On July 22, MAHCP participated in a follow-up roundtable to Premier Wab Kinew’s April 30, full-day Public Safety Summit.
Hosted by Honourable Matt Wiebe, Minister of Justice and Attorney General, this 90-minute session invited representatives from the labour movement to continue the discussion on Manitoba’s social challenges, with the goal to generate recommendations to mitigate risks to workers and members of the public.
During the event, we discussed possible solutions to workplace violence; gender-based violence; retail crime; mental health challenges and addictions; lack of affordable housing and homelessness. Thank you to our inspiring tablemates from UFCW Local 832, CUPE Manitoba, Manitoba Teachers Society and Canadian Labour Congress – Congrès du travail du Canada for a great discussion.
At the close of the Premier’s summit in the spring, Minister Wiebe committed to releasing a public safety strategy early in the fall. MAHCP looks forward to seeing commitments in the strategy to address escalating violence and improve personal safety in Manitoba’s health-care facilities.
As a fellow participant stated during the roundtable: “We approached our discussion today from the perspective that desperate people do desperate things. We need to improve access to support and resources to address the root causes of crime and rising violence. We can only do that by increasing funding to frontline agencies and accepting as taxpayers that there will be costs to that investment.”