None of the excuses are credible anymore. It has been well over three years since then Premier Gary Doer made an announcement that the Emergency Room at the Bethesda Hospital in Steinbach would be expanded.
This was a long overdue and welcomed announcement. Anyone who has visited the ER at Bethesda knows that it is both much too small for the number of people it now serves and is out of date. The growth of the area has made the regional hospital in Steinbach a very busy place and the Emergency Room is at the heart of it. Medical professionals who work at Bethesda had been pushing for the expansion and they too enthusiastically welcomed the announcement at the time.
But since then, the excitement has turned to bewilderment and frustration as the project has been delayed over and over again. While the NDP government has been trumpeting the pending expansion for the past three years, not a shovel of dirt has been turned to get the construction underway.
The Bethesda Foundation, perhaps the most successful health fundraising foundation in the province, has added to the generous financial contribution they had already made to this project and still the project sits in limbo.
In fact, the NDP have been running ads in papers across the province saying that the Bethesda Emergency Room expansion is a part of their five year economic plan, a plan that was created 2 years after the expansion was announced!
A variety of excuses have been offered up for the delay. The most recent one was that the change over of NDP leadership from Gary Doer to Greg Selinger was the reason for the hold-up. That excuse is more than a year old now. After three years, there are no more excuses.
Residents have asked me what they can do. Last week I set up a website www.getbethesdabuilt.com and from that site you can send an email to Premier Greg Selinger that asks him to get this project going. Please take a moment to go to the website and click on the link provided to send your message that it’s time to get the ER project going.
Changing Times
This week it was announced that The Carillon and Derksen Printers had been sold to FP Canadian Newspapers Limited. This change is one of many that have happened to the business landscape in Steinbach over recent years and is a reflection of changing times and a changing community.
The Carillon and Derksen Printers was a family owned business that helped to keep the region informed and connected. It did so in a way that reflected well the values of the region and its residents. I offer my best wishes and thanks to owner Rick Derksen for many years of bringing the news to the community and wish the new owners well in carrying on the successful tradition.
