Health care, development and environment on ERMC agenda

The 12 member regional lobbying group, the Eastman Regional Municipal Committee (ERMC), met in Steinbach on June 9 where they discussed several matters including health care, economic development, and the environment.

“The important thing to remember is the ERMC is very hard at work and we are there to look after the concerns of the public so the pressing issues that they have – the everyday issues – I think is very important to them to bring them forward to their respective reeves, mayors and councillors, so that it can come to the table and we can address them together and succeed in finding solutions,” said chair Armand Poirier, who is the mayor of Taché.

The ERMC has been in operation for less than a year but it has managed during that time to make connections with the provincial government through east cabinet representative Brandon Burley and is making inroads with individual ministers.

One of the issues discussed during the meeting involved health care. Members agreed that an increase in the number of rural seats on the Health Care Retention and Recruitment Office should go from four to six. There are 16 seats on the board. Members agreed that three out of the 16 seats should be from Eastman.

The province is currently recruiting nurses and doctors from the U.S., according to Burley, who participates on the committee but is not a member of it. He said the province has seen a swell in the number of candidates and is planning on hiring 1,100 nurses in two months.

“We’ll see a significant repatriation of nurses,” said Burley during the meeting.

Town of Ste Anne Coun. Jason Einarson said the town and RM are still pushing Southern Health and the government to make Ste Anne hospital a regional hospital.

RM of Stuartburn Reeve Michelle Gawronsky said Vita’s hospital was visited by first year medical students and they had an interest in working as rural general practitioners, but the lack of an ER in Vita and other rural communities made it difficult for them to choose rural medicine as it would mean the loss of their ER skills.

Gawronsky suggested there be a rotation of doctors wherein they keep their practices in rural communities and then rotate through the ERs in larger hospitals so that they can keep their ER skills up to date.

Regarding economic development, Coun. Mark Bernard said one of the impediments of getting economic development into Piney is the lack of cell coverage. He said investors are interested in setting up shop in the RM but once they see that there is a lack of cell coverage, they pull out. Poirier supported Bernard saying there are people in Tache who can see the skyscrapers of Winnipeg but can’t get cell service and other councillors and reeves also agreed they also are dealing with a lack of cell service in their areas.

“What is the best route to take to get that addressed and to get it addressed quickly and effectively as soon as possible because as you heard that day a lack of cellphone service impacts public safety, public education, and it impacts transportation and tourism and a whole myriad of issues to do with communication,” said Poirier. “Whether we want to admit it or not, although some people are somewhat connected, we depend now on cell communication to survive, we really do. It’s a survival issue.”

The environment was another issue the committee discussed, especially the wildfires in Piney and Lac du Bonnet and flooding in Montcalm.

Bernard said CN Rail needed to be held accountable for the wildfires as it was their train that caused the blaze stating, “They have to take responsibility.” He said the RM has tried to get CN Rail to pay for fires caused by their rail line, but to no avail and is hoping the ERMC can do something through Provencher MP Ted Falk.

RM of Montcalm Reeve Paul Gilmore said his municipality is dealing with a farmer on the American side of the border who has crushed the culverts that naturally drain water from farmers fields on the Canadian side and has built a dike. This has led to flooding on the Canadian side. Gilmore said the ERMC and the municipality have made Falk aware of the situation and is hoping that the federal government will step in.

“One of the bigger benefits is that our concerns are like minded with the others,” said Gilmore. “The message to the province is stronger with a big group that we have than if it was just us. They listen to us a bit stronger.”