At the end of the NDP government's first full year in office (November, 2024), the Manitoba Nurses Union surveyed its members to the achievements of the new administration. The results, released last week, were a stinging rebuke to Wab Kinew and his touted reforms of health care in the province.
By every measure in the survey, the NDP fizzled, flopped and failed.
"Overall, grade the performance of the government in living up to its many promises with respect to improving health care and patient outcomes," asked the union.
66 percent of respondents said the NDP either failed-- and things have gotten worse-- or there was "no improvement, with things the same as before."
The NDP promised they would hire hundreds of new nurses to open more beds and eliminate the mandatory overtime that was eroding nurse morale.
"Grade the effectiveness of the government's staffing initiative on vacancy rates and/or nurse workload in your facility/site/program."
61 percent gave the NDP an F (fail) or D (no improvement). Fizzle
"How would you grade the government's effectiveness in making you feel more valued and respected?"
64 percent said no improvement or complete failure and "things have gotten worse."
When you add the 24 percent who gave the NDP a C-- "average or very minimal improvement"-- you have 88 percent of nurses saying the NDP was only virtue signalling with its constant claim of listening and responding to nurses' complaints.
"How effectively have the issues raised/solutions suggested by nurses during the government's "listening tours" been addressed?".
A (excellent) 1 percent
B (good, some improvement) 9 percent
C (average, very minimal improvement) 24 percent
D (No improvement, same as before) 42 percent
F (Fail. Things have gotten worse) 22 percent
The MNU bored down on specific issues raised by nurses during the year.
"How would you grade the performance of the employer in addressing violence and verbal abuse at your facility/site/ program over the past year?"
64 percent gave the NDP a combined grade of D and/or F.
A centrepoint of the NDP's health care plan is to retain nurses while recruiting hundreds more. The nurses survey said that after year one the plan has been a monumental failure.
"Has the government's actions or failure to act caused you to reconsider how long you anticipate remaining in your nursing career?"
An overwhelming 75 percent declared YES.
Barely 3 percent said they were considering staying longer than they anticipated.
A full third of nurses said they were considering leaving to work in another field, while another 20 percent were eyeing abandoning the public system and moving to a nursing agency.
Fewer than half (43 percent) of the survey respondents were committed to public sector nursing, but even they confessed to feeling that leaving the nursing profession was easier than they anticipated.
The MNU survey probed for specific reasons that nurses considered leaving.
34 percent said workload and/or burnout. A further 5 percent said insufficient time off and not enough work flexibility.
Surprisingly, only 5 percent cited safety as a reason.
In a slap in the face to the NDP and their own leadership, which were among the biggest cheerleaders for Wab Kinew, 20 percent of nurses said a lack of respect/ feeling undervalued as the reason for their dissatisfaction.
Almost an equal number (21 percent) said they felt underpaid.
What's a report card without Teacher's comments. Since the MNU didn't offer any, we'll fill the gap.
The NDP was unprepared to take office. They talked the talk of fixing health care, but when it came to nurses, they didn't do their homework. They thought that Wab Kinew could just wave his magic wand and all the retired and wavering nurses would flock back to the profession.
They learned you can't provide answers if you don't know the problems, and when they didn't pay attention during the remedial "listening tours" by Wab's DEI appointee health minister, they lost any chance of earning good grades.
So, the cumulative assessment from the MNU year-one Grade Your Government survey is a distressing:
F--- for fraud.