Manitoba spending almost $250K to tout 2022 budget, but nothing more on vaccination push
CBC
The Manitoba government is not running an advertising campaign to encourage people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, but it is spending money to promote its latest budget.
The province confirmed Tuesday it is committing nearly a quarter-million dollars to tout the accomplishments of the 2022 budget.
Opposition parties have criticized that advertising campaign, seen prominently on billboards across Winnipeg, as a more concerted public relations effort than what government is currently doing to boost vaccine uptake.
Manitoba has previously run promotional campaigns to promote vaccinations, but those efforts have ceased for the moment.
At a news conference Tuesday morning, Health Minister Audrey Gordon rejected a question that suggested Manitoba could be doing more to spur vaccination rates.
"I disagree that the province isn't doing more. We're doing absolutely a lot to get that message out," she said.
"I myself was publicly vaccinated for my third dose. We have social media campaigns running. I don't know if you've taken a look lately at some of the [bus] benches in your areas you're driving throughout your community, but we still have our COVID vaccine benches out."
She also said she saw her own doctor last week.
"He was going through the electronic medical record system just to make sure that I had been triple dosed.… Our physicians are doing that; our pharmacists are doing the same."
In response to a CBC reporter on Twitter, Gordon described billboards, newspaper ads and bus benches as "just a few of several strategies used to promote vaccinations."
The bus benches that Gordon referenced, which she said are still in place in some locations, were part of a previous government advertising campaign.
Manitobans rolled up their sleeves in droves for the first two vaccine doses, with more than 85 per cent of eligible people getting those shots. The province was also the first to limit certain venues to only fully vaccinated people, which was seen as having a beneficial impact in encouraging people to get their shot.
But the same isn't true with third dose uptake. Just over half of Manitobans aged 12 and up had their third shot as of April 10, which is lower than the national average of 54.3 per cent. The province no longer has any public health orders that restrict the access of unvaccinated people.
Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said the government's advertising priorities are out of place.
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.
The toxic drug crisis has taken more than 47,000 lives in Canada since 2016 and the synthetic opioid fentanyl has become a household name. But now, what's believed to be an even more potent class of synthetic drugs is showing up in drug busts across the country: nitazenes.
The Liberal government and the NDP have agreed to introduce a two-month GST vacation on certain items before the holiday season, Radio-Canada has learned.
Veterinarians are warning Londoners to make sure their dogs are vaccinated and keeping clean after a deadly virus outbreak was declared in London this week.
Registered nurses rallied in St. John's Wednesday as part of a week-long convention, again calling on the Newfoundland and Labrador government to create permanent solutions to staff shortages and workplace violence.