New NDP Health Minister Erin Selby is off to a difficult start.
Soon after she was appointed to the job of Minister of Health by Premier Greg Selinger she was putting blame on taxi cab drivers when two people died after being sent home from Winnipeg Emergency Rooms by cab. That wasn’t very well received by taxi cab drivers in particular or by the public in general.
Now, Minister Selby has found herself in hot political water again by refusing to answer simple questions in a health committee and instead spending her time talking about the 1990s and the tragic deaths of babies in a pediatric cardiology surgical program.
Getting answers to questions is often a difficult thing in our form of government. The daily Question Period long ago stopped being a place where real answers are given to questions. Former Reform Party Leader, Preston Manning, once said that it is no wonder it’s called Question Period and not Answer Period since so few answers are actually given.
What was most surprising about Minister Selby’s hyper-partisan answers were that they came not in Question Period but at a health committee and they were in response to very straight forward questions. Each year, committees are held to examine the expenditures and operations of the different provincial government departments. These committees are very different that Question Period in that they are typically in committee rooms, with no cameras and department staff is available to help Minister’s answer questions. It can be a very good place for thoughtful questions and answers and a way to deal with issues in a fairly non-political way.
For example, last week in the committee on Infrastructure, I asked the Minister responsible if there were plans to redevelop the intersection on Highway #12 and Park Road. He responded that there were plans and that it was in the budget for next year. A simple question. A simple answer.
But when the health committee was called, Minister Selby took a very different approach. PC Health Critic, Myrna Driedger, asked a very simple question as to how old the STARS medical helicopter is and what type of helicopter it is. And instead of providing the simple answer to the simple question, Minister Selby talked about Gary Filmon, the 1990s, and children that have died in hospital.
It is the kind of answer that is not becoming of the Health Minister and not respectful to Manitobans overall.
It turns out the answer isn’t complicated. The helicopter is a 1991 BK117 that was refitted in 2013. It’s time the Minister of Health began acting in the way Manitobans would expect. It’s time to just answer the questions already.
