province,” said Jason Linklater, the association’s president.
There’s also a commitment to create a patient safety charter that will enshrine into law the “right to good health care.”
Kinew said there will be consequences if administration doesn’t comply with these new measures.
New overpass, supervised consumption site highlight Manitoba throne speech
Meanwhile, patients will have access to digital health cards beginning in January and, later in the year, a new online portal to see their lab results and immunizations.
The province is also planning to stop provincially regulated employers from requiring workers to get sick notes for absences of less than a week, a move doctors have demanded as a way to free up time to treat patients.
“We all end up paying for sick notes through longer wait times to see a doctor and as taxpayers too,” Doctors Manitoba, which advocates for physicians in the province, said in a news release.
To address crime, the government is planning to ban machetes in some public areas and prevent the sale of them on Facebook Marketplace.
There’s also a promise of a “targeted meth sweep” with the help of various police forces, and the province will buy an airport scanner to find drugs before they enter northern First Nations, the throne speech said.
On the environment, the province aims to unveil the next steps this spring of its plan to be carbon-neutral by 2050. The speech committed to announcing the legislated targets at a later date.
The speech commits to finding a way to help Manitobans with the cost of groceries.
The province will commission a study, and Kinew told reporters that next year’s budget will feature some mechanism to help people save money on groceries.
Kinew said the government remains committed to balancing the budget in 2027 and promised there will be no tax increases in the spring budget.
The government is planning new honours to recognize some of the Manitobans who recently lost their lives.
A bridge along Highway 313 in Lac du Bonnet will be renamed in honour of Sue and Richard Nowell, who died during the wildfire season that eventually led 32,000 people to be evacuated.
And a new scoreboard and bleachers will be built at Sisler High School to recognize 17-year-old high school football player Darius Hartshorne, who died in October after suffering a serious neck injury during a game.
