2016 has been a milestone year in my life and has seen an unprecedented amount of change brought to Manitoba. In many ways the provincial election night on April 19th, which resulted in a modern day record 40 Progressive Conservatives elected in the Manitoba Legislature, seems both like yesterday and like a very long time ago. Much has happened since that historic day for Manitoba.
On May 3rd, I had the honour of being appointed Manitoba’s Minister of Health, Seniors and Active Living, an incredible responsibility and one that I am committed to working hard at. While my ministerial responsibilities are time-consuming, the most important job to me remains the one that I ran for, being MLA for residents of the Steinbach constituency.
The first Throne Speech was given on May 16th by our new Progressive Conservative government, just five days after the 146th anniversary of the founding of our great province of Manitoba. Just six weeks after being elected by Manitobans, our first budget was introduced and began to chart a better course for Manitoba.
In the constituency, I was pleased to announce $135,000.00 worth of local grants awarded from the provincial Community Places Program, as well as participate in announcements related to improving infrastructure, keeping young people safe from drugs, enhancing agriculture and improving education.
In addition to attending regular meeting with Health Ministers across Canada, I also joined in the Opioid Summit in Ottawa as we work to deal with a national crisis of addiction and deaths due to drugs such as fentanyl and carfentanyl.
On the legislative side, our government entered into the New West Partnership, ended the ‘Vote Tax’, opened up a public consultation process for Budget 2017, and advocated to make the Canada Pension Plan better. As well I continue to serve as the co-chair of the Midwest-Canada Relations Committee dedicated to keeping the relationship between Canada and the United States strong.
There have been quite a few developments in Health-care this year in Manitoba: new boards were appointed for the five provincial regional health authorities, to guide the provision of health-care services across the province, KPMG LLP was awarded the contract for a Health-Care Sustainability and Innovation Review, Newborn Hearing Screening Program tests are now offered to all newborn infants and we launched a fentanyl awareness campaign here in Manitoba schools.
As we look towards next year and the 150th birthday of Canada, I hope that 2017 brings you and your family peace and joy.
