If it wasn’t so serious, it would have already become comical. The NDP announce a much needed community project, and then delay it, again and again and again. In the case of projects like the much needed and much delayed expanded emergency room at Bethesda Hospital, there is nothing funny about the ongoing delays.
It is a project that was promised three years ago by then Premier Gary Doer who made a personal commitment to community medical leaders that this was an important project. However, under Greg Selinger, it is a project that seems to always be facing yet another delay. We are led to believe the changeover of leadership was one of the reasons for the most recent delays. That seems hard to believe considering some multi-million dollar projects that Mr. Selinger has announced have start construction within weeks and even before designs or costs were finalized.
The local RHA has made it a priority and want to see the project completed. And no wonder; anyone who has ever spent a few minutes or a few hours in the emergency room at Bethesda knows that this is a critically important project to the staff of the hospital and every resident of the region who uses the facility. It is hardly an excuse that there was a change in NDP leadership since the project was announced and approved long before Mr. Doer’s resignation and the subsequent leadership race. And regardless, it’s not as though Mr. Selinger is personally involved in the design or construction of the emergency room. His job as Premier is to provide leadership and direction to get the job done. And he clearly isn’t.
Mr. Selinger was in the City of Steinbach last month and in between photo-ops and backslaps, it would have been nice if he would have given some assurance to residents of the region that much needed projects and priorities like the Bethesda ER would be going ahead in the promised time frames. It was his opportunity to show real leadership instead of simply looking for a quick handshake and picture.
The Steinbach ER isn’t the only project getting the Selinger song and dance in Manitoba. Construction of a needed high school and middle school have also been delayed in Winkler. Promised personal care homes have been announced and delayed endlessly in other southern communities as well.
It’s sometimes hard to know if the delays of these critically important projects are the result of a government playing politics in certain parts of the province, a government that has no sense of priorities or a government that simply cannot manage. What is clear is that it is indicative of a government that lacks strong leadership.
