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Housekeeping staff, healthcare aides, and other professionals in the second round of a wage support program on average are receiving more funds than the previous intake.
Manitoba s Families Minister Rochelle Squires says that over 20,000 Manitobans have been approved for a wage top-up. In a second round of the Caregiver Wage Support Program, the province distributed $19 million to front-line healthcare workers to give them a wage boost. I am pleased to announce that a total of more than $35 million has been distributed to support these exceptional Manitobans, who continue to provide care to those in need on the front lines of this pandemic, the minister says.
Health-care workers at the vanguard of Manitoba s COVID-19 fight are set to get some extra pay.
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CBC News ·
Posted: Dec 24, 2020 10:37 AM CT | Last Updated: December 24, 2020
Health-care workers put on personal protective equipment before testing at a drive-thru COVID-19 assessment centre.(Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press) comments
Health-care workers at the vanguard of Manitoba s COVID-19 fight are set to get some extra pay.
The province announced a new allowance Thursday that will be paid for any disruption to a normal work schedule due to redeployment to a priority health-care setting, such as a personal care home or ICU. Health-care workers have been at the forefront of Manitoba s response to the pandemic, showing unrelenting dedication and commitment to patients in hospital and in the community as well as those Manitobans living in personal care homes, Health Minister Cameron Friesen said in a news release.
WINNIPEG Health-care workers reassigned or redeployed to specific areas in Manitoba during the pandemic are set to get a new benefit. On Thursday, the Province of Manitoba said it had reached an agreement with the Manitoba Government and General Employees Union (MGEU) and will now compensate the staff that have been redeployed or reassigned to priority areas during the pandemic. According to the province, these priority areas include personal care homes, intensive care units and COVID-19 units across Manitoba. It said the agreement would enable health-care employers to make changes to employees work assignments, locations, schedules, shift patterns, and hours. Any staff that are affected will receive an allowance each time their normal work schedule or location is disrupted with a reassignment or redeployment to these priority areas.
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The provincial deficit is now forecast to be more than $2 billion for the 2020-21 fiscal year, a drop of almost $900 million since the first-quarter update, which was predicting a $2.9 billion shortfall.
Finance Minister Scott Fielding and Premier Brian Pallister delivered the update on Thursday and say the improvement for the second quarter is due primarily to the inclusion of $648 million of federal transfers to the province for COVID-19 spending. The province also saved $347 million in the reduction of other base-budget expenditures.
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Canada’s largest union and the Manitoba NDP are pushing for the expansion of a federal-provincial wage top-up program now offered to workers in long-term care facilities and other settings.
They say thousands of other health workers are facing similar risks while caring for COVID-19 patients and deserve similar benefits. We have Manitobans who are on the front lines of protecting all of us from COVID-19 and who are putting their lives at risk day in and day out for all of our families, and they are being left behind, NDP MLA Nahanni Fontaine said Wednesday.
Late last month, the province announced the $35-million Caregiver Wage Support Program, which provides a pay boost of $5 per hour to front-line workers in personal care homes, Child and Family Services and disability services group homes, family violence prevention shelters, homeless shelters and retirement residences.