This morning, officials from Shared Health Manitoba and the Government of Manitoba attended an urgent meeting of the Manitoba Council of Health Care Unions to inform member unions of the proclamation of Bill 29.
The government has now made public announcements of this proclamation. We now know that a Commissioner has been named and Robert Pruden will have sweeping authority to set the regulations around this Bill and how any representation votes will occur. He also has the sole authority to lay out the timelines, processes, as well as which classifications of health care workers will fall into which of the sectors laid out in the Act and in today’s media release.
These sectors are categorized as follows:
- nurses;
- physicians;
- medical residents;
- physician assistants and clinical assistants;
- professional/technical/paramedical;
- facility support; and
- community support.
As of the meeting this morning, the above information is all that we know for certain. In the coming days, weeks and perhaps months, submissions will be heard by the commissioner from both Labour and Employer representatives regarding the details and specifics of how this will occur.
MAHCP continues to be disappointed that this Bill was introduced and now proclaimed.
This is especially so because Pallister Government officials refused to listen to input from health care unions on alternate solutions that would’ve avoided adding an enormous amount of new chaos into a system already reeling from changes introduced to WRHA facilities and uncertain changes coming to more WRHA sites, as well as the unknown plan for rural and northern facilities.
You can count on us for regular updates to members as more information becomes available. Our Facebook and Twitter pages are also being updated with news articles related to the changes to our provincial health care system.
In Solidarity,
Bob Moroz
President, MAHCP