Steinbach candidates respond to questions on growth, immigration and affordability

Election day is now less than two weeks away in our province. Manitobans head to the polls on October 3rd. 

In the Steinbach constituency, there are four candidates vying to become the next MLA. They are Gabrielle Simard-Nadeau (Green Party), Gord Meneer (NDP), Cyndy Friesen (Liberal) and incumbent Kelvin Goertzen (Progressive Conservative).

We asked each of the four candidates a list of six questions related to growth, immigration, affordability, crime, education and health care.

Three of the four candidates were available for an interview prior to Part 1 of this two-part story publishing on September 21, 2023. The Green Party candidate was only available after the story had already published and her answers have now been included. 

How will you and your party support Steinbach, Blumenort and Mitchell as these communities continue to grow?

Gabrielle Simard-Nadeau (Green Party)
The basic income guarantee will support the community and will help end some of the crime and poverty. It also will reduce the pressure on the health care system and create some more housing for the community as it continues to grow. And, also updating a lot of the houses to make them more affordable to be more energy efficient. And creating a lot of green jobs. We're big on training.

Gord Meneer (NDP)
The NDP has a five-point plan to restore health care, which I support because it will especially help smaller communities like Blumenort and Mitchell. Our plan is to hire 100 new home-care workers, provide them with incentives to make their jobs more affordable, which will also benefit seniors in Steinbach. The reality is that Heather Stefanson has taken for granted the votes of the rural Manitobans and allowed rural health care to become worse and worse every year. I plan to work hard every day to make sure the people of Steinbach, Blumenort and Mitchell get the health care services that they deserve.

Cyndy Friesen (Liberal)
Planning for community growth is a whole of government issue that requires a change in the way we approach our supports for communities. The Manitoba Liberals will restore and support areas conducive to community development and that being health care, education and infrastructure to name a few. This is areas that the PC's have critically neglected by freezing funds to the municipalities for seven years.

Kelvin Goertzen (Progressive Conservative)
I think we've got a pretty strong track record of doing just that. So, if you even just think of the last seven years, so sort of things that have happened in these communities. We've had expansions of schools, started the expansion of the Mitchell Middle School, the Mitchell Elementary was expanded, we've now started the construction of the new elementary school in Steinbach - the first time in many years there has been an elementary school started and I was pleased to introduce that or to make that commitment when I was Education Minister in 2019. Of course, we have an event centre that's being supported by the provincial government that is well under construction, that's been sought after for a long time. Many people petitioned for dialysis; that's going to be opening in a few weeks. There's an expansion of the Bethesda hospital, which I was pleased to announce as the interim Premier. And also recently announced three new operating rooms for Bethesda, which has been sought after for a long time. As well, and last but certainly not least, the new personal care home which opened last year and for many years people were looking for, and as Health Minister I was pleased to be able to be involved in that and that's really become the standard for personal care homes around the province. So, I think our government has a pretty strong track record of supporting this region. 

Where do you see your and your party's role in supporting the growing immigrant population in the constituency? Would you like to see more immigration to the area and what supports would you have in place?

Gabrielle Simard-Nadeau (Green Party)
The Green Party does support the immigrants coming to Canada, coming to Manitoba. We feel it's very important and it's really good for the economy. Diversity is always a good thing. To support immigration, we would have a lot of training programs, especially in the health care system, that's really important as we don't overload that.

Gord Meneer (NDP)
Canada is a country that exists because of immigration. We need new Canadians to keep our economy growing. The Manitoba NDP will stop the PC cuts and invest in health care and education and help families keep costs down so that more newcomers want to put those roots down here. Without newcomers Manitoba would lose population every year and economic growth would stop. There are a number of industries including the agricultural sector that employ newcomers. We plan to invest in settlement services to help newcomers find work in the fields that they were trained in, with an emphasis on health care.

Cyndy Friesen (Liberal)
Right now, we have a critical worker shortage in key labour sectors across our province. That is why it is more important than ever to leverage our provincial immigration system, the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program, to address key labour shortages. To support our community's growing immigrant population, Manitoba Liberals plan to lift barriers to credential recognition, work with regulators of professions, especially those that have been adversely affected by interprovincial migration like physicians, nurses and educators, to ensure that we're allowing people to work as they are training to have their credentials recognized. Second, we know that family support is a key incentive towards the retention of workers, especially in rural areas. We will commit to family reunification within the Manitoba Provincial Nomination Program system and look to strengthen our provincial immigration program with this principle.

Kelvin Goertzen (Progressive Conservative)
I actually just met with a number of the leaders from the local cultural community a few days ago. I have sort of regular meetings but this one was particularly around issues that they see as important during the election. They raised a number of different issues that I think are important. Some are municipal - transportation and the need for better transportation in the city of Steinbach in particular and I think that that's something that we can have discussions with the municipality. But there's also lots of discussions about what can we learn from the pretty successful Ukraine situation where we brought in individuals from Ukraine, fleeing the unjust war that's happening in Ukraine, set up a welcome centre at the airport, provided some shelter and then provided support into the communities. Now that wasn't perfect, but it was really seen as the gold standard around Canada, so much so that not only were the people who were landing in Winnipeg deciding to stay in Manitoba, but people now who were coming from Ukraine and landing in Edmonton and Toronto are hearing 'hey Manitoba is actually the place to be' and are coming to Manitoba even though they have landed somewhere else, coming from Ukraine. So, I think we're going to learn from that welcome centre model and go, 'How can we ensure that people who are coming into the country have that initial support but then have that connection?' Ukraine is a little bit easier because there was already a natural connection with many, but that's growing with a lot of the different communities; Filipinos have a very, very strong base already in Manitoba with more coming from India. So, we're going to see more immigration through the Provincial Nominee Program and I think that what we learned from the situation in Ukraine is we can really be a leader in Canada.

What is you and your party's role in making sure the communities of Steinbach, Blumenort and Mitchell are affordable places to live? Do you have plans to advocate for more low-cost housing, help with cost of living, etc?

Gabrielle Simard-Nadeau (Green Party)
The party has plans to support 1,000 units of low-cost housing across Manitoba and of course that is needed in the Steinbach riding as it continues to grow. Also, help with the cost of living - retrofitting homes to level four or five which means better insulation and windows. Also helping with geothermal. All of these things will help with energy efficiency especially because Manitoba we have both extremes of weather. It gets really hot and really cold, and I personally feel that pressure especially in the winter, it gets really cold, and I live in an older home and so those updates are really important to keep the cost of living lower and more affordable. We'd also incentivize small farms. I believe that they would create a lot of jobs or help with the economy and local food is always really important, creating sustainable regenerative and organic practices as well, really encouraging that, especially in the small farms. Also, really important that we have clean water, that we're taking care of our aquifers, especially as the community grows, we have to make sure that we have healthy water for everyone here.

Gord Meneer (NDP)    
The Manitoba NDP will always fight to make life more affordable for Manitoba families. The government can't do everything, but it can do some things to help keep costs low. We will help with your hydro bills by freezing rates. We will help you by saving money at the pumps by cutting the gas tax and making big polluters pay. We believe that no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty. We will always stand with the workers and find a way to make life more affordable for the working families.

Cyndy Friesen (Liberal)
The Manitoba Liberals will make changes to the basic personal exemption by offering income tax relief for low- and middle-income earners. All Manitobans earning up to $120,000 will be eligible for income tax relief on a sliding scale, which represents 96 per cent of Manitobans. This fair and progressive tax system will provide real relief while still being fiscally responsible. We have also committed to creating 10,000 units of affordable housing over the next 10 years. We will also better regulate the residential tenancy branch to stop out-of-control rent increases.

Kelvin Goertzen (Progressive Conservative)
Really one of the key issues that I'm hearing on the campaign is the high cost of almost everything, but particularly when it comes to food and gasoline and housing. So, we've done some stuff already in the past and most recently we provided about a million dollars for the city of Steinbach for low-cost housing and I think that the city applied that to try to get some lower-cost housing in the city. During the campaign itself we've talked about eliminating the first-time homebuyer's land transfer tax, so that would save probably about $6,000 or so on the average home that's being bought in the region. For a first-time homebuyer because we know a lot of people that's the dream of most young people or couples and families to have their own home. And so that would help lower that cost. And then affordability more generally, that's been a key plank that we've been running on; lowering the income tax rate, cutting that first tax bracket in half, removing the GST from some of the more common things that are often purchased to try to save individuals money. I can tell you that you can compare our track record with the NDP when it comes to taxes, and we are definitely the party of trying to keep more money in your pocket. 

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