Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 8, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba PUBLIC NOTICE PESTICIDE CONTROL PROGRAM Public notice is hereby given that Manitoba Housing intends to conduct the following pesticide-control programs in and around their housing units during 2026. 2. To control insects from January 1 - December 31, 2026, using the following pesticides: The public may send written submissions or objections within 15 days of the publication of the notice to: Manitoba Environment and Climate Change Environmental Approvals Branch Box 35, 14 Fultz Boulevard, Winnipeg MB R3Y 0L6 1. To control rodents from January 1 - December 31, 2026, using the following pesticides: • Brodifacoum • Chlorophacinone • Difethialone • Abamectin • Beauveria Bassiana Strain GHA • Beta-Cyfluthrin • Boracic Acid • Clothianidin • Cyfluthrin • Dichlorvos • Dinotefuran • D-Phenothrin • D-Trans Allethrin • Hydramethylnon • Lambda Cyhalothrin • Diphacinone • Sulfur • Zinc Phosphide • Imidacloprid • Lambda Cyhalothrin • Methoprene • N-Octyl Bicycloheptene Dicarboximide • Permethrin • Piperonyl Butoxide • Propetamphos • Pyrethrins • Silica Aerogel • Silicon Dioxide • Tetramethrin ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM NEWS A2 SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2025 VOL 154 NO 301 Winnipeg Free Press est 1872 / Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 2025 Winnipeg Free Press, a division of FP Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership. Published six days a week in print and always online at 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba R2X 3B6, PH: 204-697-7000 CEO / MIKE POWER Editor / PAUL SAMYN Associate Editor Enterprise / SCOTT GIBBONS Associate Editor News / STACEY THIDRICKSON Associate Editor Digital News / WENDY SAWATZKY Director Photo and Multimedia / MIKE APORIUS NEWSMEDIA COUNCIL The Winnipeg Free Press is a member of the National Newsmedia Council, which is an independent organization established to determine acceptable journalistic practices and ethical behaviour. If you have concerns about editorial content, please send them to: editorialconcerns@freepress.mb.ca. If you are not satisfied with the response and wish to file a formal complaint, visit the website at www.mediacouncil.ca and fill out the form or call toll-free 1-844-877-1163 for additional information. 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Call or email before 10 a.m. weekdays or 11 a.m. Saturday City: 204-697-7001 Outside Winnipeg: 1-800-542-8900 press 1 6:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. Monday-Friday.; 7 a.m. - noon Saturday; Closed Sunday TO SUBSCRIBE: 204-697-7001 Out of Winnipeg: 1-800-542-8900 fpcirc@freepress.mb.ca The Free Press receives support from the Local Journalism Initiative funded by the Government of Canada INSIDE Arts and Life D1 Books G1 Business B4 Celebrations D7 Classifieds E7 Comics I3-7 Community Voices A15 Destinations I1 Diversions G6-7 Faith G5 Homes H1 Horoscope D7 Miss Lonelyhearts D7 Obituaries C1 Opinion A6-7 Real Estate H5 Sports E1 Television D9 Weather D10 49.8 F1 COLUMNISTS: David McLaughlin A7 Tom Brodbeck B2 Laura Rance B6 Joel Schlesinger B7 Tory McNally B8 Ben Sigurdson D2 Jen Zoratti D2 Mike McIntyre/Ken Wiebe E1 Jerrad Peters E6 Melissa Martin F3 Russell Wangersky F8 Alison Gillmor F8 READER SERVICE ● GENERAL INQUIRIES 204-697-7000 Net gain of 184 family MDs as physicians across Canada take note of Manitoba system New payment model for doctors a ‘game-changer’ A NEW payment model for family doctors in Manitoba has proven effective at retaining and recruit- ing physicians to the province, with more than 100,000 new patients con- nected to ongoing care providers since it launched last spring. Doctors Manitoba, the group repre- senting physicians in the province, reviewed the Family Medicine Plus funding model, finding it contributed to a net gain of 184 family doctors prac- tising in the province over a one-year period. They include both new recruits and physicians who returned to working and accepting new patients in family medicine, said group president Dr. Ni- chelle Desilets. “What I’m hearing from family doc- tors is that Family Medicine Plus is a game-changer,” she said. “While family medicine and primary care is still felt to be undervalued, we are finally being paid for some of the unpaid work that we’ve been doing for years.” The funding model, negotiated with the provincial government in April 2024, changed the way family doctors are compensated. While physicians are still paid for each patient who visits them, they can also claim remuneration based on their overall patient load and the complex- ity of those patients’ health conditions. Additionally, those doctors can now bill for a portion of the hours they spend providing indirect care, including mon- itoring and following up with patients. Manitoba is among only a handful of provinces offering such a funding mod- el, following similar programs intro- duced by B.C. and Nova Scotia in 2023. The change provides more stability for family doctors and allows them to invest more time treating, understand- ing and communicating with their pa- tients, Desilets said. “There’s real value in that,” she said. “Family medicine is a really challen- ging job because you have to know so much about so many areas of medicine, but the job becomes easier when you know your patients well.” Dr. Sohail Gandhi, past president of the Ontario Medical Association and a family doctor in that province, said the new funding model — and the Manitoba New Democrats’ often-touted “listen- ing” approach to health care — has piqued the interest of some family doc- tors elsewhere in Canada. “You cannot have a high-functioning health-care system without happy, healthy and engaged physicians. That just does not happen,” Gandhi said. “Let’s be realistic, no government is going to agree 100 per cent of the time with a doctors’ organization; that never happens. But, there seems to be a re- spectful conversation, some respectful listening, some collaboration.” He referenced a medical conference he attended in September, in which many of his medical peers reported feeling burned out and were exploring ways to leave family medicine. “Except for Manitoba. The few docs that I talked to from Manitoba, they were like, ‘No, things are going well, we’re happy, we’re not looking at re- tiring or giving up our practices and changing things.’” According to data provided by Doc- tors Manitoba, the province boosted its ranks of family physicians from 654 to 838 between April 2024 and March 2025. There were more than 104,000 new patients attached to Manitoba physicians during that period. The Canadian Institute for Health Information found Manitobans had the best access to primary health care in 2024, with 33 per cent of adults report- ing being able to see their family doctor within one day of needing care. That figure was the highest among all provinces, and better than the Can- adian average of 27 per cent, the data shows. The institute also analyzed Statistics Canada data collected in 2023 and 2024, finding 85 per cent of Manitoba adults have a family doctor — slightly higher than the national average of 83 per cent, and second to Ontario at 88 per cent. Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara celebrated the successful recruitment effort, but acknowledged more work is ahead. Retaining physicians and recruiting more specialist doctors to work along- side family physicians is among the government’s priorities moving for- ward, Asagwara said. “We make a lot of effort to go out and listen directly to doctors and health- care providers, and we have seen that by working together, we can make improvements to health care,” Asag- wara said. “It’s an approach that I’m really happy to hear physicians see as a valuable one.” About 188,000 people were without a family doctor, pediatrician or primary care provider as of 2024, Doctors Mani- toba said. tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca TYLER SEARLE TIM SMITH / THE BRANDON SUN FILES Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Nichelle Desilets says family doctors are finally being paid for unpaid work they’ve been doing for years with the province’s new payment model. Province urges federal government to continue vital health-care funding MANITOBA wants the federal govern- ment to renew an annual $150-million health-care agreement that, for the last three years, has helped the province go “further, faster” to staff up the front lines. “The loss of these agreements would mean that we’re losing predictable targeted federal contributions that have helped us stabilize staffing and strengthen health care — not just health care in our hospitals, but com- munity-based care as well,” Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said Friday. The program, dubbed “Working Together to Improve Health Care for Canadians,” was announced in Febru- ary 2023; the federal government has earmarked close to $150 million a year in 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26. Tues- day’s federal budget made no mention of renewing those funding agreements. “I think there was an opportunity missed today to signal that the bilateral funding agreements for your health care are going to continue,” Premier Wab Kinew noted in his response to the budget on Tuesday. One of the deals Manitoba signed is set to expire at the end of March. “We need to get these deals ex- tended,” Kinew said. Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Ni- chelle Desilets agrees. “The Working Together federal fund- ing has helped Manitoba recruit a rec- ord number of doctors, so we know how critical this funding is,” she said in an email. “The funding plan is also supposed to help reduce ER wait times as well as connect digital health records so doc- tors can share information reliably and without fax machines,” Desilets said. Desilets said there is a lot at stake for patient care, so losing this funding would be a step backwards for doctors and patients. Asagwara said the money helped the NDP government address years of health-care cuts when it took office: “in particular, what it really allows for us to do is to go further, faster.” The minister said their top priority of staffing up the front lines and stabiliz- ing the system was strengthened by the agreement. “We’re going to continue to prioritize protecting the front lines and improv- ing care at the bedside,” the minister said. The head of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals said fund- ing uncertainty means staffing uncer- tainty. “That is a huge problem when Mani- toba is already deep in a staffing crisis that is putting patients and health-care professionals at risk,” president Jason Linklater said in an email Friday. “We’re heading into respiratory season and we are dangerously short of respiratory therapists. Manitoba hasn’t made any real progress on fill- ing paramedic vacancies. Many other specialized allied health professions, including diagnostic technologists, are still desperately short-staffed, causing Manitobans to wait longer for testing and other necessary services.” The federal budget made no mention of “adequate and predictable” funding for health staffing that is needed now, he said. Manitoba is not alone in wanting the bilateral health funding agreements to continue, Asagwara said. “At our most recent federal, provin- cial, territorial, health ministers meet- ing, this was a hot topic of conversation. We were all very clear with federal minister (Marjorie) Michel that our hope would be to continue to work col- laboratively with Canada to ensure that these agreements would be extended. “We were hoping for some assur- ances on that front. We didn’t receive any,” Asagwara said. The Canadian Health Coalition, which is made up national organiza- tions for health-care workers, nurses, seniors, churches, anti-poverty groups, women and trade unions, said the feder- al government intends to let the “Work- ing Together” funding agreements with provinces and territories expire. It said in a news release that the fed- eral budget dedicates $5 billion over three years, starting in 2026-27, to a health infrastructure fund to be used by provinces and territories to improve hospitals, emergency rooms, urgent care centres and medical schools. carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca CAROL SANDERS ;