By Carol Sanders

WINNIPEG — The Manitoba Health Coalition is calling out the NDP government for expanding for-profit lab services after it criticized privatization while in opposition.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara announced last week the opening of a new Dynacare lab in Selkirk, saying it will help connect more patients and families in the Interlake-Eastern region to important diagnostic services in a convenient, community setting.

“I’m disappointed that the province is still working with (Dynacare) after being critical of their for-profit model while in opposition,” said Noah Shulz of the coalition, which represents labour groups and proponents of public health care.

Before coming to power, the NDP pushed the former Progressive Conservative government to invest in the public health system, stating in a 2022 news release that “profit has no place in our hospitals and health-care centres.”

Elected the following year, the NDP has continued to sign contracts with the for-profit Dynacare for expanded services.

“There’s a significant demand, particularly in rural communities, for better access to lab services,” Asagwara said in an interview Friday.

“We have a strong partnership with Dynacare. For years, under the previous PC government, there was no actual agreement in place with Dynacare that had standards, that had deliverables, that had expectations for that company to improve and enhance services for Manitobans and to make their services more accessible.”

The new agreement includes all of that and ensures more Manitobans have access to the lab services, the minister said.

“This is what Manitobans have been asking for. They’ve been asking for improved and increased access, and this is addressing that concern. It reflects our responsiveness in listening to Manitobans.”

The only way private, for-profit health-care companies are able to operate in rural settings is where there is public money to support them, Shulz said. The money would be better spent on public health care with better employee wages, he said.

A Dynacare lab technician makes 24 per cent less than their public-sector counterpart employed by Shared Health, according to a wage comparison provided by the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals.

Dynacare did not respond to a request for comment.

The NDP remains a champion of the public health-care system, Asagwara said.

“We’re always looking at ways that we can expand access through public services. We also have to keep in mind that Dynacare employs hundreds of Manitobans … They are a partner that has been in Manitoba now for many years due to a change under the previous government.”

In 2018, when the PCs were in office, Ontario-based Dynacare became the sole provider of community-based specimen collection and analysis services for Winnipeg.

The opposition NDP at the time regularly spoke against the consolidation of labs, arguing seniors were paying the price because they could no longer access services at their local doctor’s office or neighbourhood clinic.

“That was because those sites were closed intentionally under the previous government,” Asagwara said.

“This is not what’s happening here,” the minister said of the new lab in Selkirk. “This is additional capacity being added.”

» Winnipeg Free Press