Manitoba Health Coalition - MHC

02/06/2026

Thanks to CCPA MB for inviting me to join their panel “Tackling the Polycrisis: Beyond a Balanced Budget in Manitoba.”

It was a privilege to join with other local experts to discuss how we can invest in health care, climate action, reducing inequality, and rebuilding the civil service to make lives better for all Manitobans.

Great work to my fellow panelists Hafiz Jatto, Kyle Ross and Laura Cameron, and to our keynote speaker, Jesse Hajer.

02/05/2026

MHC is glad to see the province step in and keep Golden Door Getiatric Centre open for the seniors who call it home.

Moving a for-profit personal care home into the public system is good news for our provincial capacity to offer long term care to Manitobans and for the residents of Golden Deer in particular. This is an approach we hope to see expanded to other private, for-profit care homes in Manitoba.

Investing more in the public delivery of long term care is cost effective and provides a higher quality of care to patients while avoiding the uncertainty and profit motive that comes along with private, for-profit delivery.

02/04/2026

We’re rallying in Ottawa next week to defend public health care.

Join us - the stakes for protecting our universal health care system have never been higher.

We must show up in numbers too large for the federal government to ignore.

02/03/2026

We need to mobilize across Canada to defend universal, public health care and demand that the federal government enforce the Canada Health Act in Alberta and beyond.

Two-tier health care has arrived in Alberta. This explainer breaks down Bill 11 and the risks it poses to universal public health care.

01/30/2026

Join us next Thursday at the Union Centre!

01/30/2026

“At the Manitoba Health Coalition, we want to keep profit out of health care and believe public dollars should be used to strengthen our public system, not pad the profit margins of private companies. Reducing reliance on agency staffing for nursing is a good step — but it must go further. The goal should be to eliminate all public funding to support private, for-profit delivery of health care across all regions and health care professions.”

Excerpts from a new op-ed in today’s Winnipeg Free Press: The Issue of Creeping Privatization, by MHC director Noah Schulz.

01/29/2026

I was honoured to join members of the CHC and both current and former international students for the launch of the new report: Free and Universal? Disparities in International Student Health Care in Canada.

Manitoba cut its public health coverage for international students in 2018 and it has yet to be restored despite the NDP’s promise to do so. We now offer some of the worst access to health care for international students in Canada. This is a life or death issue and must be treated with the urgency it deserves. We must expand our universal health care system so that all who reside in Manitoba can access health care based on need, not income or citizenship status.

Click on the link below to access the full report and check out a new piece by the Toronto Star’s Nicholas Keung about the report, featuring an interview with MHC’s Hafiz Jatto.

Hafiz is MHC’s secretary, and also sits on our Indigenous Health Committee as part of his role as a community animator for the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62f1f81c4ebb3315f7cd3a3f/t/697b6a2c35bdea60c89f12b4/1769695815592/Report+International+Student+Health+Care.pdf

01/28/2026

We need to fight against two-tier medicine across this country and hold federal and provincial leadership accountable to maintain the principles and conditions of the Canada Health Act.

Any First Ministers' meeting about North American trade talks needs to include a discussion about Alberta’s plans for implementing Bill 11, and the potential impacts of Alberta bringing the American health care industry into our country could have on Canadian public health care and on our trade relationship with the United States and other countries.

“Bringing a two-tier private health insurance system into our province will not stop at the Alberta border. Implementing Bill 11 will create a new market for private health insurance corporations who will then use every method they can to expand across Canada,” said Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare.

“As long as our health insurance is a single-payer public plan we can stop the powerful American private health insurance industry from moving in. But Alberta willingly allowing this foothold into Canada could mean our single-payer health care will no longer be protected from trade agreements with the United States and others.”

Read more: https://www.friendsofmedicare.org/health_care_first_ministers

01/24/2026

Myself and hundreds of advocates from across the country will be rallying for public health care on parliament hill next month. Join us on February 10th as we fight to preserve and expand our universal health care system.

01/19/2026

Myself and MHC board member Hafiz Jatto will be joining this conversation alongside report researchers and student organizers from the UWSA and UMSU.

Report launch

01/12/2026

Just wrapped up a productive and inspiring day of strategic planning for MHC with our board, facilitated by Jackie Hogue.

Great opportunity to reflect on our values, mission, and priorities as a coalition fighting to strengthen and improve public health care for all Manitobans.