Health care concerns dominate first day of new legislative session in Manitoba [Video]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-legislative-session-1.6764447

MLAs from across Manitoba returned to the legislature Wednesday for the first of 45 sittings during the final session before the provincial election.

The three-month session gives the governing Progressive Conservatives an opportunity to try to claw back some of the popularity polls suggest the party has lost since the start of the pandemic.

The opposition parties, meanwhile, signalled they intend to prevent any potential PC resurgence by drawing attention to Manitoba’s health-care struggles.

Concerns about health care dominated the first day of the session, which took place in the shadow of the death of a patient awaiting care at the emergency ward in Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre.

The opposition NDP and Liberals peppered Premier Heather Stefanson and her cabinet with questions about the HSC incident, home care deficiencies and rural hospital closures.