Tuxedo NDP MLA named special adviser on health care

Newly sworn-in Tuxedo MLA Carla Compton is starting the job with extra responsibilities.

Premier Wab Kinew announced Monday that the nurse, who won the affluent and historically Tory constituency for the NDP, will be his special adviser on nursing, culture and safety, as well as co-chair a provincial health care advisory table with Dr. Eric Jacobsohn.

“We’re very thrilled with your election, Carla,” Kinew told more than 100 MLAs, guests, staff and officials at her swearing-in ceremony at the Manitoba legislature.

“As you all know, the reward for good work is more work,” the premier quipped.

Compton’s added duties won’t come with extra pay, Kinew told reporters after the ceremony.

He talked about her appointment to co-chair the advisory table with Jacobsohn, an ICU doctor appointed earlier to head the table and as a special advisor to Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara.

Kinew said Compton, who worked as a hemodialysis nurse at St. Boniface Hospital, and the doctor will be a “sounding board” for ideas, initiatives and solutions.

“The basic idea is that we’re engaging all the time with people on the front lines,” said the premier, who has joined the health minister for town hall meetings with health care staff across the province.

“Now that we’re going on nine months of being in office, we want to have a systematic approach — a regular, ongoing forum for those conversations to to take place,” Kinew said.

“If there are solutions from front lines coming forward, we can discuss them at that table,” the premier said. “How would it work from the perspective of other people working in the health care system,” said Kinew.

He called it a “collaborative approach” to improving health care.

Compton said front-line workers “have a treasure trove of information and knowledge.”

“I want to bring my experience to the government and I want to maintain a connection with the current front-line workers so they know the government is listening to them.”

For nurses, Compton is their “front door into the government” and “at their disposal,” the premier told reporters.

“Given the importance and amount of people working in health care, it’s really valuable to have somebody who’s just come directly from the front lines themselves and has that first-hand experience of what it’s like, to be able to connect and bring those voices forward and amplify them so we can make good decisions,” Kinew said.

Compton said the details are still being worked out but she’s “excited” about the appointments.

Meanwhile, she’s still getting up to speed as a member of the legislature, which won’t be back in session until Oct. 2.

Compton said she’s in the process of securing a constituency office – an effort made easier thanks to an increase in the office space allowance announced last month by the independent commissioner on MLA pay, benefits and allowances.

She said she hasn’t yet heard from either of her Tuxedo predecessors — former PC premiers Gary Filmon and Heather Stefanson, but is “all ears ” if they have any wisdom to share about meeting the needs of constituents.

Stefanson resigned her Tuxedo seat, effective May 6, after stepping down as Tory leader following the NDP election win last fall. On May 20, Kinew called a byelection for June 18.

Compton handily won the Tory stronghold by defeating PC Lawrence Pinsky by 602 votes. The Liberals’ and Green party nominees finished well behind.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca