Manitoba's NDP is calling on the province's health department to halt changes to the healthcare system that, initiated by Brian Pallister's Progressive Conservative government, until after Manitobans head to the polls on Sept. 10.

"Manitobans want to have their say about the future of healthcare in this province," Matt Wiebe, the NDP candidate for Concordia, told reporters at a press conference on Saturday.

While in government, the Progressive Conservatives initiated a transformation of Manitoba's healthcare system, which saw a number of Winnipeg hospital emergency rooms either close or convert into urgent care centres, with the intent to cut wait times and find efficiencies.

In a letter to Fred Meier, clerk of the executive council, NDP leader Wab Kinew alleges the Progressive Conservatives are "taking concrete steps to implement the political program" in the middle of an election period and "expending resources" to pursue it.

Kinew suggests this is wrong because governments are only permitted to carry out "routine" and "non-controversial" business during the election campaign and said the changes to the healthcare system are neither.

Cameron Friesen, the PC candidate for Morden-Winkler, responded in an emailed statement and accused the New Democrats of trying to deceive voters.

"For the record, the business of government historically does not come to a halt during a formal writ period," Friesen wrote. "While no new directives are issued to the public service during a campaign, it is entirely appropriate for government departments to continue work already underway."

Friesen said emergency wait times have improved at Winnipeg hospitals since 2016 and also pointed to other initiatives that he said resulted in lower waits for personal care home placement, a record number of hip, knee and cataract surgeries performed, and all-time highs in the number of MRI and CT scans performed.

"While Wab Kinew and the NDP want to go backwards to a health system that saw patients wait longer for care, we're committed to continuing to move Manitoba forward by improving patient care," Friesen said.

Under Pallister, the provincial government started making substantive changes to how healthcare is delivered since the office of the Healthcare System Transformation Program opened in April 2017.

On Thursday, the Department of Health posted an update on the transformation program to its website, which indicates the first wave of conversion is complete.

Those changes included reorganizing the department, developing a model for future delivery in clinical and preventative services and drafting legislative amendments and regulatory changes including Bill 10, The Health System Governance and Accountability Act.

The NDP maintains that voters should have a choice before any more changes are made.

"These are all major changes that within the health care system [that] Manitobans haven't had their chance to to weigh in on," Wiebe said. "They have an understanding of where we've gone so far and they've told us clearly that they're not happy with health care in this province."

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