Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals - MAHCP
Proudly representing 7,500+ allied health professionals delivering essential health care and social services to Manitobans.
Our members work in 50 specialized disciplines in labs, hospitals, clinics, community and long-term care settings across Manitoba. The Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals (MAHCP) has over 40 years of experience exclusively representing Manitoba's Allied Health Professionals in Diagnostics, Emergency, Community Health and Therapy/Rehabilitation.
02/15/2026
DEADLINE EXTENDED: We’re hiring a Communications Associate to join our team for a 14-month term!
In this role, the successful candidate will support creative, strategic communications that connect with members, promote allied health professionals, and elevate the work of our union through digital, print, and social channels.
If you’re a strong writer, content creator, and collaborator who wants to make an impact in Manitoba’s health-care system, we’d love to hear from you.
Tasha has worked at Dynacare for nearly two decades. As a Medical Laboratory Technician at the Garden City Laboratory and Health Services Centre (LHSC), she performs a range of duties, including benchwork, data entry, and phlebotomy (blood draws for medical testing).
“Our workplace is a fast-paced environment, so we do our best to work quickly and efficiently while still providing friendly customer service.”
Tasha says many people don’t realize laboratory work extends far beyond drawing blood – it’s precise work that is essential to determining accurate diagnoses and treatment.
Each sample must be drawn correctly, prepared to specific requirements, and shipped accordingly. This may require centrifuging, freezing, protection from light, or strict timing for collection and transport.
Underinvestment in Respiratory Therapist (RT) recruitment, retention, and workforce planning has left Manitoba dangerously vulnerable during peak respiratory demand. While training capacity has increased, seats are not being filled, and wage gaps and limited incentives have made it harder to recruit and keep skilled RTs.
The result is a workforce stretched beyond sustainability.
MAHCP is calling for practical, evidence-based solutions to stabilize the workforce and protect patient care, including:
👉A full-time salary enhancement for RTs, including part-time RTs who pick up to full-time
👉ICU, Emergency Department, and Urgent Care premiums for RTs and other allied health professionals working in high-acuity settings
👉Incentives for night shifts to improve coverage during the hardest-to-fill hours
👉Scholarships, bursaries, and return-of-service agreements to support recruitment and long-term retention
RTs are asking for the bare minimum: enough staff to keep patients safe. No one should be expected to feel as though they need to make near impossible choices and handle unmanageable workloads – all without proper recovery in between.
Hospitals, government, and health leaders all have a role to play. It’s time to support the people who keep our province breathing.
02/06/2026
MAHCP members, we recently emailed you an invitation to a virtual General Meeting of the Membership on February 12. This is your opportunity to hear from union leadership and participate in an important vote that sets our direction.
Details:
🗓 Thursday, February 12, 2026
⌚️Call to Order: 7:00 PM
📍Virtual via Zoom
Reminder: You must be a Member in Good Standing to attend and participate. Registration closes on February 10.
02/04/2026
When a person is diagnosed with cancer, the medical aspects – appointments, tests, treatments – can quickly take over daily life.
But cancer doesn’t just affect the body, it can upend everything else, too: work and income, housing and transportation, family roles, relationships, and a person’s sense of stability and control.
At CancerCare Manitoba, 14 psychosocial oncology (PSO) professionals support patients and their loved ones as they navigate the realities of a cancer diagnosis.
In recognition of , we sat down with Ian Scott, psychosocial oncology clinician, to learn about the PSO team and the vital support these MAHCP members provide to Manitobans living with cancer.
“Being a part of this team is incredible, as we have such a wide array of expertise, and we really lean on each other. Our team’s contributions in the oncology field are instrumental and indispensable.”
“If you can’t breathe, you’ll likely be seeing a Respiratory Therapist very soon.”
For the past 17 years, Tanis has been there for patients on some of their hardest days — often when breathing becomes a life-or-death challenge.
Inspired by a family member with lung disease, Tanis chose respiratory therapy to help people breathe easier and manage complex conditions.
From ICUs and emergency rooms to operating rooms and pulmonary function clinics, RTs like Tanis play a critical role across Manitoba’s health-care system.
“Some days, I am the only RT covering both wards and the emergency department. Short staffing delays care, causes burnout, and makes it impossible to expand services.”
Despite the pressure, Tanis continues to provide skilled, compassionate care to help her patients recover, manage their chronic illness, and – in urgent cases – survive.
When a Code Blue is called in a Manitoba hospital, ideally, two Respiratory Therapists (RTs) should be responding. This practice enables expert consultation in high-pressure, urgent situations and helps ensure the best interventions.
RTs manage airways during resuscitation, initiate ventilation, and stabilize patients in the most tenuous moments of their lives. But when staffing levels are dangerously low, RTs are often forced to weigh almost impossible choices that demand critical decision-making in extreme circumstances:
👉 Leaving a borderline unstable patient to respond to a Code Blue elsewhere in the hospital.
👉 Running from ICU to emergency to another crisis — nonstop.
👉 Hoping the fragile patient they just left is stable when they return.
There are simply not enough RTs to meet demand, with an estimated 50 vacant RT positions at Winnipeg’s three acute care centres alone. When baseline staffing targets aren’t met, RTs spend shifts running from one critical patient to the next, with no time to recover in between.
Staffing shortages also lead to increased levels of overtime. In 2024/25, RTs in WRHA and Shared Health logged more than 43,000 overtime hours.
This is not sustainable. Chronic understaffing puts patients at risk, accelerates burnout, and pushes skilled professionals out of the system faster than new ones can be trained.
01/25/2026
Congratulations to Isabelle Bennet, who was awarded a Young Worker Scholarship from National Union of Public and General Employees!
Isabelle, whose parent is an MAHCP member, is enrolled at Lakehead University pursuing a career in nursing. Congratulations, Isabelle, we wish you all the best in your studies! 👏
01/24/2026
In Manitoba’s acute care centres, respiratory therapists (RTs) are foundational to patient care, inserting breathing tubes, initiating and managing ventilators, responding to every Code Blue, and supporting patients through cardiac arrest, severe trauma, sepsis, overdoses, and respiratory failure.
Despite providing life-saving care across ICUs, emergency departments, neonatal ICUs, and operating rooms, RTs are often invisible to patients and the public.
Many patients never meet the person managing their airway or adjusting the ventilator that’s keeping them alive — because those moments happen during emergencies, when patients are sedated or unconscious.
With RT vacancy rates across Winnipeg’s acute care sites between 25-42%, they are quite literally running across the hospital from one critical situation to the next.
This is not a future problem; it is happening now. As respiratory season ramps up, the professionals who keep our province breathing are running out of breath, and the system is gasping for air.
For nearly four decades, Kelly has been a cornerstone of Dynacare’s Microbiology department.
With 39.5 years at the organization and 42 years as a Medical Laboratory Technologist (MLT), she brings a depth of knowledge and leadership that anchors her team and supports patient care across Manitoba.
As Charge Technologist, Kelly is responsible for the release of all patient results generated in the microbiology lab. Each day, she balances hands-on bench testing as well as the tasks that keep the department running smoothly, such as ordering supplies, responding to emails, problem-solving, and managing inventory.
“There really isn’t anything routine in microbiology,” she says. “Every day is a new learning experience and challenge, which I really enjoy!”
Respiratory Therapists (RTs) across the province are running out of breath, working short-staffed in ICUs, emergency departments, and neonatal units during a very busy respiratory virus season. They are responding to Code Blues, managing ventilators, stabilizing critically ill patients, and making life-or-death decisions – without adequate staffing to safely meet demand.
Health system leaders and site management have acknowledged the seriousness of the issue and are working to escalate concerns, but meaningful action requires government leadership through retention incentives and investments in growing the profession.
For years, poor allied health workforce planning has left Manitoba’s healthcare system dangerously vulnerable. RT training capacity was too low for too long, and although seats have increased, they are not being filled. Wage gaps and limited incentives have made it harder to recruit and keep skilled RTs. The result is a workforce stretched beyond sustainability.
This is not a future problem. It is happening now – during peak respiratory season.
MAHCP is calling on the provincial government to make RT recruitment and retention a priority through targeted financial incentives, safe staffing strategies, and a comprehensive allied health human resource plan.
We’re hiring a Communications Associate to join our team for a 14-month term!
In this role, the successful candidate will support creative, strategic communications that connect with members, promote allied health professionals, and elevate the work of our union through digital, print, and social channels.
If you’re a strong writer, content creator, and collaborator who wants to make an impact in Manitoba’s health-care system, we’d love to hear from you.
Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals - MAHCP posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Contact The Practice
Send a message to Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals - MAHCP:
MAHCP is a union of health care professionals dedicated to protecting, advocating for, and advancing the rights of its members through labour relations activities. Our vision is to increase the awareness and recognition of MAHCP to members, the public and government.
We represent approximately 6,500 members across more than 160 disciplines that are part of the continuum of care you receive every time you visit a health care facility in our province.
A Voice For Health Care
When it comes to patient care and recovery, the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals are on hand when you need them most. Whether arriving by ambulance to meet your urgent needs or behind the scenes running tests and getting you results, the paramedical and technical experts of MAHCP keep Manitoba's health care system running.
For 50 years, MAHCP has been the only union in Manitoba focused solely on supporting Manitoba’s paramedical and technical health care professionals.
MAHCP represents over 160 disciplines across the province. Each and every health care worker that provides these specialized services matters. And because we understand the work they do, how they do it and why these professions are so vital to our health care system, MAHCP remains dedicated to a stable future for Manitoba’s health care.
Our members’ concerns will not be overshadowed by the concerns of larger groups, such as health care support, maintenance or even non-health care related groups. Our collective voice, fights for our members and for your health care services, which makes us uniquely positioned to keep Manitoba health care strong.
