Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Serving the Hub of the North since 1960
Volume 58 • Issue 09
Current, former Manitoba Liberal leaders in Thompson for health care meeting BY IAN GRAHAM EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
INDIGENOUS ENGAGEMENT IN THE ECONOMY NEWS - PAGE 2
STUDENT VOLUNTEER RECOGNIZED NEWS - PAGE 5
RDPC TEAMS HEADING TO PROVINCIALS SPORTS - PAGE 7
Manitoba Liberal Party leader Dougald Lamont, who won the leadership last October, and former leader and current River Heights MLA Dr. Jon Gerrard are in Thompson Feb. 28 for a meeting on Manitoba health care at the Meridian Hotel. "We're now essentially halfway through the Pallister government's term," Gerrard told the Thompson Citizen Feb. 23. "We're coming up to two years and thought it was really critical to do a checkup, take stock of where things are in terms of health care." Gerrard has already hosted similar meetings in Brandon and Grandview and was joined by
Lamont for meetings in Swan River, The Pas and Flin Flon before arriving in Thompson. After the Feb. 28 meeting, the leader will visit St. Theresa Point, a winter road community in Keewatinook Liberal MLA Judy Klassen's riding. Lamont has never held elected offi ce, but ran for offi ce once, losing to former Manitoba premier Greg Selinger in the St. Boniface riding in the 2003 provincial election. He says he sought the leadership of the Liberals because he wants to provide a viable third alternative to Manitoba voters beyond the NDP and Progressive Ceonservatives, which he says have become parties of the status quo. "They're not really do-
Attempted murder charge laid after machete attack A 23-year-old man is charged with attempted murder after Thompson RCMP responded to a home where another man had been wounded by a machete. Police were called to the residence around 11:45 p.m. Feb. 24 to find a
27-year-old from Thompson with a deep laceration on his upper body. He was taken to hospital where he remains in stable condition. Investigation led RCMP to arrest Chris Watt, who is charged with attempted murder and remains in custody.
ing anything new or different than they've done for a long time," said Lamont Feb. 23. "The PCs, they've tended, at least for 40 years, they've hacked and slashed and cut and the NDP haven't always been particularly good about creating jobs." He says his vision is to form a government for all Manitobans. "There's a whole province beyond Winnipeg with people with lives and jobs that need support and health care and education just like everybody else," said Lamont. In the first two years of their mandate, some of the PC government’s plans for health care haven't panned out, says Gerrard. "Concern about what's happening in health care is higher than I've ever seen in the 19 years that I've been in provincial politics," he says, citing changes to operations at Misericordia Hospital in Winnipeg as having proved detrimental. "When you eliminate the urgent care there which had been going really well, in my view, that's a mistake and it's certainly created a lot of problems for people locally and it's one of the factors that's contributed to the overcrowding and the long waits in the emergency room at St. Boniface, particularly." Lamont says the current government’s focus on cuts has left some people who voted it in,
Break a leg
Manitoba Liberal Party leader Dougald Lamont whether PC supporters or those who just wanted to vote the NDP out after 17 years, disillusioned. "I've talked to people in PC areas who just feel betrayed," says Lamont. "These are people who voted PC their entire life and they hoped for something new and different and the PCs are shutting down a hospital and firing nurses and closing pharmacies to begin with, just to start, and they're going to get to work freezing teachers' salaries and stuff like that." The new leader, who doesn't yet have a seat in the legislature, says reducing costs is not the only way to slay the
deficit. "The best way to get out of it is to grow our way out instead of cutting our way out," said Lamont. Since health care represents about 40 per cent of provincial government spending, Gerrard says simply throwing more money at problems is not an option. "We have to be able to manage the system but we also have to manage the dollars and the costs and we have to make sure that we're really spending each dollar in health care so it's really well-spent," he says. The health care town hall in Thompson will begin at 6 p.m. and run for two hours.
2018 POINT-IN-TIME COUNT VOLUNTEER RECRUITMENT
The Canadian Mental Health Association Thompson in afúliation with the Thompson Community Advisory Board on Homelessness are seeking community support and recruitment in order to undertake this count. Should you be interested in volunteering, please contact: Darren Fulford @ 204-677-6057 or email: housing@cmhathompson.ca with “Volunteers” in the subject line. The Point-in-Time count will be held on: Tuesday, March 13, 2018 - Evening and Wednesday, March 14, 2018 from 7:00 am to 1:00 pm. Training will be provided at Best western on: March 2 @ 11:30 am till 1:00 pm. Lunch will be provided at the venue. For more information, please visit the HPS Website: www.esdc.gc.ca/eng/communities/homelessness/point_in_time.shtml
SKATE THOMPSON COMPETES IN PORTAGE AND FLIN FLON NEWS - PAGE 9
Thompson Citizen photo by Ian Graham Cast and crew of the Thompson Playhouse production of "The Dixie Swim Club" pose for a photo backstage before their second weekend performance of the play Feb. 24 at the Letkemann Theatre.
Faculty of Social Work