A spokesperson for the Niverville Heritage Centre says their plans to set up a diagnostic centre with a Magnetic Resonance Imaging unit, or MRI, are not dead. Gord Daman was responding after a provincial task force on wait times for medical procedures found that there is enough MRI capacity in the province if hours of operation are expanded at existing facilities. Daman says they are not giving up on their dream.

"For Niverville, this simply means pause. We are not in any way moving away from our effort to be able to see a diagnostic centre developed in Niverville. As the co-chair of the (Wait Times) task force indicated, there still may be the need, and also room, for some private options within diagnostic ability within Manitoba. However, that's going to take some more study and some more time. We are very much open to being part of that solution, as far as diagnostic capacity within the province. We feel that, first of all, location is strategic in Niverville. It's both rural but also within a 20-minute drive to Winnipeg. As the province works through some of those dynamics, through Shared Health, we want to remain engaged as a potential partner."

Daman says it's hard to say how long it will take to determine whether a diagnostic centre in Niverville will be supported by the province.

"While this is pause, we trust that it won't be a very long pause. We're more than willing to pause on this and just be ready for the future when that future point arrives."

Niverville announced plans for the diagnostic centre last August with the hope of starting construction in 2018 and opening about 12 months later. But Daman says it's clear they won't go ahead unless the province agrees to pay for tests that people undergo at the centre.

Manitoba Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen says he hasn't received a specific request to license an MRI, but he's open to looking at a private arrangement.