We’ve heard from the local candidates – now, it’s provincial party leaders who want to be heard on northern issues for the upcoming election.
Both Premier and PC party leader Brian Pallister and Manitoba NDP leader Wab Kinew paid recent visits to the Flin Flon area.
Kinew, who came to town July 23, met with Hudbay officials in Flin Flon, nurses and medical staff, city council and local elected figures, as well as making stops in The Pas and Cranberry Portage. Kinew also held an event with current MLA Tom Lindsey at Lindsey’s Main Street office.
“We’re trying to meet people and do some outreach. It is a bit of campaigning, but a big part of what we’re doing is just trying to listen to what the needs are in the area.
That’s why we’re trying to meet with a mix of people in health care, people in industry, people in politics, to hear what some of the concerns are and how we might be able to help,” Kinew said in an interview with The Reminder.
Pallister arrived July 12 to campaign for PC candidate Theresa Wride at a public barbecue at Pioneer Square, along with his wife Esther and a number of PC staff. At the event, Pallister heaped praise on the party’s local candidate.
“I would like to say how much I appreciate this woman being our candidate in this riding. Theresa is going to be a fabulous member of the legislative assembly. She knows the area, she knows the people,” Pallister said in a speech.
Shortly before heading north, Kinew’s NDP released information obtained through a Freedom of Information request detailing a provincial mineral readiness strategy. A request for proposals has been issued for the strategy, along with a non-disclosure agreement, according to a statement released by the NDP.
“The non disclosure agreement definitely caught our attention, because it means that this process is happening in secret,” Kinew said.
“Why would they be doing this in secret? Why wouldn’t they be, you know, open and honest and let the public know that this is happening? It seems like one of the possible explanations is that they’re just looking for another way to export jobs and money from the province to other provinces, maybe even out of the country. That’s our concern with that.”
Kinew mentioned the provincial Mining Community Reserve Fund, which the NDP said is above the $10 million threshold which would allow money from the fund to be distributed to communities in need.
“When there are challenges on the horizon, a community should be able to draw on that, either for exploration or to create jobs directly. What we’re going to propose is to use the fund to put people to work,” said Kinew.
During his time in Flin Flon, Pallister mentioned the issue of provincial sales taxes, touting the current government’s one per cent decrease in sales tax as a potential benefit for businesses and families.
“We don’t believe in higher taxes. Higher taxes will push opportunities away. It’s harder for families to make ends meet, and when it’s harder for families to make ends meet, it’s harder for a business to make money and employ people,” said Pallister.
“We keep our word and keep our promises. We said we would lower taxes and we are starting to do that already. The previous NDP government said they wouldn’t raise taxes, then they did. It’s a question of trust, it’s a question of taxes and it’s a question of how we create better opportunities for our province.”
Kinew added an NDP priority would be to encourage mining investment, exploration and job training in northern Manitoba.
“What we saw in some of the documents that we released is that with mines going offline, there’s hundreds of fewer people working across the north. I
think, specific to Flin Flon, there’s some anxiety. There’s a concern for what’s going to happen three years from now, what’s going to happen to people’s jobs, what’s going to happen to work here.”
“I’m hearing a lot that there is a need to provide more training for people to fulfill the mining jobs that will continue to exist. In Snow Lake maybe, or if there’s another find here, Flin Flon will have a need for miners, for mechanics, for tradespeople.”
During his speech, Pallister also discussed northern economic issues, namely health care and infrastructure spending. The current Premier used the Flin Flon emergency department as an example of his party’s approach.
“I understand that the North was taken for granted by a previous government for a long time. People would vote for them, regardless of what they did. There were promises made for years and years, things like, ‘We’re going to have a new emergency room’. Four times in a row. Now the emergency room is here in Flin Flon, after one term.”
While construction on the Flin Flon emergency room project began shortly after the last provincial election in 2016, funding announcements and tendering for the project began in fall 2015, before Pallister was elected to his first term as Premier and while an NDP government was still in office.
On health care, Kinew said more discussion needed to be done with northerners on issues, including Flin Flon-based birthing services.
“There are specific needs around obstetrics, then the more general needs, being unable to find a family doctor or having to wait too long or travel too often to get health care. We’re going to talk a lot about health care, we’re going to talk about jobs, then we’re going to talk about how we can keep life affordable,” Kinew said.
Campaign rhetoric has begun to ramp up, with attack ads beginning to reach
airwaves.
In recent weeks, a website and social media accounts under the name “WabRisk” have appeared. The account and website, authorized by the PC Party, is shown as a paid advertisement on Facebook under the PC page and has been heavily publicized on the party’s Twitter account and by some of the party’s candidates.
The site and social media pages emphasize scandals in the Manitoba NDP’s past before Kinew formally joined the party as leader in 2017, as well as Kinew’s personal signing of the LEAP Manifesto, a document drawn up by Canadian left-wing figures in 2015. Previous allegations of domestic assault against Kinew have also been mentioned.
One portion of the site states Kinew “wants to see Manitoba’s mining industry shut down.”
When asked about the accusations, Kinew said the statement was false and rebuked the PC Party.
“We’re the team that’s standing up for jobs in northern Manitoba and we’re putting together a concrete plan to help people continue to work in the mining industry in northern Manitoba.”
“The other side has Twitter accounts and they’ve got attack ads, we’ve got a plan to keep people working in the mining industry in northern Manitoba,” Kinew said,
before stating that mining would have a role in any future NDP economic plans.
“No one’s going to give up their smartphone. We’re only going to have more electrification, we’re only going to have more batteries.”
