Thank you to everyone who submitted their name for Executive Council!
District 16 – Winnipeg Central 4 currently has two candidates (in alphabetical order by last name):
Shelley Kowalchuk
Jason Linklater
As per the MAHCP Constitution, an election will be held among the members in that district. Members must be in good standing, and all voting will take place beginning Friday, September 10 for a seven-day period.
District 16 – Winnipeg Central 4 includes:
HSC Allied Health – General/Rehab*
Cancer Care Manitoba (CCMB)
*All other Allied Health employees at HSC General and Rehab facilities, not including Lab/Pharmacy (District 14) and Diagnostics/Adult Transport (District 15).
More information about districts is located here under the Districts section.
Eligible members will be emailed the link with the dates – please ensure we have your email on file by emailing info@mahcp.ca or filling out this form.
Candidate Biographies (in alphabetical order by last name):
I want to say hello to my healthcare colleagues throughout Health Sciences Centre. My name is Shelley Kowalchuk, and I’m a physiotherapist. I work at the Rehab Hospital at HSC in neuro outpatients, and I have been at HSC for my entire career, working with inpatients and outpatients since 1997. I have always been involved with many social justice causes, so when I became a physiotherapist, I quickly became involved in union activities to help my colleagues in physiotherapy and also colleagues that I worked with, apart from my profession. I feel strongly that though healthcare workers are dedicated and take pride in their work, there has to be a balance between the selfless actions of healthcare people, and the necessary protection of the rights of workers. That is why I became involved, and why I continue to this day.
UNION ACTIVITIES: Not long after I started at HSC, I was on the bargaining committee for physios when we were in MGEU. After our group joined MAHCP in 2004, I became a staff rep (renamed Member Advocate a few years ago) for PTs at the Rehab Hospital, and I have continued to this day. In 2005 I became Physiotherapy Director, and remained in this position until 2016. After a brief respite, I rejoined Executive Council in 2017 and have been there till today.
MAHCP Committee work: I was on the Communications Committee first, and became chair of the committee and Secretary for the union in June 2013. Communication is such an important part of reaching the public, informing Government and consolidating our place in the minds of Manitobans. As part of the Communication committee, I advocated to hire a PR company to help make our union more known to Manitobans, an important strategy to show Manitobans who we are and how important our work is. When we started Bargaining, our Communications committee worked to keep members informed through Bargaining Beats and we promoted letter-writing to MLAs and sending postcards to the Minister of Health. Though I’m no longer on this committee, I have always advocated for making us as healthcare workers known to the public and have pushed for more communication to members, more outreach to the public so people see who we are.
I was the chair of the Social Action Committee from 2012 to 2015. As chair I oversaw organizing members for our public outreach such as the Canadian Diabetes Runs and our first Dragon Boat team. I was Newsletter Editor for 3 years where I wrote many articles about Medicare, and Government/Labour issues. I served on the Governance Committee, helping to amend and craft articles for our Constitution, as well as policies that help govern the union. For a few years now, I have been on the Finance Committee (previously called Management Committee) and in this past year I became co-chair of that Committee. We manage the budget for the union, plan the Annual General Meeting and deal with most financial aspects that affect the union.
OTHER COMMITTEES: I have been on some hospital committees representing our union. I have been the chair of the Rehab Hospital Workplace Safety and Health committee for several years. I had also been on the Employee Management Council for several years, at HSC.
Jason Linklater is Treasurer at MAHCP and Orthopedic Technology Director on Executive Council. He became active in the union soon after his group voted to join in 2001 and his first priority was to become involved in bargaining. Jason took on the role of Treasurer in 2018 mostly out of need and says it has now “grown” on him. He believes that regardless of whether you are a “union” person or not, this is the venue members are provided to deal with professional occupational issues. It just makes sense to him that our membership gets involved to make their occupation stronger and work environment better.
Jason is a champion for Allied Health and is very interested in promoting the Allied Health professions both to the public and government. “Our members serve the public providing specialized care and intervention. Many of our members work is highly specialized and doesn’t receive the attention that the more common occupations in health care and medicine do….often the public and government are not aware until crisis arises or critical shortages occur within that professional group.”
He’s a member of the Canadian Society of Orthopedic Technologists and is the Orthopedic Technology educator and a wound care clinician at HSC. Jason does sessional instruction at U of M and other institutions where wound care or orthopedic treatments are part of the curriculum.
Jason is a proud dad to four kids, two in high-school and two attending University of Manitoba. In his spare time Jason enjoys working on old jeeps, fishing and most things outdoors.